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Tag Archives: change

FTAC – Medieval – Modern – Medieval – Modern – Time and Cultural Osmosis

28 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Politics

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Tags

change, conflict, Global Timescape, medieval, modern, modern conscience, modern world

Modern Arabs and Muslims for Jews and Israel frequently encounter the defensiveness and xenophobia inspired by the complex history of Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism, which story in Muslim-Jewish relations is not the only story, only the one over which people are rightly most sensitive.  The prompt for what follows emerged in a very small online workgroup on anti-Semitism — and kept restricted in headcount to keep the same manageable and progressing — and it involved the issue of Jewish defense accompanied by the familiar blanketing animosity that accompanies conflict between ethnically-identified rivals.  Diffusing that focus requires a very different view of intercultural politics and political reality.  

For BackChannels, today’s greatest struggle, and it’s a long one, is that between the medieval apprehension of the world and the realities of the modern world and its greater potential for humanity.  

With some wandering, this “From the Awesome Conversation (FTAC)” moves from simple apology for hurt toward a much greater theme: civilizational transitioning.

Although the BackChannels style has been to italicize such posts — and put this “further explanation” at the bottom of the piece — that approach has been reversed for length and greater ease of reading.


Above: bolding added.

I’d like to see reconciliation even while noting that context — “rhetorical situation” — shapes our conversations here and elsewhere.

There may be “component parts” and “knee jerk reactions” that just bring out the worst in us.

There are certainly impolitic thoughts swirling through our heads as passing events “get to us” and we “go off”.

And there are strong defenses involved in meeting criticisms that may go deep and turn a little meditation into a searing event.

There’s an old high school joke: “Time exists so that everything doesn’t happen at once; space exists so that everything doesn’t happen to you.” 🙂

Today, and because of our handle on the material necessities in life — no one starves for lack of food but rather lack of access to the same — “space” has become less important than “time” and how we live in Time is what all the arguing comes down to. The Jews, and I am certain in response to miseries, found their point of departure from the tyrannical and disordered — probably some Qaddafi-type of 6,000 years ago. “Pharaoh” gets the blame (and Egyptian women credit for rescuing Moses) . . . and we have all gotten a different start on a different civilizational path. It’s good to revisit the basics and perhaps as a different expanded base for something needed tomorrow. Time gives us time to play with time.

One more thing as regards bigotry in general: disaggregate.

I don’t think the future needs a politics defined by, say, “Arabs and Jews”, but rather, at this time, the Medieval of Mind and the Modern. To get to a more modern world, a more mutually survivable world (at least) or more thriving (at best), some elements seem needed to get the “medieval of mind” through the barriers to the modern world.

In the peace crowd, it’s common to the point of cliche to talk about “building bridges”, i.e., “common ground”, and perhaps cultivated bonding.

The invisible sieve concept is different. It’s about massive positive filtering toward a more comfortable, peaceful, and prosperous world. Some Out There with Baghdadi and ISIS may not make it. Quite a few among leaders, sad to say, don’t want it because their power is invested in the perpetuation of medieval absolutism. Putin’s display of this was brilliant: $52 billion for the Winter Olympics at Sochi : $0.00 for Syrian Relief + the incubation of ISIS, which serves his medieval / neo-feudal worldview — and that of Assad and Khamenei as well.

Notably, this as an aside, I may regard the promotion of anti-Semitism as an artifact of the medieval world. It ranks right up there with the history of the use of the accusation of heresy in the Christian church as a means of leveraging wealth from competitors or the hapless, and in Muslim-majority states today, the “takfiri” have put on display the same political mechanics.

In other forums and following the Jewish mythos of a journey to a river, I’ve referred to a “river in time” that requires on the banks of the past a novel “forming up”. It sounds simple, but any brief reflection on the economic and social systems within and around clans, families, and tribes in their real politics tells that political reality proves anything but simple. While Khamenei has Revolutionary Guard forces in Iraq’s more sectarian Shiite militia, the state of Iraq itself struggles but nonetheless produces a more balanced official army, and one duly chastened by its route from Mosul and the ensuing slaughter visited upon its troops by ISIS. That the Iraqi defense forces have come back at all seems to me nothing short of miraculous, but now they’re doing their work.

The Syrian migration issue that has so fueled the arguments that divide the west (in chess: a fork) between cultural self-defense and the promotion of its Greco-Roman Judeo-Christian values — to which Islam may contribute or adjust, but ejection of al-Qaeda is certain — involves simply in-filtering good people while rejecting the infiltration of fascist-minded subversives who may be so by way of habits of mind or the adoption of ungodly ambitions.

