Princess Jasmine Needs a Suitor

The problem with democracies in many Muslim lands is that often the only persons one can elect are religious or ethnic zealots. Consider, for instance, the people of Tunisia, who recently ousted their dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in the soi-distant "Jasmine Revolution" (named after the national flower) – who are they going to elect to change their country? Out of the ten million souls residing in that land of Atlas and the Sahara – which one is properly spiritually and intellectually evolved to lead a nation to a new destiny? I doubt any.

The founders of the United States – the word "founder" is starting to imbibe the taint of being tantamount to radical conservatism by the left, which is a sham as well as a shame – were men of books and endeavor, reading and fighting. They could wage war and then pen a Gibbonesque history of their battles. Above all, our "founders" were men of experience and were especially wise concerning human nature as well as the failed social institutions of men.

I suspect not that anyone who would pursue office in Tunisia, or most any other Islamic land, has read the unmatched excellence of our Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers, and even if they have perused the great books of the Western world, do you think even those sharpest of ideas by Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau and others, could pierce the seemingly impenetrable force field which is faith in the Koran and Hadiths? Sadly – and I do mean with melancholy– the answer is likely no. It takes more than anger with despots to start a brave, new world.

There is much talk of a "Westernization" going on in parts of Arabia, Northern Africa and Persia, but that is false. It is not happening, at least not as it should. The Westernization of the Muslim lands is a superficial Westernization – a new McDonald's on the corner of a block in Tehran is not the same as viscerally understanding the import of the Magna Carta and the secular, philosophical foundations that must under-gird any democratic, consensual government, but most especially, a burgeoning one. (Though, I acknowledge the so-called "iPod Iranians" are closer than most to that visceral feeling.)

Democracy is not a cure-all; after all, Hitler was elected by a democracy as was HAMAS party. For a society to function and survive, it must have wisdom that is based on timeless, spiritual truths, which can be found in religious texts as well as in secular philosophies. However, it cannot survive on religious dogma alone. Yes, it is averred by many that the United States was initiated upon, and sustained by, Judeo-Christian values. But we broke free of the dogmatism of our religions - the United States Constitution proves that: we are equal by the generic term for Divinity: "Creator." The parts of the Bible which fit the perennial philosophy we adhere to, and the sections that are not up to our spiritual common sense we, like good Westerners, debate about it – bending the sharp barbs of scriptural irrationality away from our exposed skin. Current cases in point are creationism and gay marriage.

Tunisia has a much harder road in becoming a stable, noble democracy than the originators of America, for unlike the Bible, which as implied is much more malleable, and let us be honest, swaths of it, are easily forgettable, the dogma of the Koran is like a mostly hardened concrete. Thus, it is not as easily reformed. (The writer Salman Rushdie points out that Islam is the only culture/religion that has not had a reformation.) Without a reform of scripture which molds it to fit a secular philosophy, the only other option, which seems even more unlikely, is that religious influence in Northern Africa will move to the background as more secular ideas enter the foreground. That has an anorexic chance.

If you, reader, live in the Western world, kneel daily in gratitude – not for our pelf and protection, but for the reasons we have pelf and protection: that is, that we are all children of Ancient Greeks. In whatever funnelling system puts souls with bodies, we should be beholden every day to our intellectual forefathers of the Aegean, and, in the same orison, issue compassion towards those who are not of our thought-line. It is the Greek rejection of superstition and the creation of the urge to be encyclopedic in one's observations and abstractions that allowed later thinkers in the Renaissance and Enlightenment to form a new world, and it is the same source which allows us to sustain that tradition.

So yes, Princess Jasmine broke free of her arranged marriage with tyranny, but she is still the daughter of intellectual poverty, and consequently, cannot yet be a queen of freedom. The Tunisian revolt and overthrow of their dictator is probably not going to workout in the long run (though it is encouraging to hear that the countryside is joining the revolt - a true revolution just cannot remain in the urban centers). We need to ask: with what mental software do the people of Tunisia revolt? Are they akin to our founders? I think they are revolting for right reasons, they are using the right words to talk to the rest of the world, but do they really understand, at the depths, what they want and what are saying? What freedom really entails? More still: I dread a failed revolution could, for several generations in old Carthage, engender a stagnated mien of apathy, and a bevy of minds chanting the mantra of "what is the use?" With all that said, however, I still support the revolution with all my heart – but only with a bit of my mind. The only hope to attain the signature of my mind would be if Princess Jasmine is very soon courted by, and then, even more promptly, wedded to, a Greek.

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Princess Jasmine Needs a Suitor

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