> There have been moments of regression, some of them atrocious, but these are only relapses into the barbarism of the past, interrupting a course of developmen

> There have been moments of regression, some of them atrocious, but these are only relapses into the barbarism of the past, interrupting a course of development that is essentially benign. For anyone who thinks in this way, ISIS can only be a mysterious and disastrous anomaly. I don't understand this bit. Surely someone who thinks this way would see it as just another atrocious relapse.