Exhuming my past Anomie and fond memories.
From childhood I knew that “man” remembers his past, animals do not; they repeat their habits. This is their nature. Man’s nature is to experience one thing and then remember it. Once remembered he may choose to repeat it as part of his life style and cultural habitat. The behavior then becomes his cocoon, habitat, inner circle, turf security zone and place where he can orient himself. I too knew that one may feel alone in a crowd. I could sense separation and distance while with family and loved ones. Change and dislocation were not the only reasons for discomfort. Was I really the authentic person who I was told I was?
From childhood I knew that “man” remembers his past, animals do not; they repeat their habits. This is their nature. Man’s nature is to experience one thing and then remember it. Once remembered he may choose to repeat it as part of his life style and cultural habitat. The behavior then becomes his cocoon, habitat, inner circle, turf security zone and place where he can orient himself. I too knew that one may feel alone in a crowd. I could sense separation and distance while with family and loved ones. Change and dislocation were not the only reasons for discomfort. Was I really the authentic person who I was told I was?
By Barie Fez-Barringten
www.bariefez-barringten.com
This is written to help those who may have a sense that
things are not just right and yet do not know what that might be. You
may be jsut beginning ,in the midst or at the end of life's journey and
find your very being challenged. Aside from our faith this may be one of
the most important fundamentals. From childhood I knew that “man”
remembers his past, animals do not; they repeat their habits, this is
their nature, but man’s nature is to remember what he has experienced.
However, once remembered he may decide to repeat it as part of his
cultural habitat. The behavior becomes his cocoon, habitat, inner
circle, turf, security-zone and place where he can orient himself. I too
knew that while one may feel alone in a crowd, I could sense separation
and distance even with family and loved ones. Change and dislocation
were not the only reasons for discomfort because I questioned the authenticity of the person others made of me. What ever they said did it not resonate and knew I did not know! I had anomie.
So what is anomie?
c
I had become a person conditioned for anarchy who
adopted conformity to survive and succeed. I was an artistic
entrepreneur who found himself in schoolhouse prisons of the forties and
fifties. I later wrote an essay on Schools and Metaphors which was
published by Main Currents in Modern Thought. I
contrasted the repetitious, inane conformity with individuality, anarchy
creativity and intellect. I often choose not to repeat and I also
remembered intricate and large details about the past, with which I
could easily describe to the awe, delight and shock to my parents and
friends. I could remember what we wore, the places and the decorations
and locations of the places. The names of people, their background and
most phone numbers and addresses. I did not need a written list of names
and numbers; I carried them in my head. I was what the sociologust labeled other-directed.
In this regard, Albert Einstein
noted how inherently “stupid” was all of mankind for this trait. The
trait that compels men to mindlessly repeat behavior over and over
without thought, rhyme or reason. He likened us to the lowest life-
forms that do the same predictable things to get food. Of course he
included himself and his behavior as part of this phenomenon. I knew it
was all very stupid and had to be interrupted. I must face that while I
threw away my abhorrent past and many intermediate contexts they are now
fond memories and affections which linger and bring me great pleasure
to recall and resurrect.
Add innate distrust and compulsive skepticism and
you have a continuous sense of not belonging and misfit in most
situations. I sought companionship, alignments, familiarity and
likeness. I usually found competitiveness and challenge. The familiar
contexts in which I inhabited rejected and openly confounded trusts with
betrayals and disagreements. Hostility and distrust were the ambiance
in which I found myself on the streets, school and at home. The few
trusts I had were fragile and disassociated. My later marriage to
Christina was the first certain trust. As alienation due to distrust so
alienation separated and kept me from the alliances that could have
built bridges of partnerships and development.
For most of my childhood I had the awkward sense of being an outsider. In
fact, for most of the cases I actually was an outsider because we
changed our residence and with that the change of schools and
neighborhoods surrounding the schools. I learned anomie at
a very early stage in my life and had no concept in which to cloak and
understand what I was experiencing. But it was the rift and disruption
due to change. It
was also, due to outside changes occurring in our society due to the
war, rationing, depression, resocialization and of course my parent’s
failed marriage and father’s development of his career and later
successful business.
