Brain Food: Seconds
Next and final part. Great posts. It feels nice to be in good company.
THE CITIZEN AND THE TRIBESMAN
(or Why We Will Never See Democracy in the Middle East)
by Steven Pressfield
In the five years since 9/11, much looking-back has been done. The problem is we haven’t looked back far enough. To understand the nature of the enemy in the Middle East and to evaluate the prospects for democracy and peace, we need to extend our gaze not five years into the past, but five hundred and even five thousand.
I’ve spent the last four years writing two books about Alexander the Great’s campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, 331-327 B.C. What has struck me in the research is the dead-ringer parallels between that ancient East-West clash and the modern ones the U.S. is fighting today — despite the fact that Alexander was pre-Christian and his enemies were pre-Islamic.
What history seems to be telling us is that the quality that most defines our Eastern adversaries, then and now, is neither religion nor extremism nor “Islamo-fascism,” but something much older and more fundamental.
Tribalism.
Extremist Islam is merely an overlay (and a recent one at that) atop the primal, unchanging mind-set of the East, which is tribalism, and its constituent individual, the tribesman.
Tribalism and the tribal mind-set are what the West is up against in Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Iraqi insurgency, the Sunni and Shiite militias, and the Taliban.
What exactly is the tribal mind-set? It derives from that most ancient of social organizations, whose virtues are obedience, fidelity, warrior pride, respect for ancestors, hostility to outsiders and willingness to lay down one’s life for the cause/faith/group. The tribe’s ideal leader is closer to Tony Soprano than to FDR and its social mores are more like those of Geronimo’s Apaches than the city council of Scarsdale or Shepherd’s Bush. Can the tribal mind embrace democracy? Consider the contrast between the tribesman and the citizen:
A citizen is an autonomous individual. A citizen is free. A citizen possesses the capacity to evaluate the facts and prospects of his world and to make decisions guided by his own conscience, uncoerced by authority. A congress of citizens acting in free elections determines the political course of a democratic community.
A citizen prizes his freedom; therefore he grants it to others. He is willing to respect the rights of minorities within the community, so that his own rights will be shielded when he finds himself in the minority.
The tribesman doesn’t see it that way. Within the fixed hierarchy of the tribe, disagreement is not dissent (and thus to be tolerated) but treachery, even heresy, which must be ruthlessly expunged. The tribe exists for itself alone. It is perpetually at war with all other tribes, even of its own race and religion.
The tribesman deals in absolutes. One is either “of blood” or not. The enemy spy can infiltrate the tribal network no more than a prison guard can worm his way into the Aryan Brotherhood. The tribe recognizes its own. It expels (or beheads) the alien. The tribe cannot be negotiated with. “Good faith” applies only within the pale, never beyond.
The tribesman does not operate by a body of civil law but by a code of honor. If he receives a wrong, he does not seek redress. He wants revenge. The taking of revenge is a virtue in tribal eyes, called badal in the Pathan code of nangwali. A man who does not take revenge is not a man. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the sectarian militias of Iraq are not in the war business, they are in the revenge business. The revenge-seeker cannot be negotiated with because his intent is bound up with honor. It is an absolute.
Perhaps the most telling difference between the citizen and the tribesman lies in their views of the Other. The citizen embraces multiplicity; to him, the melting pot produces richness and cultural diversity. To the tribesman, the alien is not even given the dignity of being a human being; he is a gentile, an infidel, a demon.
The tribesman grants justice within the tribe. In his internal councils, empathy, humor and compassion may prevail. Outside the tribe? Forget it. Can Shiites really sit down with Sunnis? Will the pledges of Hezbollah or Hamas to Israel prove true?
The democratic virtues of the Enlightenment, the Rights of Man and the American Constitution are not virtues to the tribesman. They are effeminate. They lack warrior honor. “Freedom” to the tribesman means the extinction of all he and his ancestors hold dear; “democracy” and Western values are a mortal threat to the ancient and proud way of life that the tribal mind has embraced (whether Scythian nomads, Amazon warriors, or American Indians) for tens of thousands of years.
The tribesman isn’t “wrong” or “evil.” He just doesn’t want what we’re selling. We will not convert him with free elections or with SAW machine guns. To him, 9/11 is only the most recent act of badal in a clash that has been raging for more than two thousand years. We will not find the way to contest him, let alone defeat him, until we see the struggle against him within the greater context of this millenia-old, unaltering, East-West war.
