{"id":2774,"date":"2009-01-04T12:21:24","date_gmt":"2009-01-04T17:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2774"},"modified":"2009-01-04T23:05:08","modified_gmt":"2009-01-05T04:05:08","slug":"impossible-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/01\/04\/impossible-situations\/","title":{"rendered":"impossible situations…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While I can mount arguments on either side of the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, none are passionate. They’re just my own lame attempts at understanding something that defies cognitive mastery. "They fight – that’s what they do" is the only thing I can think of to say. I don’t like thinking about it, and it rarely comes to mind unless there’s one of these regular wars that forces it into my awareness.<\/p>\n

There is, however, an exception. Recently, Bush and Cheney went on tour, talking about their Administration. Each defended their now unpopular positions by talking about how history would judge them. I thought about the Middle East and how lost it is in its history, or at least its own mythic version of history. On those few occasions when I’ve tried to talk to people who are personally involved on one side or the other, it felt like talking to a piece of granite unchanged by the millenia. I ended up being seen as either a zionist or an antisemite [as a matter of fact, that has happened even if I didn’t talk about it]. Anyway [ever since yesterday], I’ve become a devoted Consequentialist<\/strong> [one must think of the final result…<\/a><\/strong>]. <\/p>\n

There is a psychological principle that I’ve mentioned here before that applies to this situation. It appears under various names – double bind<\/strong><\/font>, impossible situation<\/strong><\/font>, dilemma<\/strong><\/font>. It’s an interpersonal communication that has two messages [one usually ouvert, the other couvert] that are opposites. Like for example, "If you love me, you’ll eat my food<\/strong>" and "Don’t get fat<\/strong>." There is no way to respond that fits both injunctions. The third element of a double bind is "you have to do something<\/strong>" even though there’s nothing right to do. And finally, "you can’t talk about the impossibility of your situation<\/strong>." As Aristotle pointed out, when on the horns of a dilemma, go "between the horns." What that means in such a case is do nothing<\/strong> and talk about how impossible the situation is<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the case of Palestine [Hamas] and Israel, it’s easy – "they fight – no matter what". It’s what they do. When God is on both sides of the equation, we mortals haven’t got a chance. <\/strong><\/font>I don’t think that’s right. I know little of God, but I do know that God isn’t crazy. They’ve positioned themselves and their impossible situations such that the whole world has to be involved emotionally in their wars – no matter what. I’m always reminded of what George W. Bush said when he was having his "cowboy" period after 9\/11, "Either you’re with us, or you’re against us" [we certainly found out the answer to that one].<\/p>\n

In my own mind, nothing justifies the Israeli<\/strong>\/Islamist<\/strong> wars. Nothing justifies the Sunni<\/strong>\/Shiite<\/strong> wars. Nothing justifies our War in Iraq<\/strong>. Nothing justifies Al Qaeda’s War with America<\/strong>. The Middle East is a hotbed of unjustifiable wars – impossible situations. Once, a friend said to me, "If you lived there, you’d see it differently." I know that he was wrong, because I’d leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I can mount arguments on either side of the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, none are passionate. They’re just my own lame attempts at understanding something that defies cognitive mastery. "They fight – that’s what they do" is the only thing I can think of to say. I don’t like thinking about it, and it rarely comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}