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So you think Lawrence was wrong?

There is an over-riding cultural trait in Arab lands to maintain contradictary beliefs. Reminds one of American liberals, in fact.

You see it in the duplicity of Arafat, the House of Saud, and the Arab press, in general. You see it in the prevalent use of a religion to define all things good and bad, excusing its own bad while damning the good of others. You see it in the devestation of your old Beiruit, formerly one of the greatest cities and cultures of the world.

Get beyond reaction and tell me how Lawrence was wrong. He may well have described many other peoples and cultures, but we're talking about Arabs here.

Btw, some Harvard types released a paper recently about the benefits of non-lineal thinking of asians as comparied to the linear, logical thinking of westerners. The study set up different thought obstacles and problems and valued how subjects managed them. There were some problems that the asian subjects simply couldn't comprehend. Otherwise, they found that on other problems the asian thinking was more effective at solving certain complexities, especially ones involving contradictions, something westerners have trouble with.

Lawrence puts the Arab thought process somewhere in between, or both, perhaps, thus his comment, "they oscillated from asymptote to asymptote."

The modern academy tries to view cultures in relative, value-free terms. What I like about that academic paper is that it admits of cultural differences and gives value to them. The paper didn't go as far as Lawrence to actually apply it to a generality in culture, but it could. It'd help understand many of the contradictions in China, I would think.

I'm not looking to insult. I see in those quotations some good analogies to the situation we have here, especially the twisted relationships between islamicists and secular despots, as well as the general and self-defeating distrust Arabs hold towards the U.S.

Sorry to load up on you, but your post provokes these thoughts. Generally, minority groups in America have been jealous of their homelands. It's more a function of status, or an excercise of power, than any specific loyalties. Most Amercians of the 19th century were of English descent. Most Americans then loathed England. Go figure.

So we have it today that Arabs and muslims in the U.S. have hidden behind American tolerance and their own outrage at Isreal. The noise of their hate for Isreal is sadly unaccompanied by equal contempt for Bin Laden and Saddam and the generally horrid state of Arab politics. It is self-defeating, for it leaves the impression of sympathy with America's enemies. The only Arab groups I've heard that support this war are Iraqi exiles. What's the difference between them and other Arabs in the country?

I don't know if you are muslim, as many Lebanese who have come here are jews and christians. And I don't know that christian arabs are politically oriented any better than the muslims.