Beyond Ignorance and Understanding

http://www.readingt.readingcities.com/index.php/toronto/comments/12857/

Not long ago, I wrote that we clash cultures while the world plunges
to climate-change hell in burning hand-baskets.

Sure there might be some hoping for the future -- if only human beings
bothered understanding cultural principles and ideologies better.
Cultural principles and ideologies defining who people are -- and who
the enemies of the people are. Because then, just maybe, we might
start bridging gaps between ourselves and cultural others by discourse
-- rather than plugging them with bullets.

But better understanding is not enough. If cultural ignorance of self
and others escalates conflicts, let's absolutely struggle against
ignorance. What to do, though, when hatred precedes mis-understanding?
When the hatred precedes and surpasses all ignorance? When we set out
to genocide cultural others -- knowing full-well what we set out to
do?

That's what I was confronted with on Thursday while at York
University. How hatred has a life and death wish all its own.
Surpassing both ignorance and understanding.

First there was the Toronto Star article about China's ambassador to
Canada accusing Dalai Lama of "telling lies to the world" and
masterminding violence in Tibet. Lu Shumin actually expects us to
believe the Dalai Lama is some sort of lying, violent devil. That the
Dalai Lama just pretends to be an angel. According to Lu Shumin,

Dalai Lama has presented himself to be a peaceful, like an angel
kind of figure, for such a long time.. the Western public take this
for granted...

Sorry, Mr. Shumin. Every public in the world knows the lies are all
yours. Because everybody knows the Dalai Lama is as close to angels as
human beings get. Everyone knows where the Dalai Lama stands against
violence. So best luck with your crass, transparent vilifying and
demonizing campaigns, Mr. Shumin. Such lies do nothing against the
Dalai Lama -- they just trample the shreds of China's dignity from the
world stage.

And then, doing my usual rounds, I started hearing ululations.
Following the sounds of which across campus led me to Vari Hall -- and
this unbelievable mob scenery.

Not just the regular mob that occupies Vari Hall, though. Nope. Now
there were two mobs. As if the regular had somehow, amoeba-like,
split. Found themselves waving different flags. Just went collectively
insane. Competing to drown each other out by megaphone-amplified
histrionics. Barely separated by York security guards. With eight
police cruisers parked right outside -- just waiting for York security
to collapse.

There were a couple signs getting totally ignored up in the rafters --
requesting dialogue instead of mob-action on campus. And on spur of
that moment, it seemed I could do better. After all, hadn't I been
writing articles against cultures clashing and dashing the future of
everything natural to cinders?

That's why I laid me down between mobs. Vaguely hoping the mobs would
realize that by lying down between them I was standing up for the
future.

Well, the mobs paid no slightest heed. Either didn't notice or didn't
care. York security, though, reacted instantly.

"Sir! You are going to have to move. Right now!"

"Where to?" I asked.

"One side or the other, sir. Right now!"

Great. York security demanded I pick sides. So I settled for walking
back and forth. Asked a few questions. Read some literature.

Nearest I could make out, the entire dispute was semantic. Whether the
border fencing separating Israelis, Palestinians and Egyptians ought
to get called an "apartheid wall" or not.

Well, wasn't that obvious? Of course it shouldn't. Apartheid is
offensive -- not defensive. When walls are defensive life-savers, we
tend to think of them as being great. Not just when they're huge --
like the Great Wall of China. Also when they're relatively smaller.
Like that wall of Hadrian's. Even when they're relatively tiny
fortifications. They're all great when built as defensive life-savers.

The Berlin Wall was offensive. It was pretty huge -- but it sure
wasn't great. No way was the Berlin Wall defensive.

The real issue, of course, is how to quench burning cultural hatred
such as surrounding Israel and Tibet. Before it's too late. Can better
cultural understanding suffice to span gaps and contradictions between
human cultures by dialogue instead of bullets? Not likely.

But not because the issues are too complex to resolve. To the
contrary. When it comes to Tibet, Communist Chinese partisans keep
demanding Canadians remain silent. Otherwise, how would Canadians like
it if China began agitating for Quebec sovereignty -- or the return of
our home and native lands to the native peoples they were stolen from?

Such nonsense. China ought to seek Canadian advice instead of silence.
Because China would not even be called upon to permit referenda or
seriously negotiate land claims in Tibet. All Tibetans seek is some
cultural autonomy. Relative to Canada's sovereignty issues, China's
can be walked through parks on any sunny day.

Issues get a tad more complicated when it comes to Israel and
Palestine -- but not too much. All distinct peoples and societies must
possess territorial integrity to secure cultural autonomy. Otherwise,
absent some territorial integrity and cultural autonomy, distinct
peoples are at constant risk of genocide. That's just how we are once
cultures get clashing. What else is human history even about other
than our clashing cultures?

