Drinking From The Wells Of Dysfunction And Failure

Remember the Holocaust Conference in Iran? Very few of mainstream media outlets reported that David Duke was scheduled to deliver a keynote address.

Suppose David Duke, former Louisiana Grand Wizard of the Knights of Ku Klux Klan, were to be a keynote speaker at a conference on denying the shame of slavery and race relations in the United States. Do you suppose that MSM would cover the event as ‘news’? Do you suppose that David Duke’s presence would be on the front page?

The MSM are of course, reported on the conference itself. They reported on the conference as if it were news, duly noting western condemnation of course, but reporting from the conference as if it were a compelling and legitimate news event. What was it about this ‘Holocaust Conference,’ hosted by a nation with an atrocious record of human rights and a well documented record of religious persecution, that the MSM found worthy of serious coverage? Why did the MSM behave in that way?

To understand, we need to understand. When we are talking about the Middle East and the dysfunctional, oppressive, totalitarian and tyrannical regimes there, it bears remembering a few realities.

Firstly, historical Islam is not really the problem.

Blaming Islam for the violence we see today is like blaming Christianity today for the Crusades (most of the damage and mayhem was committed in Europe, before the Crusaders even got to the Levant), or blaming the Holy See today for the centuries of repression and machinations that enriched corrupt clergy and kept the European feudal system in business.

The truth is that religious dysfunction and expression comes about as the result of dysfunctional religious leadership. When religion and religious ideologies are allowed to be the manifestations of dysfunctional ideologues, the result is a dysfunctional expression of faith. When those perverted expression of religious faith is allowed a voice in the political process, by design or by accident, the result can be seen on the spiraling decline of virtually every dysfunctional Arab regime into even more dysfunction.

The same can be said for much of the Arab and Islamic cultures we see today. Those cultures in no way shape or form, resembles historical Arab culture. What passes for Islam and Arab culture today, does not even remotely resemble earlier iterations of those societies. What we see today are the results of decades of dysfunction, neglect and oppression by dysfunctional Arab political and religious leaders. Dr Sanity noted in When Karl Met Sigmund that

Simply put, totalitarian systems–whether from the left or the right…  whether religious or secular… actively promote the most negative, primitive, and immature aspects of human nature. In fact, they give a societal/institutional blessing to such behavior; and thrive on the resulting projection, paranoia, distortion, and denial of reality. [emp-SC&A]

One of the accepted hallmarks of civilized society is an accepted code of moral behavior. No matter one’s prejudices, biases or beliefs, we are all expected to behave in a certain way. We are all expected to treat others, regardless of their religion, culture or creed, in the same way we ourselves expect to be treated. If that accepted code of moral behavior is not present in a particular society, that society cannot be counted as civilized.

It is also true that as as rule, free civilized societies do not make war on other free civilized societies, or do threaten each other with violence. When the internal behavior of a society cannot be clearly categorized as civilized, it is safe to say that nation will not behave in a civilized way toward other nations or groups.

What we are witnessing today is the out of control and barbaric behaviors of whole societies that have been infected with ideologies that encourage and demand dysfunctional behaviors. By design, these behaviors are meant to intimidate and threaten.  We shouldn’t be surprised, of course. Western media and leftist ideology created the stage where that kind of behavior was perfectly acceptable. For some, terror has become an acceptable form of political expression.

Consider this: The very thought of someone with a venereal disease deliberately engaging in unprotected sex and other risky behaviors outrages us. We demand that persons who are in a position to cause harm control themselves and their behaviors. Nevertheless, we make no such demands of those infected with HIV/AIDS. The very politically correct and progressives are not demanding abstinence and responsible behavior- they are demanding a cure which may be decades away.

Millions of people will become infected with HIV/AIDS because no one, including the very opinionated MSM, demands responsible behavior as a priority. Demanding responsible behavior could save millions of lives- and yet there are few if ‘progressive’ voices making those demands. The ‘right’ to sexual gratification trumps the rights of others to live. When a TB patient has to be quarantined because he won’t quarantine himself from the general population, we are outraged at his behavior. When it is suggested that an AIDS infected person modify his behavior, there are elements who are outrages at the very suggestion.

