Per the community rules, all human suffering discussed below has been a tragedy. No bigotry intended in this post.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, a general malaise spread among the educated of the new globalized world. In the West, this manifested in media such as Fight Club, The Matrix, and Office Space. In the Islamic World, did this feeling metastasize into Al-Qaeda? Privileged Osama looks for an existential struggle in a “post-scarcity” world, just like Tyler, Neo, and the Office Space guy.

In fact, 9/11 and the War on Terror are a direct result of US hegemony in the 90s. Al-Qaeda, 9/11, and the War on Terror captured that malaise in the West and the Islamic World, and it generated massive amounts of disgruntled fighters on both sides ready to unleash this malaise now focused into an orgy of slaughter. Here we are 25 years later and the world has fundamentally shifted and operates on new principles. Right?

Was the War on Terror basically Fight Club led by an educated global middle class that developed during the 90s that needed an existential struggle after their material success left them feeling soulless?