ABSTRACT
In Twilight 0/ the Gods Nietzsche insists that what makes Socrates interesting to the modern mind is not his thought or method, but the extraordinary societal significance for Athens of having taken so seriously such silly and banal ideas. Huntington's clash thesis can be regarded in a similar spirit. What is interesting about the piece is not the argument, as such, which seems both simplistic and implausible, but its extraordinary resonance around the world. No other short essay, even the famous "X" article of George Kennan, has elicited such an intense response. It remains important to ask, "What is this resonance telling us?"
