|
That Being Said...
Now that I have pontificated on the fact that I do not think a think tank like this can come up with a reasonable solution for the divide between Western and Muslim culture, let me explain why. After all, I did open my yap, I should at least explain my ideas. Besides, this is my blog and I can write about anything I want, so there!
First off, let’s set a few things straight. I believe there are problems too big to be solved by a computer or think tanks. These problems are created by the conflicts of chaotic systems and resolving them would require breaking them, and that is not a solution, it is a workaround.
Second, to understand the problem we would have to have all the facts and that does not exist. What we have are reports, stories, eyewitness accounts, and a huge amount of biased information. Sorting through all the information is not practical so we are left with a set of assumptions and anecdotal information of what is really happening.
Third, assuming we use the information above as reliable, we need to distill it into a set of theories that explain the actions of the whole. Any theory pulled from the above is therefore flawed because the information it is based on is flawed. If we assume there is room for creative thought and margins for error, maybe we can explain why things are happening, but this does not get us any closer to solving the problems we are having.
Forth, we need to do away with many preconceived notions that apply to us as Western thinkers, and embrace the more radical view that our moralistic and ethical views only apply to us and are no better than those held by Muslims.
Fifth, we have to be willing to admit that there may not be a solution that does not take on very ugly ramifications. Thoughts of imperialism, genocide, abolishment of so-called human rights and privacies, selective assassination, and other unsavory things have to be considered if there is to be a direct solution.
Now that the above are set straight, let’s look at the problem.
The problem is not what you may think. Many people think the problem is that these Muslims are just out of control and bent on killing everyone not Muslim. Not true, the problem is deeper and requires a more broad view of human history. In fact it requires a very broad and detached view and the recognition that humans live in societies. When you look at it that way, it does not matter what the individual philosophies are, it is the rise and decline of cultures that is in play.
OK, dogma is out of the picture now and we take a look at the broader view. This is rather simple, cultures rise, have a pinnacle, maybe there is a renaissance in there, and the culture dies, it’s people absorbed by surrounding, rising, cultures. Right now, the Muslim (read Arab) culture is on the last leg of it’s decline. If you think about a culture as an organism, it is fighting for it’s last breath. And like many organisms, it does not want to go quietly, it wants to hold on to life for all it’s worth.
Before the advent of so-called human rights, other cultures would have conquered that failing culture and absorbed it by now. It is usually a bloody and terrible time in history, but when it is done peace is brought to the land and life goes on. This is nature folks, it is what we are ingrained for. Humans are combative because it is ingrained in our nature to be combative. As humans we had to survive, it is what we know how to do. So the violent nature of some of the Muslim community is a reflection of eons of human nature. You fight when threatened, you fight when your family is threatened, you fight when your community is threatened, and you fight when your culture is threatened. You fight because that is what you know and how you can retain your identity.
On the flip side, rising cultures are looking for more natural resources to exploit, more people to add to its work force, more power to leverage against other rising cultures. This is the root of imperialism and has been the course of cultural evolution for thousands of years. Look back at history, were there any cultures, even some small ones, that at some time did not look to expand their borders and take from others what they needed or wanted? I think you will be hard pressed to find a case. In the cases of isolated cultures, their battle was against the habitat they lived in and though they may have been unchallenged, they expanded the range of their culture through the battle of simple growth.
Western culture is currently in the midst of growth and what is it looking to take is from the Muslim culture. Why not, they are dying anyway, it is only natural. So when you look at in these terms, many of the actions that have taken place in the last fifty years look rather natural and in fact rather tame to actions that would have been taken prior. Human cultural expansion is a bloody affair, and we are trying to change that.
