[montomike]

Being a Westerner, I "blame" the Easterners. I just can't get away from that. Its not my fault. It's their fault. They are the ones that flew the jets into the buildings.

[aruanan]

This is a good article, its defective English notwithstanding.

[arthurus]

I think the premise is inaccurate. The operative difference is in that a westerner feels personal guilt at having done something wrong. The Asian feels shame at what others will see as his weakness or failure to maintain the norm. That is why arab brothers kill their sisters if someone else has done something to the sister or just talked about doing something to the sister. That brings shame to the sister's family because the sister is the object of ridicule or is seen as transgressing the family's honor. Thje sister does not feel guilt for doing something that is wrong, that is against nature, she feels fear and shame at becoming the object of blame.

[Cicero]

Something to it. But the author fails to differentiate between a healthy Christian sense of guilt at having done something wrong, and the perverted sense of guilt felt by some modern non-Christians. Sonntag and Chomsky, for instance, do NOT feel guilty for any sins they may have committed. Maybe they've told lies or committed adultery or the like, but they don't care about that. Instead, they profess to feel a sort of ideological guilt about things their fellow Americans have done. Bill clinton was the same way, never apologizing for his own sins or crimes, but constantly apologizing for the supposed sins of other people. Typically he went to Africa to apologize for American slavery, and never mentioned his own deep responsibility for the massacres in Uganda.

You might say that that is the typical left-liberal position. Blame somebody else; tax somebody else.

Besides which, the distinction anthropologists draw between a shame culture and a guilt culture is overdone. Most normal people feel guilt and/or shame, depending on which is appropriate.

The only statement here I agree with without qualification is this: "Islam does not promote the formation of free will and individual responsibility. In the Islamic notion of man, free will is subordinate to Allah's all-encompassing pre-ordained plan." This is very true. Arabs have no sense of personal choice, free will, or personal responsibility. That's one reason why they are incapable of building a democracy.

[Thorondir]

How about sick, primitive, jealous, bloodbath culture?

That's a far better description of the middle east except for the shining light of Israel. The few sharp empires they once built were dragged down into the sewer by the festering advance of that seventh-century religion of primitive savagery that crashed some planes (that they would have no hope of ever building) into the twin towers.

[allan1969]

These points are very interesting, but anthropologists usually distinguish between Western guilt cultures and Oriental SHAME cultures, where the prospect of "losing face" is so terrifying that it enforces self-discipline.

For those interested, there is one book that FULLY explains liberal (and leftist) guilt and self-hatred. As far as I know it's the only book ever written with this as its sole topic. The title is GUILT, BLAME, AND POLITICS, and the easiest way to see it is to go to any Amazon.com search window and paste in this ISBN number: 0966694309

The Amazon page has a very comprehensive summary of the book's contents. (I wrote it.) If you're looking for ammo to use in flame wars against lefties, there's plenty in my book: HUNDREDS of names of ultra-rich liberals and rich leftists, all documented. (This is how I prove my thesis.)

Cheers,
Allan Levite