David Pryce-Jones' book "The Closed Circle" is an enlightening study of the social and psychological attitudes of the Arab world, and in part an attempt to understand why the Arab nations are so dismal at dealing with modernity and ruling themselves. They have not been able to develop the institutions of civil society to create a normal modern country that is vibrant, prosperous and no threat to its neighbors. Pryce-Jones, who clearly admires the Arabs, says that the biggest problem they face is that they are all captive to a shame-honor culture, one that hamstrings any attempt to build a participatory democracy with modern institutions, or even establish the rule of law. Excerpt:
A handful of absolute despots oppress and attack with every avaliable strategem all those within reach. The rich and strong mercilessly bully and exploit their inferiors. Fathers subjugate wives and children. From the proudest power holder down to the humblest family, all are engaged in pillaging whatever they can for themselves, or at best for their tribe and religion, rather than considering the public interest and constructing the commonwealth. Politics in practice is reduced to the black arts of applied force, and in any emergency, or terror. In all relationships, domestic, private and public, internal and external, violence is therefore not only customary but also systematic and utterly impervious to piecemeal reform or amelioration....Concession of rights to one another, or to members of other tribes and religions, entails loss of supermacy. Anyone who garnted equal rights to outsiders and strangers, or who managed to construct participatory institutions to that end, would be considered to have harmed and diminished himself and his own kind quite pointlessly and heedlessly, and he could not survive what would be perceived as humiliation. Promoted and justified by the quest for honor, careerist crime thrives as a routine at all social and political levels, adn simple tolerance remains self-defeating, therefore excluded. Lying and corruption become necessary strategies for survival.
The shame-honor mindsetone is succinctly explained in this Small Wars Journal essay (PDF) by an Israeli officer who observed Israeli Arab commanders lying to two consultants about how well their units' training was going. The Jewish officer knew that things weren't going well at all -- he told the consultants about his own failures -- and he knew that his Arab colleagues were trying to save face.
What had the consultants failed to comprehend? Nothing less than the dominant feature of Arab society and politics- the honor/shame culture. It is not an issue that the consultants were willing to explore and unlikely they even considered, but dealing with it honestly provides a clear and tangible case study for the larger cultural context that is responsible for the state of the Middle East today.In this culture, at its most basic, a man must strive to maintain his honor at all costs. He must fight, even lie or kill, to protect his honor and that of his family. Conversely, when a man fails to protect his honor, he is shamed. He may regain his honor by vengeance against those who shamed him, often through bloodshed.
More:
My experience at the workshop was a result of the misunderstanding of societal differences between the West and the Arab world, and as such it serves as a poignant paradigm of the dysfunctional intersection of these two value systems in today's world. I, as a product of Western education, was willing- no, eager- to air my shortcomings with the faith that in dealing with them in an open setting I would emerge a better officer. The more open I was, the more willing to confront and blame myself, the more effective the workshop would be. The ultimate virtue was self-criticism- the rawer, the better.The same value system holds for the West. One who criticizes oneself, or better yet, his country, is beyond moral reproach. Israelis, especially through their media, are consummate self-criticizers. Israel's ability to look herself in the eye unflinchingly and point to her own weaknesses is certainly one of her great strengths. The turnaround in the military leadership after the Second Lebanon War, from Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to Division Commanders such as Brigadier-General Gal Hirsch, was stunningly quick and comprehensive. Israelis sometimes take their self-criticisms to extremes, willing to risk damaging morale in the time of war in the belief that this is ultimate form of patriotism. Groups like B'tselem and Machsom Watch provide endless ammunition to anti-Zionists with their need to uncover moral failings in the troops watching over them. These negative results are trumped by the feeling of moral elevation their self-criticism provides.
The Bedouin commanders operated under an entirely different set of values. To openly admit shortcomings in front of two strangers- two women!- was unthinkable. It did not matter that by refusing to deal with serious issues in the company they were failing as commanders. The potential benefit that their soldiers would reap from an honest discussion was never a factor. Their overriding concern was the defense of their honor. The only problems they were willing to point out were ones in my platoon, issues I had previously voiced.
So it is in the Arab world. Arab society, as expressed through media, authors, and government, is largely unwilling to engage in introspective criticism. Even Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged this reality. In his praise for Israel's Winograd Commission Interim report in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah stated that, "I find it hard to believe that such a committee would be established in any Arab country."1 Rather than deal with growing fanaticism or appalling literacy rates, Arab voices blame the West, specifically America and Israel. Better to leave Palestinians in wretched camps for sixty years, reason Arab leaders, than to be shamed into accepting the existence of a Jewish state by absorbing them into Arab countries. With the Bedouin commanders as with the Arab world, the defense of one's honor is vastly more important than honesty or self-improvement. Francois de la Rouchefoucauld's maxim, "Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods made use of in obtaining it", applies only to Western society. If, in the Arab world, sooner the honor of the elite than the dignity of the people, then, in my company, sooner the honor of the commanders than the quality of the soldiers.
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The Japan analogy isn't all that great here but makes for an interesting comparison. Japan is indeed an "honor-shame" culture but also one that can, and has, gone through great periods of borrowing, both technologically and culturally, from others: during the Nara period (from Tang China), or the Meiji restoration (after the forced opening of Japan by the US going from shoguns and samurai to a modern, industrial power in a few decades) and again after WWII, for a few examples.
Japan has shown a willingness to learn from outside groups and adapt to the world at large, something that I believe is lacking in Arab culture as a whole.
Dubai anyone? I think the bigger issue is the involvement of religion with state function. Corruption is a bigger issue. Constant war is another.
Steve
Re Japan's culture of honor-shame:
In Japan, part of this culture is taking responsability for failures and/or screw-ups. That is why company directors and government officials metaphorically (occasionally literally) "fall on their swords," when overtaken by scandal or failure.
While not advocating the more extreme aspects of this culture (see hara-kiri), the idea of government and/or corporate officials actually taking responsability for their actions or omissions by resigning is one that seems increasingly rare in US society, and perhaps should be encouraged.
Good morning, Rod, and welcome to the patriarchy!
sooner the honor of the elite than the dignity of the people Yes . . . hello, RC Church! Better that your children should continue to be raped than that "scandal" should ensue by exposing the villainy of priests and bishops. Hello to all those who felt it was morally wrong to expose, say, the marital failings of John McCain--because he was a war hero! His honor must be preserved. Hello to those who were indignant that a son, say Frank Schaeffer, should openly discuss the failings of his parents, leaders in the right-wing Christian community. Or a daughter, say Honor Moore, should discuss the actions of her father, a bishop. Religious leaders and parents should never be criticized--their honor must be preserved at all costs.
I disagree with Your Name at 9:20, only because I think he/she has confused "taking responsibility" with "assigning blame." The point of determining responsibility is to determine where and how things went wrong, so they can be fixed. In a shame culture (like our own) this is transformed to a process of assigning blame to a scapegoat, so that individual can be shamed and punished on behalf of the system, which then continues unchanged. Because most failures are system failures on some level and cannot be assigned to one individual. Read about quality management.
Yes, our culture is certainly less shame/honor based than many other cultures in the world. But the changes that have enabled us to move away from that base are the very changes decried by conservatives. Puzzling! And this method of blaming all problems on some other BAD culture--say, the Palestinians--and urging that they be punished, thus avoiding all consideration of our own part in the problem, is just another iteration of the shame/honor cycle.
Not sure the anthropologists have it right. I think "shame" is a result of what happens to a person, rather than what that person does. Which is why rape is such a devastating experience, while adultery and fornication are just fun and games, even in cultures that frown on them. Shame is what happens when people lose their sense of agency.
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