The modern world is not altogether a good world.  It can be deeply impersonal and “depersonalizing”; it can drop people from many kinds of inclusion, including economic, that neither churches nor families (or clans) are guaranteed to rescue or redeem; it can support criminals in the board rooms and in public offices: however, it strives continuously to be better than its current state as reflected in its state of affairs. Modernity involves ideas about cultural and social progress and produces systems — accountable, responsible, responsive — that produce, overall, a better state of being or life experience across the board.

The medieval want for themselves alone, and that with low regard for others.

Egypt may have an authoritarian politics in place today, but it’s modern and appears transitional; the wildly popular rejection and ejection of the Muslim Brotherhood signals, at least to me, a broad cultural recognition and sea change in response to a confrontation with a representative of the medieval world. Egyptians have chosen a march forward into something else — something modern.

Forgive my rambling.

Suffice it to say this forum may be as much about broad cultural change and preservation as much or more than anti-Semitism.

The experience may be likened to looking through a very small window out onto a much larger world, and, in the words presented here, “Tiimescape”.

# # #

With Egyptian Naima Nas – One Question – One Good Answer

17 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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Tags

change, conservative values, cultural change, cultural politics, Egypt, el-Sisi, modern Egypt, Naima Nas, state leadership

The big one which explaining to those many millions who still think changes are easy to bring — just raise our minimum wage and reduce the prices! It is not that simple and reeducating them will take time, reducing dependency on the state will take time, and getting them to stop throwing trash outside their homes will take time. But the religious preachers will have to come on board and help in the brain “write” to counter the past 50-80 years of brainwash. That is the tough one, but that is an internal matter that concerns Egyptians and no one else.

BackChannels:

What things (changes, conditions, policies, results) most produce hope in Egypt?

Naima Nas:

For as long as I can remember there have been (policies and changes and plans, etcetera ) but the one thing that has always been missing is autonomy en masse. The average citizen needs to be independent and resourceful, not just the hundred or so officials in office.

The good news is there are a lot of such citizens — possibly half the population.

There are the people who take advantage of reforms in any field and comply with laws that ensure improvements.  If more schools are available and the law says everyone must stay in school till a certain age, they make sure their children go to school and do their homework and learn well, regardless of how difficult, and move up the ladder.  I was born in a family like that . Policies or even magic potions have to be cooperated with not just set.

It may surprise you to learn that there have always been laws in Egypt addressing every area that needs addressing. The laws are all there, they just need to be applied to everyone without exception. That has always been the obstacle. That is the first thing that mesmerised me about Europe when I first stepped on the continent.  It does not matter what or how trivial or grave the discrepancy, everyone answers to someone.

But to apply that to the chaos that is Egypt -pulled from pillar to post for years – is to start at the top and work down. Which is exactly what Sisi ‘s logic appears to be and the reason why I unreservedly support the man in his quest.

I’ll list one or two things as examples.

1. Understanding that it is impossible to have democracy or anything remotely resembling a fair government when the ruling elite are theocratic . So the “Islamic for Muslims only president” had to go, pronto! And no one cares how legitimate were the elections that put him there. He lost his legitimacy when the plan to throw Egypt under the Sinai terror bus became clear. And no one was waiting for paperwork!

2. Now we all — or almost all — agree on what we don’t want and what we really wish for, so let us make these laws visible! Starting with swift action against corruption. From the top down. That is the hardest thing to do. Because we all have a time when we wish we can speed up a process any which way .

3. Leading by example. So as he (el-Sisi) goes on records extending his hand in peace and sealing it with representatives on official level to boot. So can we — the average citizens . No one is too controversial by attending church or a synagogue and having Christian and Jewish best friends as many of us have done for years.  Now it is definitely not a novelty to be tolerant and open minded because, look, the president has long been doing that.

Finally

4. The big one which explaining to those many millions who still think changes are easy to bring — just raise our minimum wage and reduce the prices! It is not that simple and reeducating them will take time, reducing dependency on the state will take time, and getting them to stop throwing trash outside their homes will take time. But the religious preachers will have to come on board and help in the brain “write” to counter the past 50-80 years of brainwash.  That is the tough one, but that is an internal matter that concerns Egyptians and no one else.