I had the sense that I did not fit into the class at
school, on the street, in the neighborhood or amongst the gangs on the
block. I only felt at home with some friends.
Music, records and radio provided the continuity,
focus, sense of belonging and legitimacy missing from the real world.
It was no accident that I saw my first and only career move to become a
professional radio broadcaster, not only as a profession, but as a
life. It was where I lived! I
did not know it then but I was amongst a whole society suffering from
social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.
This was accompanied by alienation and
purposelessness as a result of a lack of standards, values,and ideals: I
was suffering from something more than adolescent anomie
and rage. It is only in retrospect that I can both shape and form what I
had experienced. . East Germans we met before and after the fall of the
Berlin Wall, spoke of the mistrust of each other and the alienation to Germany, family and themselves. Every one felt alienated. This was the Leipzig we found in 1989,1990 and 1992. It is the Germany we know today which is still recovering from alienation of its own identity and sense of place and metaphor. I wrote a book called "Exhuming Leipzig from 70 years of Neglect"
It was much more emotional and pathetic than what I could tell and
write. It was not the only one but there were many cities and families
that had lost themselves. Even their children born in this
time were alienated within their own families not knowing the trust
that comes from family of love.
This shape and form came to me from Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist who introduced the concept of anomie in his book The Division of Labor in Society, published in 1893.
He used anomie
to describe a condition of deregulation that was occurring in society.
His, not my society. But it turns out that my family and I were
suffering from the same phenomenon.
Sometimes the opposite of anomie can jar reality as this Arab News article by Lubna Hussain who is based in Riyadh.
After she asked, “What will you miss the most? “ The expat speaks of
her departure from Saudi in negative terms regretting what had not
happened. While I shared her testimony I did not regret not knowing
more locals closely. I had known many and could have known many more. I
simply had enough at work, teaching, running AIG/ME,
attending hospitals, gymnasium, etc. Between the laws that said I could
not speak openly or take pictures I was turned off and really learned
to keep private.
The expat responded:” “I will miss more what I haven’t had
the ability to experience than what I have. “ And then continued:” “Do
you know what the saddest thing is? I have spent my youth here, all my
golden years and yet I have hardly had any cultural contact with the
people of this country. With the Saudis themselves that is.
People who spend a year in other countries have had
more success in this regard than I have had in twenty. Their frequent
acquaintance means that they even become fluent in the language. The
only Arabic I can take away with me is ‘Mafi Mushkila’ (not possible)
and a few (75+-) other choice idioms but that’s about it. I don’t think I
could string together one coherent sentence in Arabic even if my life
depended on it! ”Lubna then comments:” Gregarious and outgoing, most
expats possess an innate curiosity as to the customs and traditions we
follow and crave firsthand knowledge of who we are and what it is that
we represent. For the most part, the majority of Westerners are limited
to shuttling between the confines of their compounds and the shopping
malls in scheduled air-conditioned buses in absence of any better form
of exposure to our highly defensive and guarded society.
Saudi reeks of distrust and hence alienation most notably
between natives and foreigners and between tribes. Even internally
within families there is distrust but loyalty.
There is something quite forbidding about approaching a
stranger here. I remember one instance recently when a cameraman had
arrived from the States on his first visit to this part of the world. We
were in a lift with some women and in all innocence and politeness he
looked at each of them individually with a huge grin plastered across
his face and said a generic “Hi!” You could visibly see them twitch with
disdain under their veils as if he had attempted to molest them in
public”.
I found the above remarks poignant and important. My problem is
that I did not want what the Saudi’s had. None of them in all the time I
lived there changed my mind. Whereas, when I visited European cities,
etc. I craved to know more because the people made themselves and
they’re lifestyles desirable including their love of Jesus and our
common Latin, Roman or Germanic roots.
I did however greatly desire to contribute to their
welfare and my self be useful in this regard. It seemed that this was
my purpose. The
conformist aspect of my character motivated me to accept goals and
means set by society, even though failure was a likely outcome. I did
not know what else to do!
