Afghanistan: from secular to fundamentalist
example · historical / autobiographical ·
retold in 12 talks
Žižek recounts that forty years ago Afghanistan was the most secular, religiously tolerant Islamic state; communists took power, the Soviets intervened, the US counter-intervened, and the country became fundamentalist, demonstrating that fundamentalism is a product of global capitalist dynamics, not cultural essence.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 11
“Do you know that Afghanistan was the most enlightened of the Middle East Islamic states? ...As the result of this being caught in the global dynamics, Afghanistan became fundamentalist.”
“Who still remembers that years ago it was a country with a strong secular tradition, up to a powerful communist party which took power there independently of Soviet Union.”
“It was a tolerant enlightened country which the way it was globalized pushed it into fundamentalism.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 2 jobsuses
fundamentalism as symptom of liberalism
×6
fascism as failed revolution
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Thomas Frank6Jacques Vergès3Alan Greenspan3Moishe Postone3Jean-Pierre Taguieff2Joseph E. Stiglitz3Osama bin Laden3John Brown2
alongside works
Every retelling 11
Žižek recounts that forty years ago Afghanistan was the most secular, religiously tolerant Islamic state; communists took power, the Soviets intervened, the US counter-intervened, and the country became fundamentalist, demonstrating that fundamentalism is a product of global capitalist dynamics, not cultural essence., illustrating fundamentalism as product of capitalism,private vs. public use of reason,geopolitics
Afghanistan, now seen as the archetype of Islamic fundamentalism, once had a strong secular tradition including a powerful communist party that took power independently of the Soviet Union. The secular left did not disappear, it transformed into Islamic fundamentalism., illustrating fascism as symptom of failed revolution,Islamic fundamentalism / failed left
Forty years ago Afghanistan was one of the most secularized Muslim countries, with an enlightened king and an indigenous communist party that took power in a coup unsanctioned by Moscow; Western Cold War intervention destroyed this secular left and produced the fundamentalism we now see., illustrating fascism as failed revolution,geopolitics and Islamism,the toxic neighbor
Before Soviet invasion and Western intervention, Afghanistan had a strong secular tradition and an independent communist party that took power; its fundamentalization was not inherent but a product of being drawn into global geopolitics., illustrating fundamentalization,liberalism and fundamentalism as totality
Žižek recalls that 30-40 years ago Afghanistan was the most secular and tolerant Muslim country in the region, with a strong local communist party. Its fundamentalism is the direct result of Soviet intervention, US support for the opposition, and its forced incorporation into global capitalist politics., illustrating liberalism generates fundamentalism,determining element,geopolitics
Forty years ago Afghanistan was among the most secular and tolerant Muslim states, with a modernizing king and a strong communist party. It became fundamentalist only through Cold War entanglement: US arming of Islamist insurgents to expel the Soviets. Illustrates that fundamentalism is a modern, globally generated phenomenon., illustrating fundamentalism as generated by global process,geopolitics-war