what's old is new again

[Mike Oliker]

Is the problem blowing up in the Middle East Islam or something else?  On
the one hand it is fully dressed up as Islam.  It wears turbans, speaks
Arabic quotes the Koran and the Hadith, issues Fatwas.  Is seems fully
Islamic and sounds like religious fanaticism.  But, oddly, if you strip away
the religious trappings, it looks a lot like Nazism and Communism, the
obscene 20th Century Totalitarian movements we fought for a century.

There is the desire for a single omnipotent leader, for everyone to be
forced to believe the same things as everyone else.  The belief that
glorious ends justify any conceivable means.  The blood lust and focus on
terror and random violence.  Hatred and scapegoats and the language of
genocide and class warfare and now sectarian warfare.  Maybe this isn't an
excess of religious passion, but a rather more base desire in a new hat.

Is this just a phase very traditional societies, with rigid hierarchies and
sharp sex role divisions, go through as they modernize?  As they modernize,
they look at the West and see decadence and weakness and calculate that,
instead of modernizing, they can just conquer the West and subordinate it.
Instead of relaxing their hierarchies, they can make the more extreme and
rigid on their way to world domination.  The goal seems more and more
unworkable, but the process seems to be playing out yet again.

-Mike Oliker


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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[Victoria Hughes]

        Good points, Mike. I see aggressive authoritarianism as a  
developmental stage. This behaviour did not start in the 20th century,  
it starts as humans develop a sense of individual self.
        Not just societies ( or "religions" ) but all human effort - from an  
infant growing to adulthood to our shared global culture - have to  
wrestle with growth through shifting value systems.

        Our desires are influenced by what we see outside- our ability to  
responsibly handle those desires has to develop inside us. The two are  
often in conflict. It's human nature.
        ( A glitch in the programming, eh, a broken link somewhere. Who  
designed these brains, anyway?)

        The same goes for societies. The 8-year old wanting the keys to the  
Camaro, the 15-year old wanting access to billions of dollars, or to  
heroin, the 19-year old wanting to be king, or pope, or the  
Unibomber....

        The immediacy of communication and access to technologies means that  
across the globe we are at different stages, but we are confronted by  
all the differences.  We see them, they impact our perception, and we  
have to find our cultural solutions in the face of all this knowledge.

        Earlier in human history, we didn't know about them, and our growth  
was more self-referential. Not less violent, but usually smaller scale  
in its effects. Again, you'll see this progression in kids as well as  
organizations and societies. Now we see everything, immediately, and  
people at any developmental level can access information and  
technologies that were developed in another developmental level.
       
        It reinforces that we are in this together. No matter how divided we  
feel from each other as a species, we have one planet, one set of  
resources, and one shared meta-meme-field we create and inhabit. To  
survive we will have to figure out how to work with each other,  
whatever our developmental level. Rapid growth and a wider sense of  
responsibility for our actions - small and large- is demanded of all  
of us.
        Exceptions do not exist. Earth is a closed system.

        Tory

On Sep 16, 2012, at 3:59 AM, Mike Oliker wrote:

> Is the problem blowing up in the Middle East Islam or something  
> else?  On
> the one hand it is fully dressed up as Islam.  It wears turbans,  
> speaks
> Arabic quotes the Koran and the Hadith, issues Fatwas.  Is seems fully
> Islamic and sounds like religious fanaticism.  But, oddly, if you  
> strip away
> the religious trappings, it looks a lot like Nazism and Communism, the
> obscene 20th Century Totalitarian movements we fought for a century.
>
> There is the desire for a single omnipotent leader, for everyone to be
> forced to believe the same things as everyone else.  The belief that
> glorious ends justify any conceivable means.  The blood lust and  
> focus on
> terror and random violence.  Hatred and scapegoats and the language of
> genocide and class warfare and now sectarian warfare.  Maybe this  
> isn't an
> excess of religious passion, but a rather more base desire in a new  
> hat.
>
> Is this just a phase very traditional societies, with rigid  
> hierarchies and
> sharp sex role divisions, go through as they modernize?  As they  
> modernize,
> they look at the West and see decadence and weakness and calculate  
> that,
> instead of modernizing, they can just conquer the West and  
> subordinate it.
> Instead of relaxing their hierarchies, they can make the more  
> extreme and
> rigid on their way to world domination.  The goal seems more and more
> unworkable, but the process seems to be playing out yet again.
>
> -Mike Oliker
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org