I had to innovate when I accepted the goals set by society
but rejected socially acceptable means e.g. find another (legal) way of
making money or live as an outlaw. The latter would be very
unacceptable. I wanted to be righteous. In my case we became moblie Americans so we could employee our special gifts and talents. I
adopted rituals including means and goals to which I conformed but
lost sight of those goals. It seems that while one performs work
outcome are less important.
Neil Diamond in one of many fine songs expressed everything about anomie in the following lyrics of “I am, I said”
“L.A.'s fine the sun shines most the time,
and the feelin' is lay back,
Palm trees grow, and rents are low,
but you know I keep thinkin'
'bout makin' my way back
Well, I'm New York City born and raised
but nowadays I'm lost between two shores.
L.A.'s fine but it ain't home
New York's home but it ain't mine no more”.
Neal Diamond’s story is mine as well. Owing to the success
and popularity of the song there must be many others suffering from this
anomic state. In fact he expressed in one song what Durkheim and the others have said in several of their essays and books.
In my teen years I dealt with my revulsion and anathema
of my context by creating Ostranenie about me which is literally,
'making strange'. A term coined in the early 20th century by Russian
Formalist critic and writer Viktor Shklovsky: 'The technique of art is
to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the
difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is
an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.'
Ostranenie, the temporary estrangement of objects and
relationships in order to make them freshly visible, overlaps with
Brecht's Alienation Effect and Marcel Duchamp's concept of Delay. I
guess I did this in order to bring attention to my self hoping that I
may thereby gain a favorable identity while on the other hand trying to
distance my self from the dissonance and vulgarity of my context.
Ostranenie was
really anti metaphorical in that we took the familiar and denied its
identity and value. We tended to see it another way as when I returned
to see townhouses in Brooklyn. While their form and scale were
recognizable their value and connectivity to a recognizable culture and
context were missing. They were shadows of what I had seen a thousand
times except without the collective memories of context and the value of
the life they represented. They were like cardboard stage designs of a foreign context as mock-up models which had no indigenous nor recognizable life.
My scholarly friend, John Warren Jackson explained
how much of classic literature’s purpose was not what was said but the
manner and writer's ability to divert the reader away from reality into
an another world of contemplation and delight. An experience I have had
with many of our classic books with one written by Samuel Johnson.
This understanding coupled with William J. Gordon’s synectics of making the strange familiar has led me to another way of thinking and understanding my conversations with Saudis, Indians, Pakistanis, Koreans, Chinese, Europeans,
etc. They express themselves “tangentially’ and “circuitously” where
the telling and experience of speaking and the language is enjoyed by
both speaker and listener. This is the art of delightful conversations
where one enjoys the presence and animation of another human being.
Knickers and short Pants:
Speaking of identity, Mom bought me knickers and short pants and dressed me daily. I recall dressing differently from all the other children. Few wore cloths as nicely chosen, ironed and clean as mine. I
was always impeccably dressed. My appearance was one of my mother’s
proudest accomplishments. She especially liked dressing my brother in
navy suits and shorts with his blond and curly hair. This was the ideal.
There were lots of ideals and many of them originated in
Europe. I recall feeling the tweeds and the smell of the cloths as my
Mother would fit and dress me. The streets were sunny and clean. We’d
ambulate to the grocery and shops. She would take us visiting friends
and relatives dressed ever so nicely.
The “flaming youth” of the roaring twenties, however became
but memories as the global depression deepened. It was in the war- time
that I came of age to wear these cloths and my Mom was determined not to
let a silly thing like this war hamper my youth and its moment. All of
this was before the so-called juvenile delinquency of the
fifties. My brother would ask my parents what this meant and they would
simply explain it as kids that are bad, meaning that we were not. No, what every my mother thought of me, it was not as a juvenile delinquent. I was not! We were righteous!That did not mean that I was not naughty, mischievous and challenging.
However, a culture obsessed with youth was emerging.
Culturally, the line between naivete and maturity was being defined.