The same is true of the MSM and ‘progressives’ when it comes to the Middle East. No one is demanding responsible words and behavior from the dysfunctional Arab world, save for the Americans and Israelis.  No one is demanding that they cease their calls to genocide, violence and mayhem and no one is demanding that behave in a civilized and responsible way.

The Saudis say that the Arab world is on the verge of ‘exploding.’ He blamed the situation on the Israeli ‘occupation’ and conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. Nowhere does he mention that for decades, Arab regional policy was predicated on the ‘Three No’s’- The Khartoum Declaration of 1967:

• No to the cessation of terror
• No to diplomatic recognition of Israel
• No to peace negotiations.

Of course, the Saudis make no mention the dysfunction and oppression of Arab world leaders as being the cause of so much misery in the region. They do not mention corrupt and religious leaders (many of whom are paid by the Wahhabi regime) who deliberately fan the flames of discord and religious intolerance. The Saudis also conveniently do not mention the relentless assault by Arab world media on western values, religions and principles.

The western MSM does not report on those things, either. Of course, as the Arab world reiterates and proclaims their ‘victimhood’ and ‘humiliation’ at the hands of the Israelis and western democracies, the MSM dutifully accepts those declarations at face value. Lets look at that.

Arab world hatred of America and Israel will not be overturned with a change in Congress or the White House. The Arab world will hate America if we come as liberators or if we react in self defense. The Arab world is so dysfunctional that even when they bitterly complain we support the regimes that oppress them, they cannot abide that we might liberate them.

The Arab world have proven themselves incapable of identifying what might be in their own best interests. The dysfunction of the Arab world is profoundly deep. The pathology is so great that if they were to acknowledge the liberation of the Iraqis from Saddam as a positive outcome, the gratitude to America would only make more profound their sense of ‘humiliation.’

Why? Because they are so immersed in a contrived culture of shame avoidance (meaning that ‘honor’ is derived only by the humiliation or elimination of others), they have proved for the most part, to be incapable of grasping the meaning of freedom.

Arab and Muslim societies, led by dysfunctional political and religious leaders, have redefined what it means to an Arab or Muslim. These societies have proven themselves incapable of producing good and decent citizens. Islam, once a religion that was a model for religious tolerance and a culture under which other cultures/religions were allowed to flourish, is now barely capable of acknowledging it’s own past. Islam today is recognized by it’s religious and institutional hate and belligerence,  not the philosophy, science, art and literature that contributed to the progress of humankind.

These issues have nothing to do with America or Israel.

Arab political and religious leaders say over and over that Arab ‘humiliation’ is predicated on the fact that Israel and America exist.  It is not due to Israeli and American actions or inactions, but rather, to their very existence.

Besides being a mirror the Arab world has to look at daily, the fact there is an Israel is almost intolerable to most Arabs. To be sure there are many progressive, intellectual Arabs that understand that Israel is a reality- but for most, Israel remains a cruel violation of Allah’s  promise to them. The fact that Allah seems to have abandoned them to live in such squalor under dysfunctional Arab leadership is of no concern- it is the non Muslims that remain the obsession. It is the non-Muslims that have upset the ‘natural’ Islamic order.

The Arab world is not humiliated by the lack of decent schools. The Arab world is not humiliated by their scientific backwardness and book burnings. In a smaller, interconnected world, they cannot be unaware of their own medievalism. The Arab world is not humiliated by collapsed economies. There are car manufacturers in China and Africa, yet there are none in the Arab world. Societies that only consume products are very different than societies that create and produce products.

