How Much Hate?
Social scientists have come to the opinion that although we think we live in brutal, war-torn times, and perhaps look back with a kind of nostalgia on times past when people lived a more agrarian, bucolic existence without constant strife, that this is but an illusion born of ignorance. In fact, they assert, we live in a time when humankind is more capable now than ever before of feeling compassion and empathy for others. And in so doing, practising, in many societies, a more kind version of living together than obtained in the past.Historically, sweeping wars of conquest and attrition, wreaking vast streaks of destruction across the globe were more commonplace than we think. Great hordes of conquering armies swept over barely resisting communes incapable of protecting themselves. We don't have to look too far back to know that's so, but it's instructive also to look back into the distant mists of barely-recorded history to understand that when a collective of like-minded armies determined to wipe out the autonomous structures of other countries' settlements, populations were decimated, and those left taken into slavery.
It was the habit of conquerors to plunder, to pillage, to conduct bloody murder campaigns on a grand scale, and to haul into their own public squares elements of their conquest, from newly vanquished, humbled heads of state on humiliating display, to ornamental vessels of precious metals to enrich the coffers of the conquerors. The more humane leaders of impressively military armies bethought themselves better placed to rule a wider sphere of influence, and to take under their protection the populations that would eventually become absorbed into the newer, greater kingdom.
If we're to take the current situation into account, contrasting it with the prevailing methods of long ago, we see that wars fought now come to a conclusion with pacification. There is no need for revenge and humiliation once a war has been successfully completed. The vanquished realign themselves to a new reality, and learn to appreciate another opportunity to begin again, and often with considerable assistance from those they formerly battled.
A case in point is that great democratic world bully, the United States of America. But for the presence of the United States the world would be a far more fractious place, a more dangerous place for its inhabitants. Bully it may be, but imbued withal with a sense of balance, a nice sensibility of fairness and equality; a willingness often enough to place her own security on the line in the greater interests of world stability. (Leaving aside her propensity to swagger and bully and intervene dreadfully too often in places she has no business to be, interfering with legitimately-elected governments and upending the order in other countries.)
You've got to wonder at the degrees of separation in sensibilities and perceptions and values in various cultures at disparate parts of this globe. It is as though, when comparing European or North American values with those of, for example, the Middle East, we speak of two utterly oppositional mind-sets, two separate links in the ascendance of mankind. In the European/North American model co-operation and a willingness to thrash out differences prevails for the most part.
In the Middle East and African models the traditional cultures seem perniciously adept at guarding an ancient crucible of hate, of nursing the embers, to bring them to full-blown furnaces demanding war, revenge, retaliation, blood and endless murders on a grand scale, all of which equate to a version or a vision of honour. It is more honourable to murder one's enemies than to embrace them and make them your friends. It is more honourable to submit to self-propelled suicide attacks in the interests of wreaking havoc among enemies than to palaver.
One's enemy can be the tribe next door, part and parcel of your very own geography, near neighbours, cultural soul-mates, religious brothers - or the foreign invaders who have arrived on your shores to attempt to mediate between warring factions to bring peace to the region. Internecine warfare, bitterly and yet avidly engaged. The triumphalism of religious jihad, bringing honour to God through personal sacrifice in His name - then anticipating eternal reward of the faithful.
So it is that secular Fatah seeks to maim and murder Islamist Hamas. So it is that Iraqi Sunni creeps under cover of darkness upon a Shi'ite community to wreak devastation in the name of Islam. One seeks to visit upon the other utter and complete defeat. To bring their aspirations and expectations of the future to the dust of the past; complete obliteration. Yes, they both recognize a common 'enemy', many in fact, but their self-hatred cannot be set aside, cannot be denied. The imperative is too compelling, too tribal, too theistically ordained.
Victory must be decisive; there is no looking back. Would that they would, and turn into pillars of salt.
Labels: Heroes and Villains, Middle East, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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