Your blog post on the Denmark Cartoon Incident piqued my interest as I live in Denmark (the place in Western Australia, LOL!). Well, the whole thing with the religious aspects of the matter and the controversy between Islam and Christianity/Judaism is intriguing. And I’m very interested in what you as an expert in human psychology, coping, learning and development strategies has to say about this.

There are a few things that concern me about the whole issue. First is seems just too easy to feel superior to “Muslims ‘ by qualifying their response as an “overreaction” to what they apparently perceive as threat to their identity as a group (bit of a mob-factor in there too no doubt). It’s not like Christian people are all that understanding of other peoples’ response to our beliefs and habits. Some Christian leaders are happy to declare war on anything that moves and commit huge resources to that.

The French president Jaques Chirac made an interesting observation on the subject some time ago. Something like “Muslims are in search of their identity and thus may be overly sensitive regarding anything to do with their religion.” I reckon he has a point, but misses the point at the same time. According to some historical information—as far as I’m aware of anyway—points clearly in the direction of Christian Europe as the culprit of the identity crisis the Muslim world finds itself in. Starting in Medieval times Christian leaders thought it would be a good idea to steal as much as possible from the Turks, Jews and other peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean area. Islam had just emerged and had built a sophisticated civilisation, unifying diverse cultures under Islam with wisdom, respect and olerance. Greed got the better of our European secular and religious leaders and **they** declared war on anything that moved…. Especially the Turkish empire struck back, and caused major upheaval in particular in the Balkan countries—dividing people on the basis of religion. Issues still remain.

Then early in the 20th century when the Turks were moving towards a more secular society figured they had found a shining example in the Europeans—with the French revolution, the establishment of the US federation and other movements of social reform. Then suddenly they found themselves embroiled in the First World War—a traumatic experience we still seem to be unable to move beyond. Of course, they were extremely disappointed by the attitude of superiority from the world “super powers”—US, UK, France and Russia—carving up the world into spheres of influence and neo-colonialism. It really is no wonder the Islam world feels disenfranchised: they were, and still are.

This seems to go just a little beyond not offending people, wouldn’t you agree, Dudley? Not a criticism—just an observation!

Another thing that worries me is the “mob effect—responses that go well beyond the normal behaviour of individual people. Some time ago New Scientist had a feature article on “fundamentalism” and how fundamentalist people differ from “normal” people…. The conclusion seemed to be that there is very little difference indeed. However, “fundamentalists” seem to have a lower threshold for mob-behaviour. A subtle spark can set of disproportional responses from the group. I wonder what role religion plays in this, and whether it matters what religion? My guess is that in particular people that have a mono-theistic belief system are more volatile then people with a poly-theistic belief system. Any views on that? Perhaps some practical application can be developed from such an insight. It may also form a basis for further research in explaining why in particular Christians, Jews and Muslims are such a trigger-happy lot.

We may find it is not just a matter of helping “THEM Move Past This” but helping “US (including our holy trinity: Jews, Christians, Muslims) Move Past This.”

To which, I reply:

Leo, you have a fascinating blender-bender of an I-Explorer mind, as we at Brain Technologies style minds that revel in mixing disciplines, metaphors, ideas and precedents in a highly energized, highly imaginative pastiche. I’ll stay with my point in the brief comments to which you are eluding [see posting for Feb. 2]: there is a stage in human biopsychosocial development where a perceived insult instantly circumvents the mind’s rational processes, nearly always producing an outsized and often dangerous emotional response. (In Western Australia, I’m pretty sure it’s common, self-preserving knowledge that you don’t go into a bar and ask a half-soused guy who’s just lost his girlfriend if it was because he couldn’t get it up.) I don’t see that it’s worth running the risk of offending hundreds of millions of Muslims by showing them cartoons that you know in advance are going to render many of them irrational and in some cases produce mob behavior.

A guard in California’s dismal San Quentin State Prison will soon be jamming meals through narrow slots in the inmates’ cell doors. And what’s his final preparatory action?

He takes a swig from a bottle of mouthwash.

Why?

He’s trying to do to anything he can to avoid offending his prisoners. They are volatile enough, he explains, without bad breath wafting through their cell opening.

That vignette flashed into my mind first thing as I begin to read about the uproar in the Muslim world over the printing, first by a Danish weekly newspaper and then other European journals, of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that Islamic people have found offensive.

As I’m sure it does for many others, the issue is one that for me touches off conflicting emotions and internal arguments. First trained as a journalist, I elevate the freedoms of expression—and particularly of the press—to near sacrosanct status. At the same time I’ve spent much of my career studying and developing my understanding of the psychological realities of being human. And this may be one of those times when, as the irresistible force meets the insatiable urge, the more noble one is going to have to give a little.

Like the savvy prison guard at San Quentin.

We’ve got millions upon millions of people on the earth who frankly cannot—simply cannot—help but go bananas when they view satirical depictions of their beloved prophet. So I think the intelligent thing to do is not put them in a position of having to view them. I wish it were otherwise. I hope the day will arrive when their limbic systems play less of a role in the processing of their religious sensibilities.

