[lit-ideas] Re: 21. century European anti-Semitism
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 01:04:55 EDT
In a message dated 4/18/2004 9:36:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mccreery@xxxxxxx writes:
While a contrast between self and other is a necessary
condition for violent enmity to occur, it is not at all a sufficient
one.
Group Self and group Other, not self and other. I was speculating on a
relationship between cultural COHESION and intercultural CONFLICT in groups
that are
forced to confront each other regularly. Perhaps the dynamics that bind
people to a particular culture are also responsible for attacks against those
not
of the same culture--whether the Other is next door or on the other side of the
planet?
The stronger the tie that binds, the more violent the defense of that tie?
To take John's example of US-Japan, in 1943, the US was a strongly cohesive
group combating a demonized Other, hence detention camps at home and (after the
Bataan Death March) the A-bomb abroad.
More recently, the US is a much less cohesive group, united only by economic
necessity and TV perhaps, and is cooperating with a friendly Other. Hence the
difference in representation of the Other.
(Possibly if the US were as strongly cohesive today as it was in 1943, one
might expect a much more violent and intolerant treatment of the Other, not
only
in the domestic but in the international area.)
As another example, when the Saudis arrest Filipino workers for having a
Christian home study group--it's because their law reflects a high degree of
identification with Muslim-only culture.
As yet another example, consider the case of Russian Germans after the
outbreak of WW2. Soviets regarded all nationals of German origin as potential
saboteurs. They were tagged, their possessions confiscated, and they were
transported en masse to settlements in the Russian Far East--many died on the
relocation
and after arrival they were forbidden to speak German and could be punished
for any display of their German heritage. Thirty years after the end of WW2,
these German Soviets were still forbidden to speak German. A familiar story.
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