05:01
Faizan
Infidel: In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion;
in Constantinople, one who does.
- Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce's definition of infidel first appeared in print something over a hundred years ago, about a decade into the 20th century. It's pretty clear that the definition holds good today, although the modern vogue for political correctness may demand a different form of words. I'm not going to bother to attempt that.
This definition is, at first sight, a satirist's commentary on the polarised ideology of righteousness that persists in inherently religious interpretations of the world we live in. It highlights how the same words can be applied with diametrically opposite meanings, and it's interesting to note how little has changed in a hundred years.
Many of those religious interpretations are well past their sell-by date, yet they remain implicit in the language we speak hidden in a forgotten sub-text. At best this sub-text is founded on fear, ignorance and superstition inherited from an earlier era. At worst it validates politically expedient literal understandings of what are regarded as sacred texts, to sanction persecution and violence:
"... the land that I live in has God on its side," - Bob Dylan
It's easy to think that we're more enlightened now and can see the inhumanity of earlier cultural practices. We're evolving all the time and human rights are now higher on the political agenda than ever before. But if you care to look, you'll see that the identities we adopt are riddled with our cultural norms - and we get very distressed when these are challenged.
The Impact of Cultural Norms
Cultural norms operate beneath the surface of conscious awareness. They are imperatives imposed on you by accident of birth. There is nothing natural about them although they're assumed as if they define 'natural' behaviour. What they actually define is the social gravity of your environment, which you are required to conform to in order to survive. They ground you.
You only have to look at the social history of the world around you to see that five of the most insistent defining elements of our self-identification are...
Body type / gender
Race
Nationality
Religion
Age.
Each of these elements is loaded with constraints and obligations: what it is to be a (good) man or woman. What racial qualities mark you out? How does the geography of your birth influence who you are? What gods are you supposed to be beholden to? Are you a child or an adult? Anyone who has any of the above characteristics confused or is in conflict with them internally is in trouble. And just to complicate matters there are areas where the conditions for compliance with each category overlap.
All of this is overwhelming and it can take half-a-lifetime, or more, to come to come to terms with. Some people never manage to.
Because social and cultural norms ground you into a particular reality they seem to guarantee your existence. Conversely if you reject, or disconnect from them, your existence will seem under threat. Ultimately this threat is internalised as prospective annihilation, and it triggers the fear of non-existence - survival. This will also happen if established cultural norms are subject to sudden catastrophic change.
in Constantinople, one who does.
- Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce's definition of infidel first appeared in print something over a hundred years ago, about a decade into the 20th century. It's pretty clear that the definition holds good today, although the modern vogue for political correctness may demand a different form of words. I'm not going to bother to attempt that.
This definition is, at first sight, a satirist's commentary on the polarised ideology of righteousness that persists in inherently religious interpretations of the world we live in. It highlights how the same words can be applied with diametrically opposite meanings, and it's interesting to note how little has changed in a hundred years.
Many of those religious interpretations are well past their sell-by date, yet they remain implicit in the language we speak hidden in a forgotten sub-text. At best this sub-text is founded on fear, ignorance and superstition inherited from an earlier era. At worst it validates politically expedient literal understandings of what are regarded as sacred texts, to sanction persecution and violence:
"... the land that I live in has God on its side," - Bob Dylan
It's easy to think that we're more enlightened now and can see the inhumanity of earlier cultural practices. We're evolving all the time and human rights are now higher on the political agenda than ever before. But if you care to look, you'll see that the identities we adopt are riddled with our cultural norms - and we get very distressed when these are challenged.
The Impact of Cultural Norms
Cultural norms operate beneath the surface of conscious awareness. They are imperatives imposed on you by accident of birth. There is nothing natural about them although they're assumed as if they define 'natural' behaviour. What they actually define is the social gravity of your environment, which you are required to conform to in order to survive. They ground you.
You only have to look at the social history of the world around you to see that five of the most insistent defining elements of our self-identification are...
Body type / gender
Race
Nationality
Religion
Age.
Each of these elements is loaded with constraints and obligations: what it is to be a (good) man or woman. What racial qualities mark you out? How does the geography of your birth influence who you are? What gods are you supposed to be beholden to? Are you a child or an adult? Anyone who has any of the above characteristics confused or is in conflict with them internally is in trouble. And just to complicate matters there are areas where the conditions for compliance with each category overlap.
All of this is overwhelming and it can take half-a-lifetime, or more, to come to come to terms with. Some people never manage to.
Because social and cultural norms ground you into a particular reality they seem to guarantee your existence. Conversely if you reject, or disconnect from them, your existence will seem under threat. Ultimately this threat is internalised as prospective annihilation, and it triggers the fear of non-existence - survival. This will also happen if established cultural norms are subject to sudden catastrophic change.
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