Social Primitivism
How to understand a wide geographic demographic that lacks social empathy, a state that we normally attribute to advanced societies. All the more puzzling when great swaths of that demographic were once among the most societally advanced in the globe at a time of early social evolution.I speak, needless to say, of the Middle East. A number of great and noble civilizations once resided there, from the great dynasties of Egypt to the seafaring Phoenicians, to the Sultanates of Persia and even earlier incarnations of Middle East populations.
They left the world a proud legacy of achievement in the boldness of their social enterprise, their literature, art, architecture, methods of governance and their military domination of the geography. Later, when Islam spread so did a flowering of philosophy and literature, art and architecture, building upon the heritage that went before.
Under early Islamic rule countries at a far remove from the Middle East prospered socially, economically and intellectually under Islamic hegemony. Now, the people who populate the various emirates, territories, theocracies and dictatorships still reek with pride, and bank on the dim historical glory of their past.
But the interest rate is so low, modern Islam can barely muster a collective deposit of intellectual acumen, reasonableness, humility, creativity, industry, economic determinism, social-scientific advancement, let alone a new philosophy appropriate to the currency of of a new world.
Who, in their right minds, would invest in such a poor return? Ah well, geography intervenes and offers opportunities to rest on the laurels of nature's deposits and investments from foreign interests there are plenty. Enabling the home-grown to disperse resources for great steaming sums of lucre, and spend exquisitely, bringing over labour from abroad, themselves investing in service opportunities that require no great cerebral functioning.
That's on one side of the ledger. On the other is the aggravated philosophy of belligerence, bellicosity, a carefully nurtured aggrievement with their state in the world about them, an inherited and never left-behind clan worship that extended only sufficiently to embrace Islam. This is a wide population dedicated to a code of honour, much pre-dating Islam. A code mired in a primitive social order unwilling to submit to evolving toward social enlightenment.
Honour is construed as allegiance to one's clan or tribe, and by extension to the tribe's strongman, or leading family. Honour is avenging perceived slights. Honour is revenge incarnate, the bloodier the more effectively pursued and consecrated. Honour is amending stains on the family or clan or tribal reputation. Honour is the family murder of a son who disdains tribal function or a daughter who demeans the family by going her own way.
Where, in this stew, is altruism? The Koran exhorts its followers to charity and forgiveness. Very little of which is actually seen in the world of Islam, but then the world has become of late, accustomed to a violently jihadist Islam, and we're informed it is not representative of the true nature of Islam and all the pious and worthy Muslims who practise it worldwide.
True, it is the noisy ones who grab one's attention.
The noise precedes the action. The noise is determinedly loud and meaningfully aggressive. And the action, when it erupts is mind-bogglingly revolting in its abrogation of human values. It is as though psychotically unruly adolescents who were never subject to discipline, never given instruction on the sensitive nature of human interaction were suddenly let loose on an unwary world.
These precocious adolescents see the world through a dark lense of hostility, suspicion, entitlement and grievance. They spew an extravagant language denoting nothing but their righteous demands, a robust anger and hatred, a defensive, collective whine of entitlement. Give them the attention they crave and they respond by accusations and threats. Give them the opportunistic exposure to aversive events and they take up weapons and run berserk.
Consumed with the pleasure of destroying any symbols of what they perceive to be their enemies. Enemies close at hand belonging to other tribes for whom they share contempt, or enemies from abroad whom they attribute with the desire to wreak havoc in their world, to upend the order of what they perceive as normal and right.
They are not amenable to reason. For reasonableness eludes them, it is not a part of their social make-up.
Anthropologists, social behaviourists are only now beginning to fully appreciate that social altruism may have existed in the social life of primitive apes, before evolution led to humans and chimpanzees. Studies illustrate that young chimpanzees are capable of spontaneously responding to a recognized need, and doing so in a manner that will not enrich them in any way, purely as an impulse to assist others.
How did this impulse elude the psychological make-up of an entire human geographic population? It is as though the larger Arab world became an evolutionary sink hole, with attributes heavily in favour of discord, suspicion, hatred and bloodshed imprinted in their genetic code. Violence begets violence, begets ongoing violence.
There are time lapses, when anger builds up again, and weapons caches deemed sufficient to resume attacks and violence resumes.
How to reason with such people?
Labels: Middle East, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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