Lucky Update 13

Chapeau' means 'hat.' 'Oeuf' means 'egg.' It's like those French have
a different word for everything!" -- Steve Martin (1978)

Obviously I am not breaking ground when I tell you that different
cultures have different ways. I mean, what flies in New York isn't the
same as what flies in outer, peasant Afghanistan. That's not news to
anyone. (I hope it isn't. If I am blowing your mind right now, you're
likely to not make it through the rest of this Update.) So in the
light of the previous, less than revelatory statement, I have been
thinking about patriotism.

I have been thinking that a country's embrace of freedom has a lot to
do with a basic love of place. I mean that freedom is a part of a
national identity. I don't know if I am trying to say that I think
that freedom is part of a country's self-esteem, but I think that
there is something about the who of a place. (I am not sure this is
even something the English language can express, so if this is
muddled, bear with me.)

This is where I am coming from: We had a patient this week, a young,
local national girl. She had been assaulted, physically and sexually,
by her brother. Now, I am not super conservative, I believe in
generally living and letting live. I like my characters flawed. Show
me an hour long drama on television with a lead character that you're
not sure if you're totally on his side, whose charisma outshines your
basic human ability to judge his actions, and I am enthralled. I like
my shading gray. But I have to say, you attempt to beat up and rape
your sister and you're going to have to really bring it, on the
personality side, to still be considered merely flawed and not evil.
That's a bad guy move, 100%.

This girl came in and had to be guarded, had to be protected. She was
in more danger after the assault than before it. She was now eligible
for a death warrant, now she was considered damaged goods. And
contrary to all available evidence in their product-line economy, the
Afghan people do not allow damaged goods to live.

I think, though her final situation was not expressed to the
population at large, that she made it out of the local area and is
living a life that is as regular and safe as she can now. And that is
to the good. But it makes me wonder, how do you love a country where
this is the norm? And if you can't love your country, how can you
embrace its freedom? How can you pursue it whole-heartedly? Maybe you
can. I guess it isn't impossible. But I am not sure I could do it.

Now, I know that the US is not a bastion of righteousness all the way
to its center. I know that we have some dinge against our lily-white
character. George Washington held back from freeing the slaves due to
pragmatism. Our attitude towards the American Indian/Native American
population had some pretty dire consequences for their gene-pool.
We're not blameless in these areas. Paul Johnson, my favorite
historian, (How cool is it to have a favorite historian? Is it cool or
hopelessly lame? I am never sure.) wrote a whole book around the
question of whether America's virtues outweigh its sins. I think that
there is probably no way to judge it clearly, Justice is both blind
and pretty silent on most subjects, but I think that we are at least
trying.

For instance, when we as a nation find out that a fellow has assaulted
his sister, we generally don't take the fellow's side. We're usually
on the side of the victim rather than the victimizer. It's not a hard
and fast rule. We fail sometimes, but we strive. The Afghan people,
under their variation of Sharia Law, strive in another direction.

I have friends in the military who call the Afghans 'creatures.' They
do not consider them people. I think that might be a bridge too far.
But there are all of these things, all of these strikes against this
nation: This girl, the baby who drinks diesel fuel, the very strange
and very ingrained sexual practices of the men. All of these things
add up to an image of a place, a national character if you will. And
they make me wonder, how can you be patriotic about your country if
your national character makes Don Draper look like Galahad the Pure?

I know that when the US started, our freedoms were specific to white
men. And I know that that was wrong. I know that the situation in
Afghanistan is complicated. I know that the Soviet occupation was
terrible and that the excesses of an invading force led directly to
the excesses of Sharia Law as it is practiced today. (Incidentally,
how many death can we lay at the feet of the Soviet machine? There is
a very real way in which the Russian revolution led to the rise of
Nazi Germany, then there are the Gulags, then there is China and Cuba
and… eventually Afghanistan and the extreme justification of this view
of Islam. It makes me wonder what Karl Marx would think of it all. His
basic ideas went a long way in a direction I can't imagine he'd have
appreciated. It reminds me of Ricky Gervais bit about Hitler and
Neitzsche.) I am sympathetic to the idea that a host of evil led to
this world that the people of Afghanistan now inhabit. I appreciate
that there are complicated and long-term problems and that an economic
system of reforms could change a lot of the things that are accepted.
I am reluctant to view all of this as a spiritual problem, though that
is what my upbringing leads me to. But at some point I have to wonder,
how can we really free a people that live under this kind of bondage
to an ancient code? Even if we can give them the freedom to trade and
the infrastructure to build and the resources to exploit their natural
wealth, can we save the women, children and… the spirits, I suppose?
Is there hope?

I am not in the most beautiful part of Afghanistan. But I've seen
pictures and videos of areas that are gorgeous. Even the area where I
am has vistas. The sky here lacks the impressive, oppressiveness of
Montana's Big Sky Country, but there is no denying that the horizon
goes all the way to the ground. There are purple mountains majesty if
I look to the North. I can see loving things about this country, and
everyone loves the place they were born, to some degree. And again,
freedom and patriotism aren't a national self-esteem and I am not a
defeatist. I believe that this country should be free and that liberty
is an absolute good. I believe in the Rights of Man and in Natural
Law. But I think that Hobbes, not the tiger, is right when he says
that there will rise up brutal men who will control the weak-willed,
general populace.

I guess that I think that Afghanistan needs a few more Washingtons, a
few more men of will with the desire to do good, or at least to strive
for good. (And I think that I mean men. I am not trying to be sexist
here, but I think that the country is.) And I worry that without those
men this country will be cursed to fall back into the ways of the
past. But I have hope for their future. The US started out with some
pretty significant moral flaws and has striven through the years to
overcome them. I think that Afghanistan can do the same.