Why write here about the massacre at the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo? Because most of what I have been writing on Continuations is about developing a coherent view of what comes next for humanity. It is about finding a way forward in a world of extraordinary new technological capabilities and dislocations. The attack on Charlie Hebdo stands for and is part of a fundamental rejection of not just the type of future I envision but also of the modernity we currently live in. This is not a religious struggle, it is an ideological one. And in this we are at a distinct disadvantage: ISIS et al have a relatively coherent idea of the future, however appalling we may find it, whereas we don’t. And that’s an issue at a time when more and more people feel that the existing state of modernity is failing them.

The worst thing we could do right now is to stoke islamophobia or double down on the misguided war on terror. Attacks like this and 9/11 are in no small part designed to do just that. When I was growing up in Germany during the days of the Red Army Faction it was an avowed goal of the terrorists to bring out the worst in the German state. In the US, post 9/11 we have certainly more than obliged including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo, drones and secret government surveillance programs here in the US and abroad. All of that and pseudo intellectual attacks against Islam or worse yet personal attacks on Muslims are exactly the wrong thing now.

We have been in a similar place before and it is worth looking back for some insights. Fascism too is an ideology that emerged at a time of social upheaval caused by technology during the industrial revolution. Its roots go back as far as the late 1800s even though we tend to associate it most with Hitler and the rise of Nazism. Fighting it back then was made “easier” by two factors: first, it became clearly identified with Germany as a country and traditional warfare and second, there was a relatively coherent alternative idea around individual liberty and capitalism inside of strong nation states.

So once again we have an ideology that is a response to social upheaval caused by technology. But this time – at least so far – the new ideology is growing in a much more distributed and networked fashion. And many people all across the world are disillusioned with their current governments which they feel are ineffective and/or representing elites and big business. The renewed and distributed rise of fascism itself should warn us just how far we are from a coherent alternative. This is why I will continue in my own small way to contribute to what looks utopian now but could be the way forward.