Navigator Web Special: Assault on Civilization

Within a few days of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, The Objectivist Center created a special Navigator Web section called "The Assault on Civilization."

The title piece—written by TOC's executive director, David Kelley—was posted September 13. Subsequent pieces by the center's staff and contributors soon followed and continue to be posted. The commentaries deal with many aspects of the situation, from the spiritual task of dealing with this tragedy to the military and political tasks of fighting terrorism. Many of these first commentaries were printed in Navigator's October issue, which focused on the attacks.

A popular feature of this special section is the center's collection of links to insightful commentaries about the attacks and to useful articles and Web sites about connected issues. Though these links are to sites not affiliated with the center, they provide important current and historical information that is essential for understanding all the various facets of this tumultuous affair.

For example, an article by Andrew Sullivan in the New York Times Sunday Magazine shows how fundamentalism seeks political controls among all religions and secular creeds. Charles Krauthammer writes in the Weekly Standard about the nihilism of the terrorists. Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation explains how to fix airport security. The range of these commentaries shows how people of all political stripes are coming to similar points of view and seeing the importance of philosophy.

In addition, background articles and Web sites provide the necessary historical context for these attacks, with information on terrorism, foreign policy, al-Qaeda, and Islam.

The center will continue to post new commentaries and new links at the Web site as they become available. The URL for the special section is: /assault/assault_on_civilization.asp.