Talk was about to a shortened childhood. I remember, not using bad
language around my parents for fear that they would perceive me as a
grown-up. The same with smoking. All to protect the relationship between
me as a child and them as the gown ups. It was what both of us wanted.
Them to be the parents and us the children. It was the age of innocence!
It was the same when I was leaving junior high school: I
asked my home room teacher, Mr. Cohen if I could remain in his class
next year and not graduate to which he replied that although he was
flattered but I must learn to go on and take the best from the present
and look forward to growing into the future. He was very kind.
Independence and empowerment surrounded the times but I was really happy
being my parent’s child. I soon learned that dependence,
irresponsibility and naivete were dangerous and dysfunctional. I just believed that the changes did not have to be neither as cataclysmic nor
as dramatically clipped as they eventually became. However, this anomie happened and prepared me for a culture of anomie that was to come.
Christina’s father Max witnessed the erosion of his individually designed and constructed furniture being replaced by factory design and manufacture. His life and Her’s was further frustrated by the destruction of their home and city in Leipzig.
We were socially disoriented anomic
loners musing over our fate because we lived in an age of rootless
alienated people. It exacerbated our every decision and stressed our
daily choices. But it did lead from one context and effort to another
as we sought relationships that would fit and welcome us home.
Indeed the craving for the “homey with welcoming aura “was a welcome context to a shipwrecked vagrant or castaway. I can recall going to social gatherings, parties, ambulating streets and working in offices feeling alienated and out of place.
The historic anomic
moments in my life started with my brother’s birth and the shift of me
being the center of my parent’s attention to sharing that role with my
brother including sleeping alone and the nightmares that followed. I was
cast off co-dependence with my parents identity into the emptiness of my
own. The start of the war was no less an anomie as while I slept alone in the living room witnessing the air raid sirens, spotlights in the sky and the looming "black outs".
When I was nine we learned that the Russians, too, had the
“A” bomb, I was greatly in stress, disoriented and confused. I
recall the anomie we experienced in New Haven during the race riots and
particularly the march that paraded in front of our house.
Kessel says that one
of the first areas Durkheim applied anomie to was the shift of an
essentially rural-based feudalism to urban industrial modes of
production as my grandparent’s shift from Rhodes and Rumania to the
USA. This explains their reticence and disdain of their ancestry,
heritage and silence in my childhood. To them it was enough to speak
with disdain and keep silent about their place of origin and ancestry.
My parent’s marriage began with one set of expectations
and the actual experience with another set of realities brought my
mother into anomic shock. Would this not have happened the burdens she carried could have been born joyfully One anomie led to the inability to handle the others, explaining why many anomies of dislocation, change and relocation can be handled with ease and joy. In this regard Kessel continues Durkheim’s message was: “change happens” and anomie is a result as well as a causal factor in more change happening. Change could have been easily born if she had an independent identity. In fact I believe as Durkheim and Kessel that we live in an anomic reality. A perennial Alvin Toffler, “Future shock”
And, finally a kind of prophesy confirming the bibles
prophesy of these end times Kessel says:” While there have certainly
been wars, big and small for a long, long time on this earth, recent
events have called forth...given rise to...emerging anomic states on all
levels...and very well may turn out to be the most unprecedented. The
“twists and turns” of this are by no means. Kessel speaks of the
on-rushing anomic state of this planet.
Kessel adds, “but 9/11, as we so euphemistically call
it, has had a ripple effect of anomie almost unbelievably so. The
excruciating details of the event, which were fed to us like a massive
force-feeding, flooded over us and gave rise to a questioning of almost
every single aspect of our lives.... A whole world...has had to struggle
to “normalize” itself in spite of the persistent anomie...well; ANOMIE
is now the norm, in effect.
Christina and I have played social “tag” all of our lives ,where
tag is a children’s game in which one player pursues the others until
he or she is able to touch one of them, who then in turn becomes the
pursuer. It is a process, which goes on, and on until both sides decide
they have run out of time or energy; where one child chases the others;
and the one who is caught becomes the next chaser.
