The drowning of civilizations

Amin Maalouf's analyses must be taken seriously; for his intuitive insights are akin to predictions due to his extensive prior knowledge of the major transformations that history has witnessed. He has been concerned for twenty years about the growth of "killer identities," and for ten years about the "disorder of the world." And now he explains to us the reasons why all civilizational domains are at risk of sinking. More than half a century ago, the author observed the world and traveled across it. He was present in Saigon when the Vietnam War ended, and in Tehran when the Islamic Revolution broke out. In this insightful and detailed study, he is a keen observer of events and a thinker alike, blending narration of facts with presentation of ideas, sometimes recounting prominent events he was one of the few eyewitnesses to, then elevating himself to the level of historian, surpassing his personal experience to clarify the reasons for the successive deviations that humanity has witnessed until reaching the brink of collapse. He says that "darkness began to spread starting from my homeland," before addressing the disappearance of the East's diversity and the successive shocks that afflicted the Arab Islamic world, with their subsequent reflections gradually spreading everywhere in the world. The author also presents a new hypothesis about a "great upheaval" that led to radical transformations in all human societies, making us now its terrified heirs. He concludes his study by stating that a revival must occur; for the ship of the world cannot continue sailing toward its destruction.