Let me pose a very interesting question to the audience. If we as the new and rising culture were to use our big guns (nuclear weapons) on our enemies, what would you think would happen? Answer, we would conquer the enemy and it would be bloody. It would be very bloody, but maybe not more so than previous battles and wars. In fact, if thought about in terms of annihilation of populations as a ratio to overall human population, it may not be very bad at all. What scares us is the overall number. What bothers us is that we as a population have to witness it now in this day of instant communication. In the past when huge battles were fought we did not see them on the six o’clock news or “special report” that we now have. And for this we were ignorantly grateful. Mr. John Q. Public does not have the stomach for such carnage because JPQ is not thinking in terms of cultural survival, our leaders are. Our leaders are trying to provide us with the resources we need so our culture continues. They think a broader sense (although they may not realize what is exactly motivating them) and it leads to some interesting times to live through. However, when all is said and done, history will mellow the carnage of the day and life will go on. Sure, we may look back at the atrocities and think how could we do it, but we are reaping the benefits though we may not want to admit it.
I know, this justification can be used in a lot of unsavory ways and applied to the actions of dictators and tyrants throughout history, but is it wrong? The implications are not nice, but we have to be open to them.
Now we come to the part of this diatribe where I give solutions as set out by the above espoused theories:
Probably the most “humane” thing we can do is to isolate the dying culture. Let them be and let us survive without them and their resources. What I see happening in this case is that the Arab culture will embattle within itself as the populations longs for the ideals that Western culture provides. It will be civil war and bloody at that, but it will happen amongst themselves and eventually they will die and we can claim the now unused territory and resources. Doing my best “Carson Karnak” I say “about 100 years” and it will be over.
On the other hand it would seem that George Bush has put us under the route of active imperialism. If this is the case, then we have to not take half measures and really do it. We need to do it fast, bloody and get it done. If we take the slow and “so-called” humane route and expand together, it will cause more damage in the long run. In the past invading armies came on strong and in devastating numbers to get the deed done quickly. This allowed the people to make one fast adjustment to the new regime and life went on. Slow takeovers promote the possibility of insurgent factions (hello, sound familiar?) and creates more problems. Break out the nukes, get’er done.
In the first case we need to make it clear that we are isolating them. We need to be clear, you strike us, we will devastate you. We lay down the ultimatum and stick to it if need be. We find our way without middle-east oil. We take nothing from them, we give them nothing in return.
In the second case, we have to get brutal. We have to go in very hard, we have to do things that the Western culture may find distasteful, and we have to do it fast. Yes indeed, George may gain the moniker of “Bloody George” but at least it will be over and life can go on. After all, someone will have to be looked at as the slayer of uncounted numbers of people, might as well be him.
There is a third path, one that would not be up to us at all, and that would be for the Arabs and Muslims to get their act together and put together a new renaissance. This is unlikely though because their culture is so splintered and so adamant about their splinter views it would not work.
One more side comment and that is where Israel fits into all this:
1948 saw the birth of a new culture and that was the state of Israel. This culture is based on biblical foresight, but is it not ruled specifically by it. It is my opinion that if left to flourish and if it can survive, grow and prosper and it could well be the next major power in the world in a few hundred years. But right now it has to survive and this is why they fight so hard. They are new to the history of cultures and are trying to make it like countless other fledgling culture before them. They show all the signs of new culture, unity, art, technology, creativity, and so forth, they just need to make it through this painful adolescence alive. This is made doubly hard because of their location and roots, but do not underestimate them, they will fight tooth and nail to survive.
Sure, these look like grim predictions, but they are what you may honestly expect. We are the human animal, and we as a species are still growing up. We may not make it yet, we are after all the only species that has held the key to its own annihilation. But I think that if we can survive the next few hundred years alive and intact there may be one global culture and things will be better. At which point we will start the whole process again as we colonize the reaches of space. And like history that told us that oceans were good for protection, the gulfs of space will cradle new cultures. When space is then no longer an issue, hopefully we will have grown up enough to not make war any more.
One last observation as a side note: In Baghdad there was a bombing of a famous Mosque. When I looked at the pictures on TV I was blown away with a revelation, when cultures die they destroy their buildings and do not rebuild. It occurred to me that in so many archeological digs we find crumbled buildings. Was this mosque going to one of those dilapidated buildings found in 5000 years? It certainly looked ready to be covered over by the sands of time. More proof of a dying culture.
|
Posted by 