We have pursued society and our place in it while society has
prevailed upon us and so on. Our context, city, social fabrics,
politics, and religious affiliations have evolved and been replaced. We
too have often been a square peg in a round hole. It always seemed we
were living in wrong places with the wrong people. Not for status,
prestige, or vanity but often ideological, cultural or political. It is
hard to talk about faith to your best friends who are atheists and about aesthetics to bankers and politicians, about gourmet cooking to parents of six children and about world travel to provincial farmers. Many of our context have been humorously ridiculous, ironic and radically absurd. However, by the grace of God we
were able to adapt, adjust and find God’s way. When we lived on Puerto
Rico’s Island we’d simply go nuts and have to return to Manhattan for a
walk down Fifth Avenue to regain our metaphoric equilibrium.
In Saudi Arabia we encountered debilitating anomie by exercising freedom.
I agree with the words spoken at the death of former president Ronald
Regan as I tried for years to convey this to congregations and
students.. It was a Mission of Freedom triggered by acute and sustained anomie
in our life. Even going to India I preached on the bible's comparison
of warriors to grasshoppers and from Galatians choosing freedom over
bondage.
In his essay called “Anemic America” David H. Kessel says about Durheim and anomie that Durheim simply meant...”normlessness.”
And further about anomic people that, “they are...or have
been...weakening as the standard by which to exist...so much so that
people feel “lost,” uncertain, anchorless as to what’s going on.
Sociologically, people love their routines, their patterns of behavior,
their usual ways of thinking and interpretation, in short...“order” or
even more to the point, their “normal” reality.
Anomie Kessel writes results from a transition from one to another society, and in my case from Faille to Simpson Street. Durkheim really delved into this transition in his work:” The Division of Labor in Society” which echoes the many works on the industrialization process and change. There are different kinds and degrees of anomie depending on their context and what has caused them. Some
are natural and in follow God’s will, while other are cataclysmic and
deviate. Others seem to blend from one into another also resulting in
differences and not being stressful. For example, I fit very well in to
new workplaces such as Designs for Business; Edward Stone; Khan and Jacobs; etc.
Kessel continues,” Divorces create anomie...in fact,
divorces themselves are anomic when the norm is marriage, or simply to
stay married. One partner may be thinking one thing while the other
another. One then sues to end the potential contract because there is no
longer agreement and the two are not “in one accord”.
Even the thought of dropping atomic/hydrogen bombs creates anomie. There is a potential for a complete end to all things, as we know them. Even a mere change of jobs can be anomic.
My greatest concern throughout my career has been that when my work in
one or anther firm is complete and I have to announce this to my wife.
She was concerned about the potential change to context, life-style, and
venue .
At parties of which I was not a member I was a awarer of being a
stranger. Everyone knew why they were there and enjoyed the happiness
and social fellowship; except me, I was separated and set apart.
In Saudi I noted that many of the expats arriving in Saudi
were showed symptoms of being disconnected from their native culture,
folkways and habits. Saudi was not the cause of their stress and anxiety
but their co-dependent context was left at their point of origin. To
counter this one of the favorite medical prescriptions by Saudi's
medical professionals was “Valium”as a cure-all for most complaints.
I recalled the many train rides through Europe conversing
with both men and women in so many different languages. The hundreds of
times I sat in offices listening but not understanding Arabic which reoccurred in India, Puerto Rico and so many other countries. I got the
feeling as I watched the film Lost in Translation that I never
want to do this again. The prospect of going through that experience
again unnerved and upset me. It seems it produced the most stress of all
the time I spent abroad. Yet when I recently worked in Doha I
acclimated and enjoyed everything very well .
Being a stranger!
There are times when like King Saul of Israel, one feels cut off and alone. It is times liket hese that one's anomie is intense. As Saul called for David to serenade him so do we call for
pop singers, media, culture to fill the vacuum created by the loss of a
self identity when we feel anomic. Saul responded to the quickening of the Holy Spirit reminding
him that he was out of God’s will and needed to pray and obey God. We
are not any different, but instead we often turn to media and
media-culture to supply us with an identity.
