Nadine, just what is it about Arab culture that makes their reaction to our occupation different? You mentioned ingratitude. Is that a prominent characteristic of Arab culture or is that just the manifestation of the salient characteristic?
The salient characteristic of Arab culture, which is more true the more tribal the local culture, is the honor-shame dynamic as the main driver of actions. Getting honor and avoiding shame, not just personally but on the family/clan/tribal level, are the main drivers of action.
Add to that a proud history and the knowledge, literally from Allah via the Koran, that Arabs ought to be ruling everybody else because they brought the true religion to the world. Now chuck these feelings into the modern geo-political situation, adding profound ignorance of the actual workings of the modern world, and you get an explosive mix, with injured pride and conspiracy thinking driving many self-destructive acts. (It is also btw, why so much terrible reporting comes out from Baghdad, because the first answer to any stranger's question is going to be the shame-avoiding answer, not the true one. You have to dig below first answers. John Burns does; most other reporters don't bother)
The reason I say that you can't expect gratitude from Arabs (not that any civilization would be grateful for long; the Arabs are just a more extreme example) is that the injured pride/shame-avoidance driver is so strong that it will quickly pop back to the surface and drown out other feelings like gratitude.
I think Americans would react quite differently; while we might feel bad about an occupation, but would study the occupiers to try to read their intentions, try to work with them, and would obey our political leaders, because we do have a history of working political institutions and not just tribes. In short, we would think about our political goals, not our family honor. |
