If the West is to win, it must be by art, culture and persuasion and not by the sword

I wrote a 700-page book ("Sexual Personae") disputing that notion and asserting, as did Nietzsche and Freud, that aggression is a natural impulse inextricably intertwined with the formation of human identity. Conflict and war are cyclic and inevitable, which is why a strong military will always be needed.

But I strongly disagree that the invasion of Iraq was an intelligent response to our security threat from terrorist cells dispersed around the globe. Nor has the resentment and hostility it has incited among Muslims everywhere helped make Western culture more appealing. If we are in a clash of civilizations, it's because fundamentalist religions are gaining in this era of glittering technology but empty materialism. The West is no longer defended by most of its intellectuals.

The transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages remains my master paradigm for historical analysis. Greco-Roman humanism became so weakened by its own cosmopolitanism and hedonism that it collapsed in the face of fervid, fundamentalist Christianity, which is still thriving. Out of the Mideast at the dawn of medievalism would also come Islam, which spread through North Africa into Spain and nearly conquered Europe.

We're at that point again. I see this not as a Manichaean battle of good versus evil but as a Darwinian struggle in social evolution. Which culture will be more confident, vital and creative? There is certainly an inherent incompatibility between Islam and Western feminism in regard to women's rights. It remains to be seen whether liberals, deeply committed (as I am) to multiculturalism, will face this impasse forthrightly.

But do conservatives really see war as the ultimate solution? There are over a billion Muslims in the world. If the West is to win, it must be by art, culture and persuasion and not by the sword. Paglia New Paglia column posted by MD Is here. She answers reader questions. Real inconvenient truths Pages 1 2 3 4 5