And a confession. For years, like many conservatives, I had become convinced that culture truly does matter and that culture would prevent the Arab world from ever developing the kind of democracy that exists in the West. The Persians and Jews and Turks and Kurds were different, I thought. The Arabs? Too tribal; too divided; too religious. Ajami [Fouad Ajami, a professor International Studies at Johns Hopkins] reminds us that this narrative was favored by the Arab tyrants themselves and protected their interest. It was also favored by Israel, as a buttress to its case for open-ended colonialism in its own backyard.
What I failed to grasp is that culture changes, that the younger generation, as in Iran, were increasingly aware, thanks to the new media revolution, of how backward their own societies had become. Culture still matters, mind you; and I am not optimistic about what might end up in power in Libya, and remain wary of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. But this is a process - and it may be happening faster now than before. We have surely learned to be humbler in our generalizations.
Andrew Sullivan
27 FEB 2011
2 comments:
That is pretty much a universal truth. I remember a H.S. French class in which we read a French short story where clichéd ethnic characterizations were made describing different nationalities. Even though it was a comedy/satire, it stuck with me that other countries have their own gross generalizations, including those about Americans.
We're not smart enough to characterize without grouping. A dramatic revelation came in the Peace Corps when I discovered that people would not act the way their culture dictated.
There's little certainty in this world, but I think we can safely say that blanket statements about ethnic, religious, national or racial groups are almost always wrong.
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