Honor and Shame?
Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on some of our NEOs and others claiming to be bringing democracy to the Middle East that we are dealing with a culture there with a different history and set of values than our own?
Certainly we should remember our abuses of the colonies that we set up and maintained there in our European/American interests -- the assaults on any and all who attempted to create their own democratic governments not dominated by us. Mossadeq of Iran is, of course, the archetype:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadegh
How dare he claim Iranian oil for the Iranians! We showed him (and them) by installing the brutal Shah who was replaced by the Islamic Republic (with a bit of help from Reagan?) in 1980.
Apart from our exploitative colonialism of centuries and on-going expropriation of resources under brutal autocratic regimes kept in place by us (e.g. Saudi Arabia today), there are some basic cultural features that we are simply missing -- especially the systems of family (we call them "tribal") links and ties that eluded the understanding of our military/political wannabe bringers of regime change and free enterprise 'democracy'.
One of the recent items that I picked up from an interview with two of our guys knowledgeable both about the language and culture of Iraq is that "honor" and "shame" are key elements in the relationships among the Arabs (and us) over there. To shame someone is to take away his honor -- and there is not much more in the way of insult and trouble-making that one can do there. Will we never learn that RESPECT for others -- not only in the Middle East but in our own cultures as well -- is supposed to be a primary democratic value? I guess our U.S. 'death tax' guys don't worry about such things when they range beyond their immdiate families writ small?
I am no expert on such things, but I am open to learning how to do things right -- by listening and finding out where others are coming from. I don't see much of that going on these days and with all those WMD floating around, let alone small packages that can blow up means of transportation and other vulnerable targets, I get worried.
Anyone else out there feel the same way? There is more to making peace than blasting away as many of 'them' as possible. Talking can't hurt and it sure is preferable to being blown away.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
Certainly we should remember our abuses of the colonies that we set up and maintained there in our European/American interests -- the assaults on any and all who attempted to create their own democratic governments not dominated by us. Mossadeq of Iran is, of course, the archetype:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadegh
How dare he claim Iranian oil for the Iranians! We showed him (and them) by installing the brutal Shah who was replaced by the Islamic Republic (with a bit of help from Reagan?) in 1980.
Apart from our exploitative colonialism of centuries and on-going expropriation of resources under brutal autocratic regimes kept in place by us (e.g. Saudi Arabia today), there are some basic cultural features that we are simply missing -- especially the systems of family (we call them "tribal") links and ties that eluded the understanding of our military/political wannabe bringers of regime change and free enterprise 'democracy'.
One of the recent items that I picked up from an interview with two of our guys knowledgeable both about the language and culture of Iraq is that "honor" and "shame" are key elements in the relationships among the Arabs (and us) over there. To shame someone is to take away his honor -- and there is not much more in the way of insult and trouble-making that one can do there. Will we never learn that RESPECT for others -- not only in the Middle East but in our own cultures as well -- is supposed to be a primary democratic value? I guess our U.S. 'death tax' guys don't worry about such things when they range beyond their immdiate families writ small?
I am no expert on such things, but I am open to learning how to do things right -- by listening and finding out where others are coming from. I don't see much of that going on these days and with all those WMD floating around, let alone small packages that can blow up means of transportation and other vulnerable targets, I get worried.
Anyone else out there feel the same way? There is more to making peace than blasting away as many of 'them' as possible. Talking can't hurt and it sure is preferable to being blown away.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 10:27 AM
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