and economic. Finally, if the Instrumental Reason of the West, with its de-
humanized, totalitarian logic of efficiency, enabled a fusion of advanced tech-
nology and atavistic barbarism, the rejection of that same modernity, cloaked
in theological justifications, similarly sustains domination and can culminate
in terrorism and mass murder. As I shall argue, understanding Islamic fun-
damentalism, a modern ideology cloaked as “religious tradition” reveals the
enduring explanatory power of Critical Theory. As will be seen, the embrace
of modern Western values in Muslim societies in the nineteenth-century,
remained limited and encapsulated. More often than not, the modernizers
failed to establish long lasting reforms. As a result, the failure to embrace
Post-Enlightenment modernity, and the continuing resistance to rationality,
can be seen in the persistence of authoritarian governments, economic stag-
nation and cultural ossification. Limited economic opportunities and politi-
cal powerlessness has led some people to a fervent embrace of fundamentalist
expressions of anti-modernity. Notwithstanding the radically different polit-
ical contexts and realities of the present age, and the vast differences between
Western and Islamic cultures, the Frankfurt School analysis of Fascism hints
at a complex and nuanced understanding of the path from seventh century
Mecca to NYC on 9/11/02.
Rationality and the Rise of the West
What factors led to the “rise of the West”? What impact did its Christian val-
ues play, and what was the role of its major institutions in fostering its ascent?
How and why did a bourgeois class emerge? What was the role of its dis-
tinct values rooted in Christianity in fostering the conditions leading to the
Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment and in turn, rational, capital-
ist societies that saw Science and Reason as enabling progress?^4 Rational com-
merce, bureaucratic administration, and a distinctly novel form of “inner
determination” enabled the rapid ascent of market society, science and in
turn, industrialization. In the contemporary world of globalized capital, as
different countries or regions have shown differential rates of economic growth,
the role of cultural values, especially religion fostering or impeding the dif-
fusion of rationality, has again become an explanatory variable. While devel-
292 • Lauren Langman
(^4) The notion of “progress” assumes that societies are neither static nor perfect; they
can be changed, for the better, by human effort. This notion lies at the heart of Comte,
Marx and most of the sociological legacy.