What Comes Up When The Pot Is Stirred

President George Bush is optimistic about peace in the Middle East.

I’m confident that two democratic states living side by side in peace is in the interests not only of the Palestinians and the Israelis, but of the world. The question is whether or not the hard issues can be resolved and the vision emerges, so that the choice is clear amongst the Palestinians — the choice being, do you want this state, or do you want the status quo? Do you want a future based upon a democratic state, or do you want the same old stuff? And that’s a choice that I’m confident that if the Palestinian people are given, they will choose peace.

…Do you want those who have created chaos to run your country, or do you want those of us who negotiated a settlement with the Israelis that will lead to lasting peace?

Is peace in the region a possibility? Well, that depends on what makes the players tick and the track record that precede them.

From Gagdad Bob:

Liberals, of course, want us to understand the terrorists. But one of the first things I learned in my psychoanalytic training is that real empathy has nothing to do with reinforcing someone’s delusions just to make them feel better. Rather, it must involve things like confrontation, interpretation, clarification, etc. So the most empathic thing you could do for a bin Laden — for the whole Muslim world, for that matter — is to confront them with the truth of which they are so desperately in need, for a mind deprived of truth still “needs to eat,” but it will feed on lies, which in turn creates a monster. Lies are monster food. All monsters feed on lies. They are the lie made flesh.

Hitler could not have been the monster he was without a steady diet of outrageous lies with no connection whatsoever to reality. Stalin, Castro, Arafat, Pol Pot, and all the rest of the 20th century monster club — all were soulless zombies because of their fidelity to the Lie which created them. In this regard, you can certainly see how ideology becomes a substitute religion rooted in the satanic eucharist (or “dyscharist”) of ingesting the Lie. Once the liar is in place, he needs a steady diet of more lies in order to maintain himself. Conversely, he will respond to truth in the way a vampire reacts to garlic or a Clinton to media scrutiny.

Now, a few more dots to connect. Shrinkwrapped, in Long Term Threats And Democracy:

There are two uncomfortable facts that make it very difficult for democracies to address long term threats and maintain long term commitments.  Both are products of the ways in which our minds are structured and organized.

First, immediate threats will always have priority over long term consequences.  The basic circuitry in our brains that react to threats, our deepest survival programming if you will, are expressly designed to deal with the most immediate needs and neglect the longer term.  This worked well on the Savannah back in our distant hunter-gatherer past, but it uniquely ill suited for the modern world.

The second issue is that we are extraordinarily poor at risk assessment.

The painfully constructed edifice of the modern world is dependent on the scientific method, our only reliable method to differentiate fact from fantasy; even so, the public discussion of anthropogenic global warming should be evidence enough that in the absence of definitive data, emotional responses prevail…

Overriding the concerns about Islamic dysfunction is the more important question of the structure and nature of any new emerging  international paradigm.  Pax Americana has worked for 60+ years (and please note that despite the violence in Iraq, on a global scale the world has never been so at peace; most conflicts today are intrastate rather than interstate, and the casualty rates and destruction are commensurately lowered by the changing nature of war.[emp-SC%A])  Those candidates who threaten to reduce America’s involvement in enforcing a minimally rational set of international norms are threatening to overturn a system that has brought prosperity to billions and is continuing to bring millions out of poverty on a yearly basis.  Dedifferentiating to a global anarchy is in no one’s interest.

Treaty signing ceremonies make for great video moments, but that’s about it. Peace treaties are no more representative of reality than are photos or videos of the signers of those treaties. If you want to know who people are, look at what they have accomplished and what they have overcome. Examine their hopes and dreams.

The Poison:

Democracies like Israel by their nature try to find a way to negotiate the evil that can come from the individual against society, as well as the evil that originates from the unchecked society against individuals and individual liberty.

The totalitarian Islamic societies that surround Israel do not rein in either type of evil. The individual is encouraged by society- for the sake of society or the sake of religion- to channel rage, hatred and homicidal impulses toward the non believer. This has the net effect of destroying both the individual and eliminating individuality, lifting all restraint on actions taken in the name of society or in the name of religion. Thus, both the individual and society become psychopathic.

The Promise:

What we see in the Middle East are members of a group so desirous of love (worthiness) and attention, that they make a deliberate choice to opt out of the rules that define civilized society. They refuse to deal with or even interact with non members. This is no small matter or self imposed isolation. Human progress of every single type has it’s origins in the interaction we have with each other. By deliberately choosing to not participate in an honest exchange with others, or by believing that forced or coerced interactions (i.e., believing that forced religious conversions denote religious embrace) are the equivalent of real exchanges, many in the Arab world separate themselves from the reality, even as they perceive that their forced interactions place them center stage, or in a position to dictate reality. The Cartoon Riots are an example of that. In the end, free speech in the west will not simply disappear (notwithstanding shrill cries to the opposite)…

… as the individual withdraws from reality into the fantasy love/respect the group offers, the stage is set for the terrorist and (even more importantly) the terrorist supporter. The hate fueled by the group nurtures envy (”what they have is rightfully ours”) and sadism (we will punish them for their evil. We are the righteous ones”).

That level of intense hate is matched only the level of intense love (and therefore ‘worthiness’) bestowed by the group. Death becomes an expression of fidelity to the group. Murder and killing on behalf of the group bestows an ultimate morality in the absence of any kind of morality (”of course we can justify the murder of innocents and civilians”) of the group.

From an early age, Palestinians are taught that martyrdom is the ultimate expression of fidelity to the group and the ultimate expression of the elevated self.

The Third Rail Of Palestinian Failure:

The Palestinian addiction to violence and the resistance to change may very well be a deliberate attempt by Palestinian leaders to repress the reality they know is true- and one they are afraid Palestinians will demand.

The Palestinians, as a group and as a society, they have failed. Unlike other Arabs in the region, they live in close proximity to a vibrant and free society. They know and see the benefits of what living in a free society means. They also know to acknowledge Israel’s successes, they have to acknowledge their own failures. Culturally, that is too high a price to pay.

The cycle of violence is not simply destined to perpetuate itself- the cycle of violence is reinforced and ever escalating. Dysfunctional behaviors that were unknown or unheard before have become commonplace.The self destructive behavior of the Palestinians comes about as the result of the integration of exaggerated love and exaggerated hate into a fused single exaggerated emotion. What distinguishes the two becomes no more than a blurred idea. Thus, violence directed at each other is a appropriate as violence directed at the Israelis.

This kind diseased thinking is not just about violence. Even the wildest conspiracy theories, widely welcomed and accepted, become a reflection of a dysfunctional defense mechanism and absurdity. As Arab religious and political leaders whip crowds into a wild frenzy, warning of ‘Jewish plots’ to control the world, these same religious and political leaders have no trouble promising that ‘Muslims all over the world will work together to control the world’ and that the ‘flag of Islam will fly over the White House and the British Parliament. Those who resist will be destroyed.’

There is a difference between backward societies and failed ones. Backward societies are unaware of the possibilities in front of them. Failed societies have squandered the opportunities that have been afforded them. Failed societies can recover, but only if they reject the ideologies that led them to fail in the first place. That kind of redemption will not come easily in a culture where

To admit one’s flaws and mistakes, to correct and repent is inconceivable…

To acknowledge one’s shortcomings before first blaming others would bring deep shame and dishonor not only to the individual but to his or her entire family…If the mistake is a cultural taboo, one’s reputation may be scarred for life and the perpetrator might end up brutally punished.

Peace in the Middle East has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. Those who wish for George Bush to succeed or fail so that their political agendas might be met are sorely mistaken.