2005-06-11
Tribal Mentality
My last post has garnered a lot of publicity. There's a lot I want to say in response to the responses, but first of all I want to make the most of this opportunity. There is a message I want to get out. I want to get this message out to the US government and US military, but I don't know how to do it, but some of the responses I have received have been from people in the US military, and I want to capitalize on this. If you are an American and you have any way of passing this on to your government or military, please do so. Don't assume someone else will. Here is my message:
Via the Iraqi blogs, I have been analyzing the Iraqi people to try to understand why some were happy to be freed and some weren't. I needed an environment of freedom to be able to do this. I also needed those pullbacks in Fallujah and Najaf so that I could see what these nutcases were up to. Here are my findings. The trouble is that large numbers of people in the Middle East have a tribal mentality. This is an alien concept in the West. That is because in the West we consider ourselves to be in the tribe of humans. "no tribe" actually means "tribe of humans". We are actually in a tribe!
The Iraqis on the other hand have been taught that they're in the tribe of Arabs, Muslims, Sunnis, Iraqis. They thus don't see that they have anything in common with white Christian Americans. They think that "we" don't accept them as equals, because they assume that we have the same tribal mentality that they have. The solution to this problem is to tell every Iraqi that they are in the tribe of humans, and we accept them as equals. And we ALSO need to tell them that we are in the tribe of ANTI-SUBJUGATORS, and as such we are currently in a war against subjugators. The enemy are Sunnis who wish to reassert Sunni subjugation. They are scared that they are going to be subjugated by the Shiites. We need to tell them that we are ALSO against the Shiites subjugating the Sunni (e.g. imposing Shia as the state religion).
The Sunni do not realise that they can be on our side of this war, simply by a change in behaviour. I believe people on both sides are dying because of this misunderstanding. If you're interested in saving American lives, contact your government! As a good scientist, I need to test this theory. I want to test it on insurgents, the Iraqi National Guard, and the general populace, and get some feedback. I don't have access to any of these groups. Basically I want to sit down with these people and explain to them what subjugation is. It is similar to slavery. It is forcing others to submit to your rule. Controlling others. Arabic may not have the word "subjugate", but it does have the word "submit" - ISLAM means "submission". After explaining subjugation, you then need to ask them if they want to join your tribe, ie the tribe of anti-subjugators. It is the tribe of anti-subjugators that binds Australia and USA together. In fact, this tribe cuts across national boundaries, and we have allies all over the world, including in Iraq (hence the pro-US Iraqi bloggers). Freedom means "not subjugated". Many Iraqis confused freedom with anarchy.
If the concept wasn't so difficult to get across, then this one sentence should do the trick:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species, do you?
This sentence is designed to appeal to man's primal instincts. The "fight" introduces an element of danger. You need to understand the reason for the fight so that you know which side you are on so that you can hopefully be on the victorious side. "pledge allegiance" means you're looking for allies in this fight. "do you?" means that you're putting them on the spot - friend or foe? Now, you can see that we're going to be fighting subjugation - ie subjugators vs anti-subjugators. Which side has the best weaponry? Which side gives the most benefits? Which side requires the most effort? And it is subjugation of "my species" - ie all humans. This signifies that you are concerned for your entire species, not just "Americans" etc. In other words - you accept him as an equal. And the last part is "use my brain". This lowers the threshold of what he needs to do in order to be an ally. All he has to do is think about freedom, vote for a government that supports freedom - that sort of thing.
This is my theory. I've also tried to encapsulate these things into a religion - Mu'tazilah. Both this theory and my religion are "works in progress". I need help fleshing them out. I've already tried contacting the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places. Perhaps there's something wrong with my theory. Or perhaps the concept is too difficult to get across. Or perhaps no-one cares about saving Iraqi and American lives, as it isn't their job to care. I don't know. All I know is that I have spent countless hours thinking and thinking, trying to crack Iraqi and anti-war mentality. I hope my theory is correct and a percentage of Sunni insurgents will stand down simply by broadcasting this message on Al Hurra and Al Iraqiya. If my theory is wrong, then it's just business as usual, ie follow the normal science of warfare, and eventually the problem will be solved through brute force.
