The Jim Crow era always struck me as a mass psychosis. After the Civil War and Reconstruction the South successfully fought to institute a new form of legalized racism in place of slavery. And there was no sense to it. It wasn't just bad for blacks, it was bad for most whites too as it made society more static which kept the poor poor and the middle class not-rich.
Disclaimer - this does not hold for all of the Islamic world. Turkey and Bangladesh both have open forward looking societies. And while Indonesia has many problems, few of them seem to be related to Islam.
Ok, back to the rest of the Islamic world which also appears to be suffering from a similar mass psychosis. It is one that removes women from the public sphere, looks back to their past history, and glorifies "righteous death" of it's young men.
Like Jim Crow, the Islamic world is wanting to go back to a previous time. And they are doing a real effective job of keeping their society in this earlier time. As with Jim Crow, it is effecting this through a combination of laws, religion, and cultural norms enforced by thugs.
Like Jim Crow, this straight-jacket of what is allowed and what is required is bad for most of it's society. Clearly its a bad system for its women. But its also bad for anyone who wants to create something, be it a company that employees people or a movie that entertains, or an approach to life that values others. Because in each case this threatens the existing culture and it is violently stopped.
But in one way Islam is even worse than Jim Crow. The Jim Crow era would torture and kill those who threatened it just as Islam does. But Islam has also created a sub-culture that glorifies the deaths of it's "martyrs." And while it's unclear how many actually approve of the suicide bombings, the culture as a whole at a minimum accepts it and large segments do view those who murder innocent civilians - women and children - as worthy of respect.
A society that glorifies death, that encourages its young men to both kill and die. And finds the murder of innocents, and particularly children, has no future. You can't have a future when you are having some of your children kill other of your children.
Maybe the Neo-Cons have a point
Now, I don't think much of President Bush and the neo-cons. But on one basic argument they may have a very strong point. The Jim Crow culture (more than just the laws, the entire culture) was destroyed from outside. It took the federal government and the populace of the rest of America recoiling in horror at the scenes from the South to mortally wound it (its not totally dead yet).
In Turkey it took a strong military dictatorship to break the culture there and turn it in to a secular culture that looks to the future. While this came from the Turks (and great respect is due to them for making this change themselves), it was imposed from the top and fought by many.
But in the Arabic world this change has yet to appear anywhere. And its not clear that it will ever come from inside. Those in charge in each country keep their power in the status-quo. And the religious leaders by and large also want the status-quo, either for the power and/or because they believe a fundamental lifestyle is the correct way to live.
So maybe the only way to break this culture out of its mass psychosis is from outside. And maybe going in to Iraq to force a change, and to create an example, is arguably the best way to cause this change. It has had an effect in Lebanon already.
I don't think change would come from inside. At least not soon. And change is desperately needed in that part of the world.
Trackbacks DailyKos, The Indepundit, Mudville Gazette
