National Brotherhood Week
I somehow feel that there is not enough hatred in the world, and it scares me a little bit. In Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov’s autobiography, my literary hero describes an incident where his father stormed out of a restaurant somewhere in Europe upon spying several Japanese nationals dining there. The year was 1905, and the Russo-Japanese war (where the Russians where trounced, by the way) was in full swing. In the Japanese war museum one can see a curious photograph. I am not sure whether it is from WWI or from some other war in the late 90’s of the 19th century, but I am quite certain that it was within a decade of the 1905 war. In the picture, one can see about five soldiers – all of them of allied countries. There is an American, a Brit, a Russian, a Japanese and a Frenchman. So, when the war was raging against his country, a highly cultivated and worldly person as Vladimir Dmitrivich Nabokov (i.e., Abu-Vladimir) felt he could not share the same restaurant with the citizens of a country that was fighting his. I bet that if he were to encounter the same Japanese gentlemen around the time where the aforementioned photograph was taken, he would have joined them in a Samurai drinking game.
The scenario I am about to describe probably cannot happen with Iraq. But let’s say we end up going to war against Germany (diplomatically speaking, our relationship is in the doldrums). Even better, let’s say Germany goes to war against France, or Spain against Italy. If members of the opposing countries were to run into each other in some neutral territory, I doubt that the one to come in last would storm out in indignation. More probably, they would have a drink for the war’s quick ending. I could be wrong, but somehow, I can’t, in my mind’s eye, vilify another human being – a specific individual – to the degree that I would hate him (her) just because they belong to a country with which my government happens to be in dire disagreement.
Having been in this situation (the warring, not drinking), I do, to a degree, speak from experience. Early in ’91 I was one of many US Marines, stationed somewhere between Daharan and Baharain, in an erstwhile oil refinery camp turned Marine Corps base, named Camp 5 (later Christened “Camp Grey” after the then current commandant of the Marine Corps). Stories about the supposedly violent and fanatical Iraqi Republican Guards abounded. People were talking rather seriously about how one of them could (not would, mind you, could) single handedly take on a Marine Platoon (granted, we were reservists, a.k.a “Weekend Warriors,” and we changed the usual Marine Corps self description of “Swift, Silent, Deadly” into “Slow, Loud and Harmless, but nevertheless…). The really amusing part is that once I blinked and the war was over, I had a chance to speak with an Army Captain, who told me the stories she heard directly from the Iraqi troops who have surrendered, and whom she helped process (I may have mentioned this before in a previous blog, so forgive me if I repeat myself). The story they told each other in absolute seriousness was that in order to become a Marine one had to show not only exemplary strength and determination, but also a fanatical readiness to do whatever one was asked. So as the final stage of the recruitment process, a potential recruit had to bring into the recruitment station an immediate relative, recently killed by the potential recruit… So while, almost out of necessity, the American troops were trying to demonize the Iraqis, there was not sense of violent hatred towards them (it may have been different were the fighting to be prolonged, with numerous casualties on our side).
Ten years have passed since then, and thanks to the Internet the world had become a much smaller place than it was then. Much of the anti war arguments that are going on today, center around the fact that many Iraqi civilians are going to be killed, and that is unacceptable as a fact. Whether that is true or not is a different question. I doubt, though, that say, during the Napoleonic wars, some French pacifists were arguing against the Russian campaign because they felt for the Russian peasant that would be trounced by the French troops. Today, such arguments abound. And that is a good thing. I think it shows that slowly, very slowly, humanity begins to think of itself as a unit, rather than divide itself along national lines.
So, if the shrinking of the world is going to make nationalism go away (eventually, not tomorrow), why am I saying that this scares me? Well, to some degree it may have been just to catch your attention and made you read the entire entry, but in all seriousness, lack of hatred of the “other” would have taken an incredible energy outlet away from humanity. But come to think of it, polarization won’t go away, it will just take on a different guise. With the exception of radical Islam and the Catholics versus Protestants in Northern Ireland, I cannot think of any religious wars going on – I think that this is religion’s last hurrah as a divisive force. Nationalism is also weakening when you can chat with most people over the net. The only one I can think of as alive and well is… the global corporation. I’m all for Capitalism and the exploration of the masses, don’t get me wrong here. I am just thinking back to the days when I was working for Lotus. Actually, I joined the ranks shortly after Lotus Development was acquired by IBM in the summer of ’95. By the time that I was fully indoctrinated, the mentioning of Microsoft and their competing product – MS Exchange – was supposed to cause a visceral reaction. We were taught to hate Microsoft and identify ourselves with Lotus not only as employees but as members of a culture (a favorite word on corporate parlance, by the way). Microsoft was a completely opposite, competing culture. The fact that the competition boiled down to market share did not reduce the virulence of the feeling of belonging and opposition.
So, I guess we can all sleep soundly tonight. Even if wars and religious intolerance were to go away tomorrow, humanity’s ability to find someone to hate shall not be impaired. Happy brotherhood week everyone!
10:30:45 AM 
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