To put it all in context- how is it possible that the humiliations of centuries of Arab failures are trumped by the political ‘humiliations of today? What powerful agenda can pull a whole society away from reality? How is it that the Arab nations, blessed with wealth that is obscene, are not humiliated that by the fact that as a group, they are among the poorest people on the face of the planet? How is it that there is no humiliation that in the Arab world, female illiteracy tops 50%? How is it that there is no humiliation that of all the thousands of children born in the Arab world today, few, if any, will ever experience freedom and democracy? How is it possible that a vibrant, democratic and free Israel, or the sight of American soldiers rebuilding schools and power plants causes more offense and outrage than over a century of documented Arab failure that was there for all to see long before Israel existed?

How is it possible that the only endeavor in which the Arab world has managed to excel is religious hate and bigotry?

Many in the Arab world defiantly declare their ‘Arab pride,’ but of course, that really isn’t true. That is a kind of projection. If there really was Arab pride, they would be digging holes for the foundation of schools and factories, and not tunnels to smuggle weapons or explosives for suicide bombers. If the Palestinians wanted to reflect Arab pride, they would build hospitals and not rockets and missiles.

The Arab world is not fighting for freedom and democracy. They are fighting to retain the values of oppression, tyranny and dysfunction. There is so much self hatred of what they have come to stand for, that they are willing to blow themselves up in the process. Subconsciously, they  know what they are fighting to preserve and how they are fighting, is repulsive to any decent, civilized and religious adherent of any faith.

In truth, the Arab world cannot be proud of itself. The Islamic and Arab cultures that contributed mightily to the progress of mankind, have willingly become the poster children for religious intolerance, hate, violence and even genocide. There is very little the Arab world has to be proud of and pointing to past glory only serves to highlight how far they have fallen. All the phony ‘Arab pride’ in the world has not motivated them to build. All they have done is destroy- and that destruction is a symptom of self hatred. People who hate themselves, destroy everything around them. People that believe in their higher selves, build. The same is true for nations. Nations, societies and cultures are not remembered for what they destroy. They are remembered for what they have built.

In Shame Culture And The Arab Psyche, Dr Sanity states a universal truth:

When a culture determines that the avoidance of shame is necessary no matter what the cost, the result is a culture of fanaticism, bizarre behavior in the name of “honor”…

The Arab world have come to hate themselves, because under the leadership of corrupt, dysfunctional and immoral political and religious leaders, they have become corrupt and immoral. We have noted many times that

When nations that are that are led by or are under the influence of tyrants or dictators, attempt to justify those actions, we can rightly assume that justification is false. Tyrants and dictators do not make moral choices, because moral choices can only lead to the demise of the tyranny.

Anyone that comes to the defense of tyrannical regimes and their leaders, have themselves made a conscious choice to defend and stand by what is immoral. They themselves consciously adopt an immoral posture.

The tragedy and cost to the Arab world has been enormous and will continue to grow, until Arabs find within themselves the courage to do what they must.

The same organizers of the Holocaust Conference in Tehran who at once wished to deny the Holocaust, are at the fore of instigating a new holocaust, as part of a religious ‘crusade’- they are doing Allah’s will (and speaking for him, as if he needed the mullahs, imams and sheikhs paid by corrupt regimes, to speak for him). It is also ironic that those who for the most part had nothing to do with the Holocaust, could rightly point an accusatory finger at the Christian world and say, ‘See what you have done!’ Instead they continue to  choose to identify with the perpetrators- We’ll finish what Hitler started!’ is a long spoken Arab refrain.

Peace in the Middle East isn’t that complicated. The UN, NATO, the Quartet and the EU have all agreed on three basic and minimal conditions.

• Cessation of terror by the Palestinians
• Diplomatic recognition of Israel
• Secure borders.

Which of those things are too onerous a burden for the Palestinians?

For decades, the Palestinians have received more foreign aid than any other group. Their Arab brethren are gatekeepers of the largest amount of wealth in the history of the world- and yet they still live in squalor, happily led by racists, bigots and corrupt leaders who enrich themselves even as they call for the genocide of others.

Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?