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@Iggy -
The tribesman does not operate by a body of civil law but by a code of honor. If he receives a wrong, he does not seek redress. He wants revenge. The taking of revenge is a virtue in tribal eyes, called badal in the Pathan code of nangwali. A man who does not take revenge is not a man. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the sectarian militias of Iraq are not in the war business, they are in the revenge business. The revenge-seeker cannot be negotiated with because his intent is bound up with honor. It is an absolute.
———————————————-
This immediately put me in mind of a scene from the movie “Grand Canyon” … Simon, (black) tow truck driver has come to the “inner city” neighborhood to rescue a (white) Mack whose car has broken down … and finds a gang of thugs (w/gun) harassing Mack:
Simon: I’ve gotta ask you for a favor. Let me go my way here. This truck’s my responsibility, and now that the car’s hooked up to it, it’s my responsibility too.
Rocstar: Do you think I’m stupid? Just answer that question first.
Simon: Look, I don’t know nothing about you; you don’t know nothing about me. I don’t know if you’re stupid, or some kind of genius. All I know is that I need to get out of here, and you got the gun. So I’m asking you, for the second time, let me go my way here.
Rocstar: I’m gonna grant you that favor, and I’m gonna expect you to remember it if we ever meet again. But tell me this, are you asking me as a sign of respect, or are you asking because I’ve got the gun?
Simon: Man, the world ain’t supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don’t know that yet. I’m supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.
Rocstar: So what’s your answer?
Simon: You ain’t got the gun, we ain’t having this conversation.
Rocstar: That’s what I thought: no gun, no respect. That’s why I always got the gun.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:26 pmI agree with much of this, especially in regards to the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, but it understates the influence of Islam on the greater war.
Here’s a great overview of how Islam works:
http://citizenwarrior2.blogspot.com/2007/10/terrifying-brilliance-of-islamic.html
December 19th, 2007 at 5:30 pmDrillanwr, too much left up to the imagination with those types. Everyone’s expected to be a mind reader. To me they’re continually getting the way because they always do what they do in the middle of the intersection.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:12 pmTribalism is just another multicultural version of aparteid that westerners use to excuse bad behaviors by groups.
Tribalism is not at the heart of the phychosis that is Islamo-facism. To get at the heart of the matter you need to delve deeper. At the heart of jihadi supremacy and impealism is the Koran. The Koran is the ethos, the pathos, the mantra, the threat, and the social order of Islam.
You want to change these people’s minds and break the stanglehold that is jihadism? Then get inside the mosques and change the message.
Like it or not it’s the Koran stupid, not tribalism.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:36 pmDan, wasn’t imperialism tribalism?
December 19th, 2007 at 7:53 pmMy tribe, the American people are threatened by those throwbacks. Kill them all. Let God sort them.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:56 pmJohn Cunningham:
No it isn’t. Imperialism is “The policy of extending a nation’s authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony.”
Tribalism is a close definition of jihadism, But isn’t close enough in my view, because the Koran, the Sharia, the Sunna, and the Sira trancend any tribal loyalties. The Koran is the social, political and military order in Islamic societies irrespective of rank, position or power.
Change the message and you’ll beat the Jihadis. I’ll give a few more suggestions as to how to do that:
How about combating jihadism with this simple five-point plan:
1. Exhort Muslims in the West to focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Call upon Muslims in the West to renounce definitively not just “terrorism,” but any manifestation of Islamic supremacism, including any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Call upon Muslims to begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Call upon them to work actively with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.
And I’ll repeat myself once more: Tribalism is just another multicultural version of aparteid that westerners use to excuse bad behaviors by groups.
That’s my thesis.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:03 pmDan, I appreciate what you’re saying, but wouldn’t it be easier to just kill them? We’re not getting any younger. Whether imperialism was tribalism or not, we certainly cured it.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:33 pm@John Cunningham
In WWII we had a similar problem with the Nazis and the Japanese. So we killed their soldiers and burned their cities to the ground. After the war we re-programmed their society and their kids with a different message.
We also had 16 million troops to do that mission.
Today we have maybe 2.5 mil. Not enough to do the job. And what president or Congress will declare and receive the green light for total war that FDR got?
And how many enemy troops did we face in WWII. 20 mil maybe?
The Islamic world has something like 1.2 billion adherents. Of that number about 30% are hard-core jihadis. 30% are sympathetic to the point that they give money and could be pursuaded to join the jihad under the right conditions.
The other 30% - 40% either live in the west or are trying to avoid the jihadis altogether.
How do we then propose to destroy 300 million of our enemies? And then convince another 300 million to stop supporting the jihad since no western power has the moxy to declare all-out war on them, like they have on us?
We have Defeated AQ on the battlefields that we chose to fight in. But long-term we need to counter the jihadi phychosis with a different message and mindset.
