Shame culture vs Guilt Culture
I am sensitive to those offended by the cartoons ridiculing Mohammed, but it doesn't take much intelligence to see that this is being manipulated...first, local Danish jihadi types "added" their own inflammatory cartoons...then, (as Mark Steyn pointed out) these"spontaneous demonstrations" just happened to have a bunch of Danish flags on hand...wonder how that happened?
Third, the major "demonstrations" were suspicious...
Syria....duh. It's a police state. Sponataneous demonstration that just happened to burn down an embassy, Duh. Has nothing to do with the Hariri investigation by the UN...
Lebanon...again, has nothing to do with Syria trying to derail the Cedar Revolution...
Afghanistan..again, in the Taliban areas...and very small at that...
And, of course, the European Jihadists, who are trying to get support for their paranoia...Europe has a problem...
But the really interesting demonstration was Iran...one suspects that that government would like to manipulate this to take attention away from their bomb...but...they had a COUPLE HUNDRED demonstrate and those had to be bussed in...hello...again, a police state...and blog rumors say that people simply refused to show up...hmmm...
The ones I feel sorry for is the quiet peaceful God loving Muslims who are caught in the middle. Like the latest Rolling Stone cover, which ridicules Jesus, they do not want their heartfelt beliefs ridiculed, but are not supporting the radicals either...
In the US, Catholics put up with a lot of joking...usually good natured humor. But we also face a lot of outright bigotry and ridiule....Like many Catholics, I pray in reparation for the sins of blasphemy...and I pray for those who ridicule God, that they find the grace to find the reality of the One they ridicule...
And Sistani has a similar reaction...LINK
But the problem is not religious at all: It is a cultural one...
Dr. Sanity has a nice post on the shame culture HERE
A guilt culture (i.e., the West) is typically and primarily concerned with truth, justice, and the preservation of individual rights. As noted earlier, the emotion of guilt is what keeps a person from behavior that goes against his/her own code of conduct as well as the culture’s. Excessive guilt can, of course, be pathological.
In contrast, in a typical shame culture (i.e., Arab/Islamic culture) what other people believe has a far more powerful impact on behavior than even what the individual believes. The desire to preserve honor and avoid shame to the exclusion of all else is one of the primary foundations of the culture. This desire has several side-effects, including granting the individual carte blanche to (1)engage in wrong-doing as long as no-one knows about it, or knows he is involved; and (2) engage in any necessary behavior, including wrong-doing (i.e., murder, beheading, etc.) in order to avoid shame and/or recover honor.
Examples of shame culture are Japanese and Arab and some American Indians...
Many American Indian tribes (e.g. Sioux and Chippewa) never punish their children physically...the children are taught by example...but behavior is often controlled by ridicule...and so they children grow up very sensitive to ridicule...on the other hand, if you gently and lovingly joke, you can defuse the fear and the anger...
So I will pray tonite for peace...but I will cynically recognize the jihadi type backed by certain governments are manipulating fear and anger to their own ends...
Third, the major "demonstrations" were suspicious...
Syria....duh. It's a police state. Sponataneous demonstration that just happened to burn down an embassy, Duh. Has nothing to do with the Hariri investigation by the UN...
Lebanon...again, has nothing to do with Syria trying to derail the Cedar Revolution...
Afghanistan..again, in the Taliban areas...and very small at that...
And, of course, the European Jihadists, who are trying to get support for their paranoia...Europe has a problem...
But the really interesting demonstration was Iran...one suspects that that government would like to manipulate this to take attention away from their bomb...but...they had a COUPLE HUNDRED demonstrate and those had to be bussed in...hello...again, a police state...and blog rumors say that people simply refused to show up...hmmm...
The ones I feel sorry for is the quiet peaceful God loving Muslims who are caught in the middle. Like the latest Rolling Stone cover, which ridicules Jesus, they do not want their heartfelt beliefs ridiculed, but are not supporting the radicals either...
In the US, Catholics put up with a lot of joking...usually good natured humor. But we also face a lot of outright bigotry and ridiule....Like many Catholics, I pray in reparation for the sins of blasphemy...and I pray for those who ridicule God, that they find the grace to find the reality of the One they ridicule...
And Sistani has a similar reaction...LINK
---------------------------------------In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.
"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.
Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.
He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."
"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.
But the problem is not religious at all: It is a cultural one...
Dr. Sanity has a nice post on the shame culture HERE
A guilt culture (i.e., the West) is typically and primarily concerned with truth, justice, and the preservation of individual rights. As noted earlier, the emotion of guilt is what keeps a person from behavior that goes against his/her own code of conduct as well as the culture’s. Excessive guilt can, of course, be pathological.
In contrast, in a typical shame culture (i.e., Arab/Islamic culture) what other people believe has a far more powerful impact on behavior than even what the individual believes. The desire to preserve honor and avoid shame to the exclusion of all else is one of the primary foundations of the culture. This desire has several side-effects, including granting the individual carte blanche to (1)engage in wrong-doing as long as no-one knows about it, or knows he is involved; and (2) engage in any necessary behavior, including wrong-doing (i.e., murder, beheading, etc.) in order to avoid shame and/or recover honor.
Examples of shame culture are Japanese and Arab and some American Indians...
Many American Indian tribes (e.g. Sioux and Chippewa) never punish their children physically...the children are taught by example...but behavior is often controlled by ridicule...and so they children grow up very sensitive to ridicule...on the other hand, if you gently and lovingly joke, you can defuse the fear and the anger...
So I will pray tonite for peace...but I will cynically recognize the jihadi type backed by certain governments are manipulating fear and anger to their own ends...
posted by Nancy Reyes at
7:48 PM
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