Silk Roads: China, The Middle East, and The New World

Body:

Verdict: Vetoed (Book Review, non-reflective) 

 

Sue Ardington

January 2007

Silk Roads

Hirsh Diamant/Char Simons

Notes for Identity Forum 1-14-07

 

Amin Maalouf, in the selections from his book In The Name of Identity challenges us to reconsider the foundations upon which we have previously formed identity, and to design a new approach to identity in this age of globalization. Maalouf looks at the issue of identity throughout his article as a realist, expounding on both the potential disasters and successes of this worldly movement toward one another and away from our pasts.

· He clearly sees that this is a “bewildering age, in which many of our fellow-creatures see globalization not as a great and enriching amalgam with advantages for all, but as standardization and an impoverishment, a threat that the individual needs to fight against in order to preserve his own culture, identity, and values.”[1]

· Despite the obvious conflict from working towards unity at the cost of losing affinity, Maalouf leans toward the optimistic position that globalization is inevitable at this time and that we can come through it successfully to a place where “identity would then be seen as the sum of all our allegiances, and within it, allegiance to the human community itself would become increasingly important, until one day it would become the chief allegiance, though without destroying our many individual affiliations.”[2]

· Maalouf challenges that this as a difficult perception, but necessary if we are to set aside our age old conflicts and enmities and move forward on this planet together. He contends that “if we assert our differences so fiercely it is precisely because we are less and less different from one another”[3]

· Maalouf charges that embracing aspects of our universality can strengthen us, while at the same time allowing us to maintain our diversity. He inspires us to look for a time when human dignity is extended to all, not just select or westernized groups. A global view that we are all part of the human race leads to respect, and there would no longer be people on the planet viewed as inferior versions. This approach to universality requires looking at traditions to make sure that they themselves are respectable, and that they are retained only if “they themselves respect the fundamental rights of men and women”[4]

· Maalouf contends that a successful global identity would focus on fundamental rights, “the right to live as a full citizen on the soil of one’s fathers, free of persecution or discrimination; the right to live with dignity anywhere; the right to choose one’s life and loves and beliefs freely, while respecting the freedom of others; their right of free access to knowledge, health and a decent and honourable life”[5] These should be the basic goals of humanity, and a commonality in values does not equate to a necessity of standardization. People living with respect for one another can still continue to enjoy cultural, religious, and political practices that make them unique. People living in respect can come together to enjoy “tastes, hopes, habits, life style, and view of the world” [6] Maalouf leads us on a journey through modern conflicts to a place of possibility that ends with universal respect of humanity, where people come together to enjoy, and in fact experience joy.

Other Points to Ponder

• Travel and cultural experience abroad extinguishes an attitude that another culture is “foreign”. The new place becomes a part of you. (p. 2, Maalouf in France)

• Every individual is a meeting ground for many different allegiances, and sometimes those loyalties conflict with one another and confront the person who harbours them with difficult choices. (p. 4)

• The western model is itself a model in crisis; unable to resolve its own problems of poverty in its own cities, incapable of attacking unemployment, delinquency, drugs, and many other scourges. (p. 89)

• The most free and liberating identity would come from genuine democracy and modernity. (p. 91)

• British Historian Arnold Toynbee outlines three phases of the human race: First, prehistory – slow development, parallel evolution of culture, much in common. Second, knowledge developed much faster, societal differences grew, lasted several thousand years. Third, began recently, rapid advances in knowledge and dissemination of information. Human societies are become less differentiated from one another. (p. 91 and 92)

• Never have men had so many things in common – knowledge, points of reference, images, words, instruments, tools of all kinds. This only increases their desire to assert their differences. (p. 93)

• We are witnessing not the dawn, but the twilight of the age of nationalities. (p. 94)

• I dream not of a world where religion no longer has any place but of one where the need for spirituality will no longer be associated with the need to belong. (p. 96)

• It is not enough now to separate Church and State; what has to do with religion must be kept apart from what has to do with identity. (p. 96)

• The “wind” of globalization is now sweeping the world. It would be absurd to try to stop it, but if we navigate skillfully, steering a steady course and avoiding reefs, we can reach haven safe and sound.(p. 99)

• We are infinitely closer to our contemporaries than our ancestors. (p. 101)

• Men are more the sons of their time than of their fathers. (p. 101)

• Each of us has two heritages, a “vertical” one that comes from our ancestors, our religious community and our popular traditions. A “horizontal” one transmitted to us by our contemporaries and the age we live in. (p. 102)

• Everything has to do with fundamental rights – the right to live as a full citizen on the soil of one’s fathers, free of persecution or discrimination; the right to live with dignity anywhere; the right to choose one’s life and loves and beliefs freely, while respecting the freedom of others; the right of free access to knowledge, health and a decent and honorable life. (p. 106)