# # #

Links – Dismissing “Islamophobia”

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

change, Islam, political cognition, politics, time

“Martin said we must put Taylor’s concerns in a broader context. “It’s not just anti-Muslim rhetoric that puts Canada high on the radar list of enemies, or the upping of the ante by extending the Islamic State mission to Syria.” It’s also that the Harper government shut down the embassy in Tehran, as if that’s a bad thing. He might want to read The Islamic Republic of Iran—State sponsor of Terrorism by Shabnam Assadollahi, human rights advocate and Iran expert. Martin also suggested Harper has endangered us in the Arab world through unconditional support for Israel. If I understand Taylor’s statements, the last thing we want to do is upset the Arab/Muslim world for fear of the reaction of alienated Muslims in Canada. Is he suggesting Canada should make policy based on the potential actions of Muslims or any other ethnic/culture/ religious group in Canada? Should Canada turn a blind eye to Muslim on Muslim murder and Muslim on Christian murder for fear of hurting the feelings of Muslims in Canada?”

Bederman, Diane Weber.  “If I were a Muslim I’d be embarrassed”.  Canada Free Press, April 5, 2015.


. . . .  The problem is the Prophet Muhammad. If he were alive today, Amnesty International would certainly have a problem with his followers obeying his laws, which demand that certain people have their limbs amputated and their nose cut off. The Democrats would have him in their crosshairs as being at the forefront on the “war against women”. The New York Times would certainly seek to expose him and any whistle blower in his ranks would be celebrated as the next Julian Assange.

The Huffington Post and Daily Kos would be collecting signatures, to demand that our government do something to stop him. Media Matters would be reprinting all of the outrageous things he said, such as “I have become victorious through terror”.

Bell, Eric Allen.  “Facebook is Enforcing Islamic Blasphemy Laws.”  Faith Freedom Organization, February 2, 2015.


Rejecting criticism may serve to reject shame for a while, but time may develop an awareness greater than the narrative to which one clings for honor.  Acts and roles simply age, some better than others, but with greater cognition and comprehension become antiquated and archaic.

Conservative voices chattering around — not in — the BackChannels environment have a consistently straightforward way of dealing with feudal and psychological evil: call it out; detail it; echo justified observations; and, in general, maintain the critical front line defense of informed modern values and pluralism in intellectual battlespace.

The classically liberal conservative modern Muslim voices to which BackChannels has listened over the years offer a convoluted defense of Islamic thought — how good of Islam to “defend” the interests of select dhimmis in exchange for the acceptance of second-class status and the payment of tribute for it — or evade the portent of demonstrations of the obvious, as with Daesh Baghdadi’s strenuously studied recapitulation of General Muhammad’s experience and vision — at least as well as he may have gleaned through his scholarship — albeit with the contribution of otherwise unemployed former Baathist military.

For such strident and damning criticism of a core civilizational history once isolated in space and now, perhaps, isolated by time — the 7th Century is a long ago “then”, and this is now — when is it too soon to speak?

And when might it be too late?

Oh, one more thing . . . if the nut is loosened from the monkey’s grasp, what is to take its place?

In rare vocal encounter yesterday, BackChannels heard, “Islam doomed to its own self-destruction . . . disintegration from within . . . ethnic system – no solid ground to walk on . . . . maintained by brutality.”  Indeed, the penalties for apostasy, heresy, and hypocrisy seem high.  It also heard about Obama’s perceived role: ” . . . to destroy American hegemony . . . proto-Marxist . . . emulating his father . . . anti-colonialist . . . .”

Given that American has failed to colonize even Baltimore, BackChannels might be a little leary of that last characterization.

😉

Then too, those who follow this blog know that it may have as an underlying theme the want of bringing things to light, of digging around in the modern wells of seemingly limitless information and — this with a nod to political psychology — dredging and filtering what appears persistent across a broad spectrum of political expression plus separated historical observations over time.

Online — just a mouseclick away from where you are reading — “Change Navigator” Holger Nauheimer poses both a telling observation and question on slide 4 of 31:

  1. Attributed to Chris Spies (2006): “The dilemma with change is that everyone likes to talk about it, but very few have insight into their own willingness to change, let alone their ability to influence change.  Those who see the need for change often want others to change first.  That applies to adversaries and onlookers, but also to analysts and practitioners.  Why is this the case?”
  2. Stated in a thought cloud: “How to construct an environment in which people in conflict can safely explore new ideas towards a better future?”

Directly related:

Spies, Chris F. J. “Resolutionary Change: The Art of Awakening Dorman Faculties in Others: A Response by Chris F. J. Spies.”  Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, August 2006.