Anomie
is also when a child comes home from school in tears because of a
teacher's prophecy of her horrifying death if she does not recite five
daily prayers. Or when a Christian Pakistani girl is forced to take
classes in order to attend school and she must attend school in order
for her father to work. Her identity and much more was being threatened.
At a cafe, a man is berated because his wife's abaya,
the black cloak that women must wear in public, too daringly outlines
the shape of her upper body. A
researcher at the Education Ministry who raised questions about
religious extremism expressed in some textbooks finds himself suddenly
out of a job.
I have cut and pasted italicized items from the world wide web's Saudi English language newspapers.
These scenes persist in Saudi Arabia even though the
kingdom's leaders — worried at complaints their country is nourishing
Islamic radicalism — have urged officials, the clergy and educators to
preach moderation and promote tolerance of Western values.
Saudi leaders understand the dangers facing their nation
following the Sept. 11 attacks, which were blamed on Saudi dissident
Osama, bin Laden and carried out mostly by Saudis — 15 of the 19
hijackers were from the kingdom.
King Abdullah has urged his people to cling to Islam as "a religion of moderation and wisdom." and has made initiatives to reforms.
The below in italics were cut and pasted off of the world wide web from Saudi English language newspapers.
"Beware of extremism," he said, "because the
annihilation of nations that came before you was caused by religious
extremism."
This month, Minister of Religious Affairs Sheik Saleh
bin Abdulaziz Al Shiek, told mosque preachers they should not "use
Friday sermons to vilify people, vilify countries ... Vilification is
not lawful."
The minister warned that preachers should not allow just
any worshiper to speak out in the mosque after prayers because they
may "say words that incite people. ... Some have called for jihad (holy
war)."
Still, a small yet powerful minority of fanatics persists in
spreading a radical interpretation of the Quran, Islam's holy book, in
their quest to make the kingdom more Islamic.
They are in government, schools, and mosques and among
the muttawa, the religious police who enforce Islamic social codes.
These radicals create an atmosphere that breeds hatred of
the West. They reject any behavior they feel is Western or could lead to
what they view as Western-style decadence — mixing of the sexes,
drinking, and women’s emancipation.
It is said they
try to rule every aspect of people's lives. Extortionist and thug’s
rule use classic bully tactics having everything to gain and nothing to
lose. They have virtually taken a nation hostage. The siege is not by
the USA as they proport, but by them who object to another power moving
in on their territory.
Take the Saudi woman who was out shopping. A muttawa agent
stopped her because her feet were not fully covered and asked a
policeman to make sure she didn't escape while he got her a pair of dark
socks from a nearby shop.
Or the mother who angrily recounts what her 6-year-old
daughter learned in school — when she dies, her face will turn black and
worms and blood will come out of her mouth as punishment for not
praying five times a day.
Or a recent, full-page article in a Saudi daily on the sins of
men and women mixing, signed by a member of the Committee for the
Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which runs the
muttawa.
Then there's the story told by Khalid Nasser, who was
having a quiet coffee with his wife at a mall when a muttawa agent
barged in, ordering women to cover their faces and hands. "Protect your
religion, Muslim women. The Christians and Jews are trying to tempt you
away from it," he screeched.
All of these misleading, superstitious tales are part of the hostile seige of extortionist and bullies.
The agent berated Nasser for 10 minutes and threatened to
drag him to jail because his wife's face was uncovered and her black
cloak was of a type rejected by radicals as un-Islamic because it gives a
hint of a woman's bust.
"Extremists like him know nothing about Islam," Nasser
said later. "They're racists who are biased against anyone who's not as
radical as they are."
While these incidents may seem mainly to infringe on the
daily life of Saudis, they also help create a religious environment in
which militants can find justification for urging murderous actions
against the West and, in particular, the United States.
Before
the Sept. 11 attacks, little attention was paid to fanatic elements in
Saudi schools, mosques and the government's religious establishment.
Now, the hijackings have focused the spotlight on what influence
fundamentalist Islam may have had on the hijackers.