Hence, Palestinians must have their own country. But not a shittier
littler country to stew in eternal resentment, for crying out loud.
Palestinians must have a country they can be proud of. A country they
can proudly work to build -- rather than constantly looking to destroy
someone else's.

That's why everybody has got to chip in. Not just the Israelis with
the West Bank and Gaza. Everybody. Internationally. Jordan can give up
a little space, surely, on the river's east bank. Egypt can provide a
chunk of the Sinai. Why not? These would just be territorial crumbs.
But crumbs which, together, would create a decent dignified future.

So simple. Palestine must be larger than Israel. Come on, Arab
brothers. Contribute. Just some crumbs from your laden territorial
tables. The days of the Palestinian people foddering your cannons
against Israel are over. You threatened Palestinians to leave, to get
out of your way when you came shooting to genocide Israel in 1948. Yet
Israel still stands. You promised Palestinians they'd return to
feasting on the corpse of Israel. And not only haven't you delivered
to this day and age -- you continue burying the Palestinian people,
heaping perpetual shame on them as refugees. As if Israel still
standing were their fault instead of yours. But it was your threats
and broken promises, Arab brothers, which broke Palestinians from
their homes. It is your duty, Arab brothers, to contribute making the
Palestinian people whole again.

Contribute, Arab brothers. Don't shrug off every responsibility onto
Israel -- there must be more honour. And give up levering the
Palestinian people to genocide Israel already. You've been trying for
60 years. Give it up. If god were willing, you would long since have
succeeded. Help make the future better, please. Not always worse. Come
on. How hard can it be? Any future would be better.

No. The issues are not too complicated to resolve. Not if better
futures were desired. But, of course, there's no intention of making
anything better once cultural hatred starts burning out of control.
Sometimes cultures do clash due to plain ignorance or
misunderstanding. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, for instance, ought to
have been averted by better intelligence, better understanding and a
little less ignorance. But too often, once hatred flames out of
control, cultures can't stop clashing. No matter what. Not until at
least one is extinguished.

Because hatred can't be extinguished once cultural others come to be
regarded as antithetical to everything good and proper. When some
cultural other merely continuing to exist becomes unbearably
humiliating. In such cases, vilifying and demonizing cease reflecting
strategic lies and tactical propaganda. The hatred expressed in such
cases is genuine -- honestly reflecting sensations of utter
humiliation entailed by the cultural other merely existing. The
cultural other comes to embody everything which hinders attainment and
the manifest destiny of one's people.

In this sense, Chinese leadership demonizing the Dalai Lama indicates
profound humiliation that Tibetan culture continues existing. Chinese
leadership expects to be believed despite what the whole world has
been witnessing for decades -- how the Dalai Lama stands against
hatred and every manner of inadvisable material attachment. Because
Tibetan culture continuing existing, cankering China's becoming super-
powerful and preparing to host Olympic Games, necessarily means the
Dalai Lama must be some sort of lying, violent devil.

Just the same in the case of Islam and Israel. Islam can never stop
shooting at Israel because nothing can more profoundly humiliate Islam
than Israel continuing to exist. How can Israel's existing 60 years
despite all Islam's best efforts even be conceived? Like, whose side
is god on, anyhow? It can't be conceived. Islamic maps deny even the
geographic fact of Israel. That's why it doesn't matter what Israel
does. From how much land occupied in defensive wars Israel retreats.
How great the walls Israel builds to defend itself are. What truces
Israel ratifies. How relatively well Muslim citizens fare in Israel.
None of that matters. Islam can't ever stop shooting at Israel. When
Israel builds walls to stop violence, Islamic leaders vilify those
walls as if offensive rather than defensive. Since Islamic leaders
honestly don't get how Israel could be entitled to self-defend. When
Israel gets forced to shoot back at Islam in self-defence, Islamic
leaders holler that Israel commits genocide. Despite how unabashed
Islamic leaders have been calling for Israel's genocide since 1948.
Despite how some Islamic leadership is actually chartered on
genociding Israel. Despite how Israeli culture was conceived in
resisting genocide. Despite how desperate Israel is for peace with
Islam -- i.e., to not itself get genocided. None of that matters.
Israel continuing existing entails such humiliation for Islamic
culture -- it means Israel must be the genocider rather than the
genocidee. Thus, when vilifying and demonizing Israel, Islamic
leadership isn't intending to lie. They are just expressing their
feelings of cultural humiliation -- and reminding us, once again, how
to really hate.

We can't always be forgiven for not knowing what we do. Sometimes we
know perfectly well -- but our hatred surpasses all ignorance or
understanding. Times like that, it doesn't matter whether we boycott
the Olympic Games. Since, whether we boycott them or not, these games
will likely come to be known as the Cultural Genocide Olympics. Nor
does it much matter what road-maps we draw to Middle-East peace.
There's no place for Israel on Islamic maps. Ultimately, the power of
hatred to clash human cultures suggests Armageddon will long precede
our climate-change hell. And, if only so, the world might become a far
better, more natural place.