UPDATE: "fight subjugation" in Arabic is "harib al ist3bad".
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Via the Iraqi blogs, I have been analyzing the Iraqi people to try to understand why some were happy to be freed and some weren't. I needed an environment of freedom to be able to do this. I also needed those pullbacks in Fallujah and Najaf so that I could see what these nutcases were up to. Here are my findings. The trouble is that large numbers of people in the Middle East have a tribal mentality. This is an alien concept in the West. That is because in the West we consider ourselves to be in the tribe of humans. "no tribe" actually means "tribe of humans". We are actually in a tribe!
The Iraqis on the other hand have been taught that they're in the tribe of Arabs, Muslims, Sunnis, Iraqis. They thus don't see that they have anything in common with white Christian Americans. They think that "we" don't accept them as equals, because they assume that we have the same tribal mentality that they have. The solution to this problem is to tell every Iraqi that they are in the tribe of humans, and we accept them as equals. And we ALSO need to tell them that we are in the tribe of ANTI-SUBJUGATORS, and as such we are currently in a war against subjugators. The enemy are Sunnis who wish to reassert Sunni subjugation. They are scared that they are going to be subjugated by the Shiites. We need to tell them that we are ALSO against the Shiites subjugating the Sunni (e.g. imposing Shia as the state religion).
The Sunni do not realise that they can be on our side of this war, simply by a change in behaviour. I believe people on both sides are dying because of this misunderstanding. If you're interested in saving American lives, contact your government! As a good scientist, I need to test this theory. I want to test it on insurgents, the Iraqi National Guard, and the general populace, and get some feedback. I don't have access to any of these groups. Basically I want to sit down with these people and explain to them what subjugation is. It is similar to slavery. It is forcing others to submit to your rule. Controlling others. Arabic may not have the word "subjugate", but it does have the word "submit" - ISLAM means "submission". After explaining subjugation, you then need to ask them if they want to join your tribe, ie the tribe of anti-subjugators. It is the tribe of anti-subjugators that binds Australia and USA together. In fact, this tribe cuts across national boundaries, and we have allies all over the world, including in Iraq (hence the pro-US Iraqi bloggers). Freedom means "not subjugated". Many Iraqis confused freedom with anarchy.
If the concept wasn't so difficult to get across, then this one sentence should do the trick:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species, do you?
This sentence is designed to appeal to man's primal instincts. The "fight" introduces an element of danger. You need to understand the reason for the fight so that you know which side you are on so that you can hopefully be on the victorious side. "pledge allegiance" means you're looking for allies in this fight. "do you?" means that you're putting them on the spot - friend or foe? Now, you can see that we're going to be fighting subjugation - ie subjugators vs anti-subjugators. Which side has the best weaponry? Which side gives the most benefits? Which side requires the most effort? And it is subjugation of "my species" - ie all humans. This signifies that you are concerned for your entire species, not just "Americans" etc. In other words - you accept him as an equal. And the last part is "use my brain". This lowers the threshold of what he needs to do in order to be an ally. All he has to do is think about freedom, vote for a government that supports freedom - that sort of thing.
This is my theory. I've also tried to encapsulate these things into a religion - Mu'tazilah. Both this theory and my religion are "works in progress". I need help fleshing them out. I've already tried contacting the Australian government, the US government, Al Hurra, Al Jazeera and various other places. Perhaps there's something wrong with my theory. Or perhaps the concept is too difficult to get across. Or perhaps no-one cares about saving Iraqi and American lives, as it isn't their job to care. I don't know. All I know is that I have spent countless hours thinking and thinking, trying to crack Iraqi and anti-war mentality. I hope my theory is correct and a percentage of Sunni insurgents will stand down simply by broadcasting this message on Al Hurra and Al Iraqiya. If my theory is wrong, then it's just business as usual, ie follow the normal science of warfare, and eventually the problem will be solved through brute force.
UPDATE: "fight subjugation" in Arabic is "harib al ist3bad".
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 04:05 
