An American ally was killed today. She was a famous Kurdish commander who saved American lives in the war on ISIS (one of the relatively few in the 'W' column lately).
Her killer? An American ally -- indeed a NATO member-- the Turkish government.
One of the nightmares of the Middle East is that loyalties are so narrow and tribal that they are exchanged easily on the gameboard of the major movements and big players. Also, all of these factions have a mixed history with other factions, and thus have no problems of conscience turning on yesterday's ally. This is infuriating to Americans. It does not even register in Turkey, except as a grievance to be brought out tactically later.
But underlying all of this is shame culture versus guilt culture. Right and wrong are a matter of getting caught. I credit Islam for pulling the region up from this to real understandings of guilt by a small amount. Wrong things are wrong, even if they benefit your clan. But it ain't much. And while we can justly excoriate Christianity for preaching real conscience while continually reverting to mere advantage and appearance, it remains true that Christianity has been the only force elevating us to the idea of being guilty whether anyone notices or not, or innocent whether anyone notices or not. Even the supposedly post-Christian philosophies rely on unacknowledged Christian assumptions. If you are a utilitarian, you believe in the greatest good for the greatest number. But no one in the world considers a dozen of your tribe equal to even one of mine - that others also have worth is a new, barely grasped Christian value.
It is in the OT, and Jews had the beginnings of it and deserve that recognition. Yet even they did not fully adopt that idea until well into the Christian era(s). Many of them are better at it now than we are. Still, it is so fully in Western Culture that no one much notices that it is foundational to these supposedly elevated, egalitarian philosophies. You don't find that in the Amazon. Vikings were happy to enslave whoever they encountered*, as were the Africans, South Asians - let's face it, everyone else.
*The Christian nations had gradually moved to forbidding this - until it suddenly turned really, really profitable in the 1400s, and the slaves looked even less like Europeans than usual. The slow moral gains of a millennium mostly evaporated in a century.
The PPK are doctrinaire communists. Their relationship with the US is transactional only. Ideologically they seek our destruction. The Turks are entirely right about the radical Kurds, and we should support them.
As to the Old Testament, Ywvh does not demand morality, he demands obedience. Job is the best single example, but Genesis and Exodus are full of them. Also, Ywvh assignment (by El) is the Jews, and narrowly so. He promotes the success of his protogés at the expense of everyone else, authorizing the displacement of natives from their homelands.
Christians have smothered the OT with a thick slab of question-begging theology. Of course, the Jews, themselves, have basically replaced the OT with the Talmud.
One of the nightmares of the Middle East is that loyalties are so narrow and tribal that they are exchanged easily on the gameboard of the major movements and big players. Also, all of these factions have a mixed history with other factions, and thus have no problems of conscience turning on yesterday's ally. This is infuriating to Americans. It does not even register in Turkey, except as a grievance to be brought out tactically later.
ReplyDeleteBut underlying all of this is shame culture versus guilt culture. Right and wrong are a matter of getting caught. I credit Islam for pulling the region up from this to real understandings of guilt by a small amount. Wrong things are wrong, even if they benefit your clan. But it ain't much. And while we can justly excoriate Christianity for preaching real conscience while continually reverting to mere advantage and appearance, it remains true that Christianity has been the only force elevating us to the idea of being guilty whether anyone notices or not, or innocent whether anyone notices or not. Even the supposedly post-Christian philosophies rely on unacknowledged Christian assumptions. If you are a utilitarian, you believe in the greatest good for the greatest number. But no one in the world considers a dozen of your tribe equal to even one of mine - that others also have worth is a new, barely grasped Christian value.
It is in the OT, and Jews had the beginnings of it and deserve that recognition. Yet even they did not fully adopt that idea until well into the Christian era(s). Many of them are better at it now than we are. Still, it is so fully in Western Culture that no one much notices that it is foundational to these supposedly elevated, egalitarian philosophies. You don't find that in the Amazon. Vikings were happy to enslave whoever they encountered*, as were the Africans, South Asians - let's face it, everyone else.
*The Christian nations had gradually moved to forbidding this - until it suddenly turned really, really profitable in the 1400s, and the slaves looked even less like Europeans than usual. The slow moral gains of a millennium mostly evaporated in a century.
The PPK are doctrinaire communists. Their relationship with the US is transactional only. Ideologically they seek our destruction. The Turks are entirely right about the radical Kurds, and we should support them.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Old Testament, Ywvh does not demand morality, he demands obedience. Job is the best single example, but Genesis and Exodus are full of them. Also, Ywvh assignment (by El) is the Jews, and narrowly so. He promotes the success of his protogés at the expense of everyone else, authorizing the displacement of natives from their homelands.
Christians have smothered the OT with a thick slab of question-begging theology. Of course, the Jews, themselves, have basically replaced the OT with the Talmud.