Fanatism and obscurantism grow everyday in the human spirits; we are afraid of the new technologic reality and today’s irrational economic horror. Several forms of fundamentalism have developed and flourish worldwide: Islamism in Iran, Puritanism in America, the ultra Orthodoxies in Israel, etc….
This fundamentalism is a deep individual regression, where the hazards take place of the sacred. Fanatism is in turn the opium of the people; it’s a metaphor of war, confront and violence. The rebirth of popular religion, encouraged by the hierarchy of the most conservative elements of the church, coincides with the return of difficult times. People put their hope in providence and believe in miracles.

In this world, future conflicts will be cultural ones, not economic or ideological; around nations, religion groups and different civilizations. The “shock of civilization” will dominate world politics in times to come. One’s feeling of belonging to a civilization will have great importance in a future that will be shaped by seven or eight more important empires: Occidental, Confucian Japanese, Islamic, Hindus, Slavish, Orthodox, Latino-American and maybe African. The greater conflicts will be designed around the cultural fractures that separate our civilizations.