Your humble author has been accused of 'projection' in his seeing narcissism in Muslim actions. People play a reciprocal neuronal process in assessing an encounter with others. If that reciprocal process tells them that the other is enraged and threatening then they engage in flight or flight from the other. That a 'fight or flight' reaction is appropriate to engaging the Muslim other is demonstrated in spades by the public and political reaction to Muslims owning a port process here. One can charcterize the Muslim behavior as narcissistic as I have or tyrannical as instapundit does etc.
In the case of the port business, Muslims approach us with an apparent commercial desire. Contrary to the construction in the The Death of A Saleman, for a person, including the Muslim to engage in commerce, is for him/her to recognize others and find value in this, himself, his sevice and his acceptance. It is in the context of such a Muslim approach that Jesus' "Turn the other cheek" is appropriate. We do not violate natural law, as St. Thomas Aquinas would not have us do, by submitting in attack but rather we allow some individuals with characteristics of the other to establish a different relationsip with us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Mike,
are you saying that if we allow the UAE company to run the ports that it will go a long way toward having Arab-Americans feel acceptance in our society? I'm curious.
I think it would help but my interest was in the Arabs in Dubai as well as those here who might be inclined to do things for us for money. I think doing business with others tends to be devlopmental in reducing pathological narcissism.
That is a cool idea. Is it b/c doing business with the representatives of another culture offers experiences and ideas that may never be achieved in another way? I could see that. Possibilities
Post a Comment