The Atlantic

The Bloody End of the Islamic State's Utopian Dream

“The fall of Raqqa this week completed the slow-motion demolition of the world’s only utopian movement worthy of the name.”
Source: Erik de Castro / Reuters

The fall of Raqqa this week completed the slow-motion demolition of the world’s only utopian movement worthy of the name. Like most utopian movements, the Islamic State was barbaric and iniquitous, precisely because it held its own refinement and egalitarianism in such high regard. Assume eventual absolution by history or God, and anything goes in the meantime.

The pleasure of dancing on the Islamic State’s grave should not be denied, even if it is true, as us, that its zombified hand might—migration to Islamic State territory—is simply an invitation to die quickly on the field of battle.

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