Fit to be Fried

On September 11th, 2001, the World Trade Center’s twin towers were the target of a vicious attack that ended with thousands of live ruined, and a country crying out for retribution. Vengeance was required, blood for blood. Our nation’s very honor was at stake, after all, no enemy had dared such a strike on US soil since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and never had the weapons used to wage an attack of this sort seemed so cowardly: hijacked, passenger-filled aircraft. An attack on unarmed men, women, and children, using their own countrymen and women as living bombs: in or eyes, there could be no more heinous act short of outright genocide. The men and women of New York’s Police and Fire Departments became national heroes that day, held in high esteem, and given every honor possible for their valiant rescue efforts. However, on the other side of the world, those responsible for orchestrating the attacks and those sympathetic to their cause revered their own heroes, the hijackers themselves. Al-Queda had scored a victorious blow against the great Satan, and had gained honor in the eyes of its followers. How, it may be asked, is it possible for one nation to view this act as cowardly and heinous, while others view the events with feelings of pride and honor? What causes a country to revere the murderers of thousands of innocents? When closely examined, honor is seen to have many more facets than the majority of us have been led to believe.

It is said that there is no honor amongst thieves, but in truth, it is largely because of underworld culture that honor even evolved as a concept. Criminals carrying large amounts of contraband and/or cash could hardly bring up a complaint with the local constabulary if any of it were stolen. Likewise, cultures of honor arose out of the shepherds of the English and Scottish border country, the Bedouins, even America’s old west, Though geographically diverse and, in some cases, of differing languages, similarities did exist – these cultures were largely rural and/or nomadic; the presence of law was either absent altogether, or spread too thinly. (Wikipedia) Without the law to guarantee safety of life, land, and property, an honor-culture developed to fill the void. In an honor-culture, swift vengeance is demanded for any infraction upon one’s honor, (read: stolen property, insults, infidelity, accidental injury, or as was the case with John Wesley Harding, having a bunkmate that snored too loud); an infraction that goes unanswered results in dishonor and shame. Since, in most of these honor-cultures, women were viewed in a manner akin to property, honor came to be recognized in a fundamentally different way for men and women. For men, bravery was revered, as a strong, valiant man could be seen as a great protector. For a woman, her chastity was often seen as her only source of honor. Even today, so called “honor-killings” persist in some honor-cultures (such as they did under Taliban rule in Afghanistan) as vengeance for infidelity in women, many times even if the woman’s only infidelity was being a rape-victim. Is this the same honor that exists in our own “Genteel South”, where it’s considered unthinkable to even strike a lady? The answer is both yes and no, for honor is indeed what you make of it. It is a compulsion to do what’s right, or at least, to be viewed as someone who does what’s right. Just who determines what is right is different for each individual. The persons whose opinions matter most to an individual are most likely to form that person’s sense of honor. To use a somewhat fanciful metaphor to illustrate, in the Marvel Comics series “Earth X”, the race of Asgardians (who the Norse viewed as gods), were actually shape-shifting aliens whose appearance was altered by the opinions of those who they came in contact with. An old, Norse storyteller who viewed them to be gods was the first person they encountered upon reaching Earth, and so it was they became the Norse deities of legend. In much the same way, our view of honor, ourselves, and the world around us, is shaped by our environment, and the individuals we look up to most. The so-called “honor-system” employed by universities and even our Nation’s military calls for individuals to inform the authorities of any rule infractions by their peers, yet calls for such informants frequently go unheeded; said individuals often value the respect of their peers over the administratively-imposed “honor-system”, and refuse to become a “rat”. Similar behaviors are found within nearly all Police departments, and within the FBI itself, but are most well-known within the world of organized crime. (Bowman) The Italian Mafia called it “Omerta”, literally, silence. This “code of silence” applies not only to avoid punishment but also as a measure to “save face”. In the recent war in Iraq, the Iraqi Minister of information denied on television that US troops had broken down Baghdad’s defenses, even when they could clearly be seen in the background, over-running the city. Though it seemed humorous to us, it would have been considered a great dishonor for him to admit such a defeat, by the Arab/Islamic honor-culture he lived in.

One might ask, “What do gangsters and comic-books have to do with the perpetrators of the most egregious crimes in our Nation’s history?” There has long been a strong feeling of resentment towards the United States and her allies within the majority of the Arab/Islamic denizens of the middle-east. Though it stems from the formation of a Hebrew nation-state in the form of Israel, religion is less a motivator than it is a convenient backdrop. They feel that their honor was attacked, and those primal feelings regarding their Palestinian kin’s lost property have resulted in a myriad of terrorist attacks around the world; in their eyes, these are acts of vengeance. The honor-culture is so deeply entrenched within the collective Arab psyche that a Jihaad, or holy-war, can be used as an interchangeable term for “international vendetta”. In their honor-based culture, suicide bombers receive honor because they believe they are righting a wrong, and there is no such thing as collateral damage. We in the west, on the other hand, are brought up to believe that all life is viewed a sacrosanct, and the loss of any life is something most of us wish to avoid, at all costs. If this sort of honor-culture is difficult for those of us in the west to understand, it is even more difficult for their culture to understand ours. In the wake of other terrorist bombings in the recent past, Osama bin Ladin gloated via videotape over the perceived cowardice he saw in the US withdrawals from Beirut, Somalia, Rwanda, and Yemen. He called America a “paper tiger”, a seemingly fearsome beast that will fold with the slightest pressure. He was goading us, even expecting a violent response, and when he did not get it, was even more convinced of our dishonor. He saw our desire to avoid conflict and our compassion, our unwillingness to kill, as weakness. If it can be said without seeming sympathetic to terrorists, he may have even been right.

There is a theory that states that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually had prior knowledge of the Japanese plans to attack Pearl Harbor, yet allowed it to happen all the same, in order to shake America out of its’ isolationist slumber and get it involved in the war against the Axis Powers in World War II. Roosevelt knew, the theory goes, that without American involvement in the war, America’s allies, and eventually the entire world, would come under the oppressive rule of the Axis Powers. Without an attack on our Nation’s soil, however (that age-old gut-connection to property, again) the American public would never back US involvement in the war. Bound by his sense of honor, Roosevelt did what had to be done, and allowed the Japanese forces to decimate one of our own bases. (Stinnet) Whether or not the story is true, it is with an eerie sense of deja-vu that we can look at the September 11th attacks. Like the Japanese, (who revived their samurai code of “Bushido” to justify kamikaze raids), Al-Queda is very big on honor, and as before, we found comfort in isolation until we were hit way too close to home, rather, right inside its’ very doors. The attacks struck a chord within the American peoples’ hearts; our honor had been impugned, and vengeance, blood-simple and violent vengeance, was called for against our enemies.

Sources:
WikiPedia: The free encyclopedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor

Whatever happened to Honor?- James Bowman, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute. June 10th, 2002 (transcribed for http://www.jamesbowman.net)

Earth X- Krueger, Ross & Leon, Marvel Comics Group, April 1999-June 2000

Day of Deceit – The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor- Robert Stinnett, Free Press, 1999