But for now, like it or not (and I don’t like it one bit), I think the media are going to have to use the San Quentin guard’s preventive psychology. And take a little mouthwash before they deliver the meal.

The tight focus with which the news media cover “life as it is lived” in the deserts of the Gulf region usually edits out much of the flavor of these societies as they reach for—if they are seriously reaching for—modernity. When you have some understanding of the side scenes and the sideshows, it’s easier to understand that even when modernity takes hold, living there never seems to be a picnic.

• The men wear long white robes (cool); the women wear long black robes and scarves (not cool). Also, the women have trouble with osteoporosis because they can’t get enough Vitamin D from the abundant sun here because they are so covered up.

• The women at work fight with the scarf. I wonder how much work efficiency is lost just with the time spent “fixing” the scarf?

• The jewelry is absolutely ostentatious. I swear I saw a woman wearing MILLIONS of diamonds the other day, eating at Chili’s in the mall. She had on one 30 carat (at least) ring and another band covered in diamonds. Then a wrist band covered in diamonds about 3 inches wide and then a whole arrangement that went down the sleeves of her black gown and over her front and back. Normally all the glitter on the gown is just crystal, but this was too glittery and ostentatious! All this just to go shopping?!

• Driving on the freeway through the desert is sometimes like driving in the prairies in the winter in a wind. Except, instead of snaking snow, it’s snaking red sand. You wash your car and then it’s dirty again the next day from the blowing sand. You definitely want a LIGHT colored car.

• I got an apartment! YEA!!! After looking at many, after getting lost trying to find them, I was getting discouraged. Some were decent sizes but were old and smelly. I kept debating about whether I would go out towards the newer parts of the city (but construction and traffic is crazy) or more in the older city center (but traffic is also crazy). I looked at lots of ones in the older part and some were decent and I got on their waiting lists, but when I walked back to the hotel through the prostitutes and dog messes and used condoms on the street, I decided I really didn’t want to be downtown anywhere.

• You pay all your rent up front at the beginning of your year long contract. Big hit at the beginning, but then you don’t have to worry about it in the monthly expenses. And talk about pre-sales – if you want to buy a one bedroom apartment, you have to buy now for ones that won’t be finished until mid-2008 AND they want 80% of the money by 15 months in advance and are surprised when you ask about mortgages.

• Did finally get to a Rotary meeting. There were more visiting Rotarians and guests than there were club members. Lots of folks from all over – a deputy governor from Tunisia, folks from several European countries, New Zealand, U.S. and myself. Most people are in construction but made a few contacts. Like everything here, the president, a Sheik, sits and the secretary (another Sheik but obviously lower level) runs the meeting. Much of the meeting was in French because of the Tunisian DG and the visiting opera stars from the Paris Opera.

• I waited for one and a half hours [at a government office] to get my certificate to take to the bank to APPLY for a bank account. Honestly, it was a real study in process engineering! People spent most of their time walking around with pieces of paper, getting several folks to sign for them. The certificate paper is kept by one woman and the customer service reps have to sign their life away to get one and then have to create the certificate in English and Arabic. My guess is that they don’t have it in a template as long as it took for someone to type the 3 paragraphs. Then, I had to sign my life away that I had received it. I headed straight to the bank to set up the account. I had to fill out about 6 pages of forms and then they will decide if they will accept me or not

Of course, you can have similar kinds of experiences in many cities and countries, modern or not, Western, Eastern or Middle Eastern. And much of what this person is reporting is culture shock, pure and simple. But I’ve received eight dispatches so far. And the assault of antiquated, inefficient ways of thinking on this person’s world-traveled sensibilities seems unrelentling.

One thought among many as I reflected on the above: if America’s top government officials thought they were going to wage a quick war and establish a viable new democratic government before the first major sandstorms in a region often struggling with near-medieval institutional rigidities, it was obviously because they’d never spent much time at all in these places. At least, much time outside their wide-bodied aircraft, limousines, plush hotel lobbies and pampered sleeping, meeting and banquet rooms.

Second thought among many: Those near-medieval institutional rigidities are eventually going to yield. Such is the nature of a nonzero-sum game, and, no matter how stuttering its pace seems to be at certain times and in certain places, this appears to be the game we are all involved in on this particular G star.

She’s currently teaching management and thinking skills in a university in a Middle Eastern country. In class the other day, she put four of her grad students—two men and two women—to work on a day-long online business simulation. The men insisted on working alone. When they came in 76th in the world in the online competition, they were thrilled with the outcome.

Not good enough, said their professor. They had to learn to work on these kinds of “team” problems with women, too, she told them.

“They spent several hours arguing and discussing and going through several scenarios and mental models,” my friend notes. To her surprise, they ended up going with one of the women’s recommendations.

The result: the mixed-gender team’s results ranked No. 3 in the world!

It’s only one miniscule step in this highly traditional Islamic country’s march to modernity, but my colleague says the look on her students’ faces testified to the moment’s importance in their personal experience.

“The men looked shell-shocked,” she says.

And the women?

“They were beaming.”