After the Cold War, the 'Hot War' has made its comeback in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Exhuming Kipling's 'Great Game', we have gone back to the clash between Islam a
nd Christianity. The ghost of the Yellow Peril has been resurrected, the ninetee
nth-century anti-Darwin debate has been reopened, right-wing governments predomi
nate.
It almost seems like history, tired of the big steps forward it has tak
en in the past two millennia, has gone into reverse. With his customary sharpnes
s and wit, Eco proposes, not so much that we resume a forward march, but at the
very least that we cease marching backwards.
