The Castle

It occurs to me, as I again think about the wars in the middle east, that we (the US) are fighting a mediaeval enemy.

I know this is an arrogant conceited superior attitude and I beg forgiveness for it. But listen.

What if perhaps, the path to enlightenment, cultural and social enlightenment, follows certain steps. In that vein I propose this.

We (the west in different time and differing permutations) went through our mediaeval period. We had warlords. They had castles. Castles for safety. Castles for keeping with your own kind.

We came out of the castles eventually. To trade. The great bazaars of Europe lead us out of our castles. What we had was abundance. Extra stuff to sell. And a need for learning. A curiosity about others.

In Baghdad now we Americans are living in a castle, protected by a wall, keeping like minded people safe and together.

Iraqis. The ones who are left. Lock themselves behind their walls at night.

I know I've oversimplified it, but we and they must come out from our and their castles.

[I encourage everyone to read PJ O'Rourke's "Eat The Rich". Read the section on Albania! Really. Go to the library, find it, read that chapter. Albanian society disintegrated into anarchy after their pyramid schemes failed. People holed up together, in hotels, which machine guns out front!]

I wonder sometimes if the middle east isn't in a castle period. Is Israel a castle?

The Arabs had the leading, most advanced culture in the world for centuries. One time they built a great astronomical research center, but a religious leader made them take it down. "... observatory was razed to the ground by the religious extremists. " http://www.spacetoday.org/DeepSpace/Telescopes/Observatories/Afghanistan/AfghanAstronomerPrince.html

This leader was afraid man would learn too much. The west, with its insatiable appetites, and after its own religious inhibition of learning, explored. And went past them.

Now they have oil to sell.

Maybe they'll come out of their castles. Maybe they had to go through the castle time.

As we judge how their beliefs get in their way ... we should ask the same question of ourselves. Consider the American gated communities. Consider America isolated against the world. Consider our religious extremists. Our politicians. Are we headed back into a castle? Are our beliefs putting us there?