Getting inside the minds of Arabs is the way to win. But until that barbarian jihadi mentality is addressed through re-education and a moderated message preached in the mosques, we will face this same problem 100 years from now.
The other part of the equasion is getting off of Saudi oil. The only reason the jihadis are able to exist in such numbers and buy so many weapons is because the Salifist message is being spread through Saudi mosques finaced with oil revenues. The west is financing their own destruction.
Look how many centuries these fucktards have been waging jihad against the non-Muslim world? Ever since the 7th Century. And we’re now in the third great Jihad?
It’s the Koran that drives the Muslim. Change it and we will conquer them. And then we can play all those tolerance games and graft them into our society. But not until then.
And we ain’t killing them in big enough numbers. 20 or 30 thousand jihadis down and 270 million more to go.
Iraq is just one AO and it represents a miniscule portion of the Islamic world. We need to make a difference not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Europe, Asia, Russia and wherever else Islam exists in order to win the GWOT.
I choose to see the Global problem, rather than just the singular issue of Iraq.
Tribalism isn’t the Gordian Knot of Islam. Good article, but I respectfully disagree.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:16 pmDan, by mentioning “we cured imperialism” it was the atomic bombs that got them to do an immediate 180 degree reversal in psychotic behavior. islam makes up about 20% of the global population, I really don’t think anyone in the 80% will miss it. 30 to 40 percent of 20%. islamorabies has no cure.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:06 pm@John Cunningham
You gave me an idea. We have three choices to combat jihadi phychosis:
1. All-out war ala-WWII. Perhaps after 300 million crazoids have died, the other 70% will wise up like the Japanese did?
2. Change the message in the mosques using points 1 -5 above, weaning ourselves off of Saudi oil and setting up a VOA/Radio Marti counter-broadcast campaign in the ME called Radio Islam: The voice of Reason and Modernity using points 1 -5 above. We should further dismiss and ignor any leader, radio personality, TV personality as an ignorant dolt who claims that Islam is the Religion of Peace and follow/study with….only those who claim otherwise and can back up said claims with facts…such as being able to quote the Qur’an itself in an argument. Also, we should drop all the multicultural, tolerance jive. Tolerance works for westerners who aren’t insane like muzzies are. We lock insane people up in institutions. We give them electro-shock and drugs to cure them. If they really go off the deep end, and turn into homicidal manuiacs we kill them.
- or -
3. Continue our collective western “ostrich” mentality and continue to not study/learn the threat of Islamo-nazism in depth, play more word games, give up and become Dhimis.
OBL has made it clear, submit, accept Dhimi status or die. Those are the only choices he gives the West to achieve peace.
I’m fond of points 1 & 2. Point three is unacceptable. Live free or Die.
The Gordian Knot lies between points 1 & 2. Tribalism is a dodge away from the real Truth about Muhammed and his merry band of fellow phychotics.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:45 amDan,
December 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pmGreat job at laying out the background and present situation. I agree that a simple answer does not exist but before we can expect to alleviate some of the problems in the Middle East we have to at least acknowledge the potential for problems on our own soil. How do you sort the chaf from the wheat without pissing both off? I also see the importance of reducing the amount of trade we engage in with countries that have a hard time keeping track of the the cashflow. Supplying our enemies is a losing strategy.
Seperating the wheat from the chaff? Anyone that preaches hatred and advocates the overthrow of any western government or attempts to undermine the laws of such states and supplant them with some other law is the chaff.
If a Christian minister were to advocate the overthrow of a state. stockpile weapons in his church, and encourage his minions to blow up people and government buildings,,,,would be arrested and shutdown in a heartbeat.
Why is that standard not also applied to radical mosques?
It’s that idiot tolerance ostrich mentality that the Wst has. If the West looses that Westaphobic mentality and that insane tolerance of the intollerant attitude of theirs, we could dump, imprison or execute every radical Muslim sociopath in the West.
Some of the wheat: Walid Phares, Ibn Warraq, Aiyan Hirsi Ali, Salim Mansur, Tashbih Sayyed, Wafa Sultan, and Nonie Darwish, Ephraim Karsh, and there are many more.
Unfortunately, the good wheat is the minority. And many in this minority are too afraid to speak out.
But the reformers message does resonate in the ME. The problem is that there is no mechanism to reach the scared, the lost and the stupid in Islam outside of the Internet.
These people need a VOA (Voice of Arabia) station unhindered by the politically correct dipshits at State in order to get their reformist message to the Islamic World sans any input from the sociopaths in Saudi.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm