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The West's leading scholar of the Middle East, Bernard Lewis, sees cause for optimism in the limited-government traditions of Arab and Muslim culture. But he says the U.S. should not push for quick, Western-style elections..
The Weekend Interview With Bernard Lewis: 'The Tyrannies Are Doomed'
Seeded on Sat Apr 9, 2011 5:27 AM EDT
Article Source: Wall Street Journal- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (7)
What struck me was Professor Lewis' insightful viewpoint:
He makes the powerful point that repressive homes pave the way for repressive governments. "Think of a child that grows up in a Muslim household where the mother has no rights, where she is downtrodden and subservient. That's preparation for a life of despotism and subservience. It prepares the way for an authoritarian society,"
#1 - Sat Apr 9, 2011 5:33 AM EDTI think the reason that the Muslim world was so slow to liberalize is the strength and homogeneity of its society.
For 1400 years it has been controlled by powerful caliphates that protected the orthodoxy of sects in power. There were never little enclaves like the Italian states, Low Countries or German states where new ideas could take hold.
The Renaissance took ideas recovered from the East and developed them.
With the weakening of the Church during the Protestant Reformation ideas of the Enlightenment could take hold.
Thus the fractured nature of Europe allowed it to liberalize more quickly. It was like thousands of petri dishes allowing new strains of ideas to evolve.
The opening up of the Muslim world through outside migration and return, and the info revolution has accelerated its liberalization.
Muslims are regularly moving to the West and back, bringing new ideas of government, culture, business.
Mass entertainment, satellite news, the internet has also broadened their horizons.
It's true there won't be Western style democracies, but there is no turning back to totalitarianism.
- 3 votes
This is an interesting and thoughtful article. Thanks for seeding it.
"We have a much better chance of establishing—I hesitate to use the word democracy—but some sort of open, tolerant society, if it's done within their systems, according to their traditions. Why should we expect them to adopt a Western system? And why should we expect it to work?" he asks.
Indeed. If we can learn how to support people in other parts of the world without trying to impose our way of life and our belief system on them, we will not only be a much better global partner but I think we will acquire lasting allies.
- 1 vote
#2 - Sat Apr 9, 2011 6:25 AM EDTIf we can learn how to support people in other parts of the world without trying to impose our way of life and our belief system on them, we will not only be a much better global partner but I think we will acquire lasting allies.
It would be wonderful if the tighty righties in America would support people in this country without trying to impose their way of life and belief systems on them. Alas! But I digress...
- 2 votes
This is precisely the point I've been trying to articulate, alas, with far less aplomb than Dr. Lewis, about how we, here in America, have moved so far to the right and become so repressive in recent decades.
America is no longer the bright beacon of freedom and democracy that I regarded as a template growing up in in the 40's and 50's.
The American right is every bit as repressive as any Middle Estern Potentate or Eastern European Czar, sans real death camps
- 2 votes
#3 - Sat Apr 9, 2011 7:13 AM EDTHollyKl 2,
Thank you kindly.
Lewis at 95 years old is wise and extremely knowledgeable. His explanaiton on "freedom" and how that idea is different in the ME (middle east) translated closer to "justice" is spot on.
- 3 votes
#4 - Sat Apr 9, 2011 7:27 AM EDTYou are more than welcome. It is refreshing to see a political seed that actually requires thinking about instead of a two paragraph rant from a blog somewhere.
- 1 vote
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