Some
in the West have blamed the hijackers' militancy on the austere form of
Islam the kingdom has adopted, based on the strict teachings of an 18th
century cleric named Muhammad bin Abdel-Wahhab.
"Before
9/11 we lived in a world where we accepted the peculiarities of the
political system in Saudi Arabia," a Western diplomat said on customary
condition of anonymity.
"But that has changed, and the Saudis have to wake up to the
fact that the rest of the world is concerned about the religious
environment in this country," the diplomat added. Non-Saudi’s visiting
and on short stays within the kingdom do not experience the subversive
underlying threats to the kingdoms families, businessmen and religious
leaders. It is wide and pervasive.
The
ruling Saud family is bound by an 18th century pact between its
ancestor, Muhammad bin Saud, and Abdel-Wahhab that allowed the Saud clan
to consolidate its control over Arabia in the early 1900s.
Key
religious positions are still held by Abdel-Wahhab's descendants,
giving them sway over legal and social policy in return for helping
maintain the royal family's legitimacy.
But the pact has meant the ruling family finds itself
constantly in a balancing act between the quest for modernity and the
need not to upset the religious leadership.
That has not always been easy.
When
the late King Faisal introduced girls' education in the early 1960s,
delegation after delegation of radicals protested at the monarch's
court. Today, almost as many girls as boys go to school.
The same extremists fought the introduction of radio,
television and even cars, which they thought were driven by the devil.
When
satellite dishes began sprouting on balconies in the early 1990s,
religious zealots enraged at the amount of flesh on TV often shot at the
dishes. Today, many homes have dishes — though they still are not legal
— and Saudi Arabia is one of the most high-tech Arab countries.
A woman who is a Western-educated member of the royal
family, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said introducing change
slowly has always been important because most Saudis are conservatives
who worry about the West encroaching on their society.
"If you react quickly, the alternative may be worse," the princess said.
"There's
been a huge change in Saudi Arabia in the past three decades," she
said. "People were unequipped to deal with it. The one constant they
hold onto is Islam."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, however, even gentle critics of the kingdom say the Saudis must speed up the pace of change.
Hasan
al-Malki, the Education Ministry employee who was fired, had prepared a
study on extremism in textbooks that contained an unprecedented
questioning of the ideas of Wahabism's founder.
"The
religious curriculum is based on (the teachings of) scholars such as
Sheik Muhammad bin Abdel-Wahhab and the scholars who followed him, who,
at the end of the day, are human beings who are sometimes right and
sometimes wrong," the report said.
Even in South Africa
those growing up under apartheid are now reeling from the loss of there
values and standards. This was created by the pollicies and values of
the new government implementing a nationwide policy of accessible hiring
preferring the less qualified and untrained to the culturally
developed, educated and experienced. This has led to a mass exodus to
heal the anomie and find new homes where they can reconstruct their
former metaphors or find exsitng metaphors into which they can fit; much
like Europeans who migrated to America.
My wife and I noticed that as we changed from one to
another context we spent so much time and energy to build in the new
context that we had little capacity to recall what we had abandoned.
Friends and values of the old context were forgotten and emptied to
make space for the new. Workers, neighborhoods, facilities and resources
demanded that we drop the past and concetrate on the present. In so
doing the failures, troubles along with the former delights and
pleasures were lost and gone. Often we did not communicate with those
were left behind and many of them knew we were starting over again. It
is only now in writing my autobiography I can retrace and rethink the
times, peoples and places we left for what had to follow. Only now that
we could remember, link and sew one to another; we just had so little
capability, capacity and opportunity to do otherwise. In the same
manner, the anomie of change had little to no impact on most of our changes. Our focus on our new identity eclipsed the loss of our old identity.
Life on Hold:
When our life in the world was suspended it revealed
that what we call life is “world-related” being as how it is distracted
and derailed. The intervening circumstance stopped everything and anomie ensued. Anomie
starts when one version of world-life that has been suspended and not conveniently replaced by another. However, if one’s life is already
rooted in a non-worldly mind, then the physical circumstances that
changes will not alter the continuum of the already invulnerable concept
of one's life. In other words, when a person perceives hsi life as a
concept and state of mind then this perception is the reality and he we
regards the physical and material as being transient and temporary with
ideas, beliefs and faith both permanent and invulnerable.
