Could You Imagine...

Waking up and reading about this happening at an American university? (other than after a football game, of course)...

Report: Clashes in Lebanon kill at least four
Dozens injured as government and opposition supporters battle in Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Government and opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus Thursday, battering each other with sticks, stones and even pieces of furniture in new violence spilling over from Lebanon’s political crisis. Four people were killed, an opposition-run television station reported.

I just watched video of STUDENTS throwing rocks at point blank range with intent to seriously injure each other... at a Beirut university. This is the kind of thing we see all the time in the middle east. Differences being solved violently! Everyone likes to say that it isn't endemic to middle eastern cultures, but I continue to look at the acceptance, acquiescence and tacit support given by the societies at large. They may not be throwing the rocks (or beheading the journalists), but they do little to stop it.

Almost every "political" group in the middle east is formed around... a militia. As Americans, we can understand that. The birth of our country is owed to a militia lead by George Washington. When George Washington was offered "unlimited power" to prosecute the war, his response was "Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear in mind tht as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established."

Put simply, at some point... the fight has got to stop for stability and civil society to flourish.

I have always understood middle eastern anger at our country. They feel controlled by our exploitation of the oil resource beneath their land, enraged by our support of their sworn enemy and in societies ruled by militias... impotent in the face of our military might. If I were a young man in any of those countries, I would be lead to feel the same way. The story takes a sad turn when the violence becomes sunni on shite... sunni on sunni... shite on shite... and palestinian on palestinian. Middle eastern societies never seem to advance to that point so eloquently realized by George Washington. The sword is never laid down If there isn't an oppressor to throw off... "solving" differences with violence is simply turned inward.

The kharmic justice of societies that see only violence of submission destroying themselves is sad and pathetic. All that makes it dangerous for the rest of us are the radical islamists who wish to export this "problem solving" method around the globe. Their goal has nothing to do with conversion of infidels to islam and more to do with having nothing better to do... no better cause for one's existence... than to fight. The tendancy that radical islamists (and I will always maintain that it is with at least the acquiescence and/or tacit support of majorities in the societies that spawn them) is like that age old game of "turf" wars played by small groups of American youths in neighborhoods all over this country.

The difference is that these are youthful, marginalized groups that usually outgrow the absurdity of ONLY "solving" problems with violence. Most grow up and realize that it is silly to fight over a neighborhood and start to see the commonalities they share with their former "enemies". Only the most socially retarded and immature members will carry this behavior into adulthood. As a society we reject this behavior, and at a certain point treat its continuance as criminal behavior.

Far from getting to that point, the most serious and powerful adults in middle eastern societies act no wiser than the most immature children and youths in America and never develop or evolve beyond having a reason for living other than hating those with whom they have differences and the biggest point I have been trying to make for a long time... is that it is with the passive, tacit or active support of the vast majority of ALL the citizens of the societies that spawn them. Stability and civil society are not a priority in middle eastern culture. I think part it's roots can simply be traced to the "bazaar" mentality where the haggling can go on interminably and that there is always a "winner" and a "loser".

I just wish the whole middle east could grow up. Their whole governments act the same as the most marginalized and unhealthy individual members of civil western societies. We regard as criminal or at least emotionally retarded or insane (engaging in the same action ~ violence... and expecting different results) the rationals by which whole societies are governed in the middle east. Ultimately, what little legitimacy there is for their violence against us should be overruled by the insanity of their inability to find any other solution for themselves.