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”Fear of small numbers: an essay on the geography of anger” (A. Appadurai, 2006) is a paperback book in the series of Public Planet Books. This series is an attempt of the Public Works Publication to open scholary discourse on a broader public culture. All the books in this series have the similarity to explorer questions that matters to us all. The subject that antropologist Arjun Appadurai discusses is the dark side of globalisation namely ”the large-scale culturally motivated violence in our times” (p. 1). The leading question in his book is: ”Why we should be afraid of the small numbers, and how such small numbers have arisen?”. Througout the book he gives the reader the cause of the global unrest, terrorism, and etnic strife.
2This book was written during a long-term project. At the beginning of this project there rose some questions about the future of the nation-state. In an attempt to answer these questions he did some research about collective violence against moslims. During this research he stumble upon some of the ”harshest results of globalization” and a new phenomenon; grassroots globalization. Therefore the intent of this book is to argue the connection between the future of the nation-state and the results of globalisation. This book is a transition and a pause in a long-term project in order to make globalisation work for those who need it most. He takes the reader along several theories and asks the reader to bear with him in the phase of investigation that’s not yet complete. That got me thinking about the phase that we are in now, and that you look at the contemporary society as a transition society for the future (whenever the future is). That idea of the dynamic aspect of society changed my mind because I always thought that the society, we’re in now, the best society is so far, because of the upcoming technologies and globalisation. But when you read Appadurai you see that because of those ”developments” exclusion, violence, and inequality is growing. That changed my view on my previous ideas to look at society as a finished and utopian society. Not only this way of making interconnections between variables that don’t match at first sight, but also the way he uses metaphores in his work. His use of metaphor creates a new vocabulary that put me thinking.
3The theme of this book are the unintended consequences of rapid and (in some ways) new globalization. Appadurai connects these consequences with the cultural, political, and economic landscapes. One of the unintended consequences is the creation of a new minority. Appadurai states a paradoxical ”relationship between violence against minorities and the violence of minorities” (p.113) which brings together ” the fear of small numbers, the paradoxical weakening of liberal democracy in the era of globalisation.” (p.109). The book’s philosophical conclusion is that we should not underestimate the human capacity for self-destruction en hope for a ”utopian form of cellularity” (p. 137).
4To give a bright explanation of the consequences of globalisation, he uses the theory that devide the society into two forms of organizations: the ”cellular” model of global capitalism and terrorism, and the ”vertebrate” model organized through nation state and international alliances. The antithesis between a flexibel form of organization and a more structured model of nation states cause the stress and can’t be seen in a simple direct way. With these divisions of several societies he states culture, in particular the cultural difference, as key notion of the struggle. He calls it ”a sense of generalized war against the west’ (p.115).
Appadurai also describes a ”self-reinforcing complex” by linking the destabilizing conditions of globalization with the lack control. This creates social uncertainty, or as he calls it in this context ‘anxiety of incompleteness’. That anxiety devides the majority and the minority in ”us” and ”them”, and as the anger of the majority goes on the majority claims a imagined national ethnic ‘purity”. According to Appadurai the majority assets a ‘predatory identity’. Appadurai gives an example of this phenomenon of our contemporary society ‘The history of Muslim minorities in the twenty-first-century surely is the dominant tale of this kind of fearful symmetry between the fear of small numbers and the power of small numbers’ (p.113).
5The strenght of this book is it’s usefullness in our contemporary society. It explains the struggle between societies in a rapid changing and complex web of interconnections. Because of the rapid changes and the dynamic aspects of globalisation the theories in the book have the possibility to test en evaluate these theories over and over again, and, if necessary, adjustment. Because of the complexity of this issue there is not just one answer, but there is a discourse. This discourse makes that these theories are always moving.
Only, there is one specific point that I had struggles with, in his book uses Appadurai India as a framework for most of his generalizations. But is India a representive example to explain his theories? In India live a billion people with over twenty by constitution accepted languages. Maybe just because of it’s nature, becomes India a caricature were the examples come into it’s own. I have to admit that i have not enough knowlegde to estimate the use of India as an example only is detrimental to the results of the research.
In general, I agree with Appadurai’s opinions that a minority can be harmful if not acted in the right way. On the other hand, he left us with the unsolved question; what is the right way to act? I also think it’s to negative to think that the minority is the ”weakness of liberal democracy” (p.109), and certainly to think that if the utopian form of celluarity not our theater os our struggles that we have ”to say goodbye both to civilians and to civility” (p.137). I think human civilization always find one way or an other to live in this world full of struggles.
It seems that I am quite negative about the Appadurai’s book but in fact I enjoyed reading it because of my personal interest in this kind of issues and the pleasant writingstyle. As I said, he uses a lot of metaphores to clarify his theories. This use of metaphores makes that this book is attractive to read, and put you thinking!