The constant refrain I am reading, overt and covert, is that the individual ME people can be great, but as a society they stink. People go over there with good intentions and come back "racists." It is difficult to get a reading on this because it goes to "Folk wisdom" vs "PC."
I don't know LB. I've never been there and certainly won't be going there, but from my distant perch it appears obvious to me that Arabs, Japanese and no doubt a substantial number of other cultures outside the Western Hemisphere are "exclusionary" in so far as people from other cultures are concerned.
In the west we may have a thread of Spartan isolationism running through our cultures. But by and large we have developed an addiction to the Athenian approach: "If it moves, grab it, shake it and if something of value falls out pick it up and take it home or sell it to the folks next door."
"Racism," as I understand it can afflict either the "exclusionary" or the "inclusive" cultures to one degree or another. But the exclusionary world view is far more likely to produce suicidal conduct by its members. I have no evidence other than the US of A for the proposition that racism is a weaker force, but an "exclusionary" world view appears to be a true killer to me.
For me the ME, whether Arab or Pashtun or Jewish or whatever, breeds exclusionary cultures and it's that exclusionary strain, not racism, that has to be broken, IMHO. Clearly, many Iraqi's choose to die or live under cretinous Hussein types, rather than to embrace an Athenian, outward directed world view.
Jews were forced to adopt an inclusive perception centuries ago. The door to Japan was broken down only recently by comparison. But the desire to exclude the "evil" outsiders is strong. Sparta fought it to the bitter end, and they aren't the only ones. History is full of cultures that are no more because they failed to master the multi-cultural game. There may yet be more such extinctions.
I say there are too many "stupid" people in the mid-east simply because despite the age of its cultures, it's prior record of producing expansive outwards looking regimes, and the clearly failed history of exclusionary, noncompeting cultures... there are far too many there who still choose to die rather than alter their perceptions.
From my owlish perspective, we are literally dealing with a flock of "Dodo's." Of course I could be wrong, but frankly it looks to me as though somebody needs to beat some sense into their heads before they wind up stuffed on a museum shelf some where.
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P.S. Has anyone said "Roemer is an idiot!" today? If not, please let me be the first. |
