The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

their secular counterparts, thereby arguing for the funda- mental compatibility of faith and progress. The most fertile ground in the Middle East is worked by those who navigate between these extremes. They argue that Arabs should keep their feet rooted firmly in tradition while reaching for a better future. Some wear jeans, others the veil, and many women wear both. Each emphasizes a different mix of innovations and traditions, and each appeals to a different group. In a world char- acterized by choice, audiences determine who is popular and who is ignored. While it is often jarring to the unini- tiated when apparently traditional young people embrace liberal pop stars, and apparently modern peo- ple embrace conservative clerics, it is precisely these individual choices of young Arabs that make the current environment so interesting. Of course, information plenty is not an unalloyed good. From our own experience, we know that informa- tion simultaneously brings people together and drives them apart. Technology helps create mass audiences in the middle — the tens of millions of people who are linked by their love of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Star Academy” and the like. At the same time, howev- er, it also helps extremist groups find like-minded mem- bers and flourish. But what is important here is the way in which infor- mation plenty drives choices down to the individual level. Increasingly in the Arab world, individuals maintain mul- tiple identities, and the identities they embrace are increasingly a function of choice. Such overlapping iden- tities are one characteristic of smoothly functioning democracies, and they are commonplace inWestern soci- eties. Individuals typically feel a part of a large number of unwieldy interest- and identity-based coalitions, and politicians seek to assemble groups of them to secure vic- tory. When individuals think of themselves as an amal- gam of economic, educational, social, religious, ethnic and regional backgrounds, it is easier for them to feel that at least some of their needs are met through the political system, even if all of them are not met. F O C U S D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 41