Mitchell, Christopher R. 2005. Conflict, Social Change and Conflict Resolution. An Enquiry. Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management/ Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation (online). http://www.berghof-handbook.net/uploads/download/michell_handbook.pdf

Chris Spies wraps the essay cited with this closing paragraph:

The time has arrived for change agents to wander with their partners, not as initiative takers (see Mitchell’s list on page 20), but as accompaniers and walking partners whose conversations reawaken people’s energies and imagination. They are partners in the forest – fellow human beings.  They will know the forest. They will navigate the rivers. Together they will transform competitive spaces into listening spaces; tactical planning into strategic planning; escalating dynamics into dynamic stability; and resistance to change into risk-taking for change.


Time has been space from the beginning, but only recently has the hard fact of it had, well, time to settle in: only for God is there a day without end or beginning; for all else, time moves along, transforms, runs out, begins anew.  It has features too, and perhaps for “accompaniers” some breathtaking rivers.  Moses, the Jews, and a “mixed multitude” found their way to just one such crossing.

Addendum

The Islamic virus first divests the person of his most fundamental human attribute. It takes away his right to make decisions himself and absolves him and in return, of any responsibility for his actions rendered in blind obedience to it.

Imani, Amil.  “The Virus of Islam: Can It Be Cured?”  Amilimani.com, April 8, 2015.

Too soon?

Too late?


In recent years, the search for an alternative to Islamism has been thwarted by the widening sectarian conflict within Islam, which has increased tensions and driven violence across the Muslim world. In light of this emergency, the need to reform Islamic jurisprudence and social thought has become more urgent than ever. Islamism’s menace to Muslims, however, has been compounded by the weakened state of critical thinking within Islamic religious and political traditions. In developing a reformist alternative to Islamism, Muslims do in fact have a substantial body of both historical as well as contemporary thinking that they can draw upon to help improve their political and social structures and create more just, inclusive societies.

Rumi, Raza.  “The Prospects for Reform in Islam.”  Hudson Institute, near March 30, 2015.


Watching the evolution of jihad videos, propaganda and message traffic I note a growing movement towards collective consciousness. This collective identity is nurtured with vitriolic attacks. What causes Muslims residing across the globe to be drawn to the hive of Abu Borg? Why choose divestment of individual personality (a gift from God) and investment in life as an assimilated slave? I no longer speak. We speak. I am no longer a free moral agent. My will bends and sways to the sound of thousands of voices. I become the enslaved.

Swofford, Tammy.  “Shadow.”  Daily Times, April 10, 2015.

Additional Links

http://www.berghof-foundation.org/

http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/

# # #

Jordan’s Twinned Refugee Issue

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Jordan, Middle East, Regions, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

change, civil war, Jordan, Palestinians, refugees, Syria

The unspoken truth is that the Palestinians, the country’s largest ethnic group, have developed a profound hatred of the regime and view the Hashemites as occupiers of eastern Palestine—intruders rather than legitimate rulers. This, in turn, makes a regime change in Jordan more likely than ever. Such a change, however, would not only be confined to the toppling of yet another Arab despot but would also open the door to the only viable peace solution—and one that has effectively existed for quite some time: a Palestinian state in Jordan.

Zahran, Mudar.  “Jordan is Palestinian.” Pages 3-12, Middle East Quarterly, Wiinter 2012.

Posted to YouTube December 7, 2012, here’s a clip titled “Angelina Jolie Visits Syria, Jordan Border:

I’ll make it two clips with Ms. Jolie:

http://unhcr.org/v-505053a86 (also from winter 2012).

(Source page for the above: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e486566.html).

Current UNHCR page tallies “Total Persons of Concern” in Jordan as 431,799.

The displaced, whether from the 1948 war launched against Israel or from the latest horrors taking place today in Syria, carry with them their attitudes and beliefs about themselves (“self-concept”) and attitudes toward the greater world around them.  That’s something to think about as the Syria fled has been irrevocably altered by the methods of war chosen by the Assad regime — e.g., flying air strikes against whole communities; killing noncombatants (in one parlance) / innocents (in another) without distinction from armed or known challengers; and displacing millions without accommodation.

Whether the Assads stay or go, eventually, and in part or as a whole, the Syria that existed as the enthusiasms of the “Arab Spring” approached is gone: whatever may be there, it’s missing 3.4 million of its citizens, either internally displaced or refugee.

# # #

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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