When we continue to live after a cataclysm we enjoy
freedom. We may be free because our income was interrupted and removed. However,
when the gas and electricity stops and the storm is over we learn that
there is yet another life without the media, resources, and energy. It
is also life but not the life we expect, anticipate or find righteous.
It has an anomie of great proportions and scope beyond a mere change of jobs, location and residence.
It is what happens after a hurricane such as we experienced in Florida after Charley and Francis. The
hurricanes of 2004 and my childhood’s hurricanes and blizzards teach
that life as we know is interrupted by these events. A new life then
begins. What we have come to call life is merely a continuum of power
and energy related utilization events. It is the life we have chosen and
relish above all. When it is interrupted and out of our control we are
anxious, upset and stressed. We suffer anomic stress and
disorientation. Our air conditioning,heat, media, electricity, lights,
television, communications, telephone, internet, gas and transportation
modes are discontinued. This in itself is bad but when combined with
loss of home, building, possessions, personal possessions is calamity
and traumatic. It is similar to being robbed or having a loved one
kidnapped or killed.
Our time in war where every one obeys. Imagination
disappears. Everyone instinctively submits to curfews and limitations. I
have surrendered freedoms in favor of being controlled for the common
good. I watched society subordinate its creativity in 1953 when the war
was over. The world wanted the USA to continue to conform and obey while
others rebelled and said “no”. The early fifties was the beginning of a
political and social split in values and interruption in the continuity
of values. In the aftermath of the Alkaida attack on the world trade
center a state of war where everyone was politically unified to rely
upon man to reestablish security and restore the status quo.
The work I have done finding the music for my fiftieth
year high school reunion in 2005 provided a recent example of why I
tended to keep my past a secret and my relations vague and obscure. I
distanced my self from the characters and morality of those that were
before me who’s standards had neither integrity nor morality. In 2004
Ken Whitkin the chairman of the reunion committee requested I chair the
music committee and find a DJ because I suggested in an email that the
next reunion not play rock and roll but the music of our period from
1951 to 1955. He called me and on the phone explained how to find the DJ
and that I was to do every thing to select and finalize the selection.
There was to be no intervention from any one else and I would make the
final decision. Well I found hundreds of providers and authored a n
request for proposal and before sending it I sent him a copy for his
review and the review of all the pother member so of the committee. I
just knew there would be intervention and other suggestion. Lo and
behold there were and I welcome them but they did not participate in
their respond to the RFP. Instead after I had made the final selection
and recommendation Ken called me and told me that Arnie Greenspan whose
club building we were to meet wanted to investigate a possibility. In
the end he selected the band and all my efforts of nearly a year were
totally abandoned without any thanks or a proper follow-up to the
proponerts. Needless to say the sense I had of the leadership and
characters of the committee were not very high. I originally had
suggested to Ken that the club provide the music and we only select the
music. He assured me that this was not possible and I should do this
job. Once again I was duped!
Boris Pasternak reminds us that many new stories will
be written about interrupted, disjointed and broken lives caused by both
external and internal factors. The ones which are uncontrolled by the
individual and yet change everything for the individual are the most
tragic. The life of Jesus and his disciples can be seen from this point
of view as well as the lives of the many millions displaced by wars,
political upheavals, coups and natural disasters. Some of life’s
interruptions are controlled and planned and these can be more easily
concluded. But the ones which are caused by accidents and bombs are
often capricious, arbitrary and often unfairly executed. In Saudi, one
very early Friday morning at sunrise I drove alone to newly opened
corniche road leading to Sunset Beach. Midway I saw the aftermaths of
the tragedy of a Saudi family’s dead bodies and an overturned new white
very large Cadillac. Their dead bodies were on the ground, hanging out
and in the car. All were dead and had apparently struck the medium
divider in the dark and over turned many times. Their
life ended abruptly. In Puerto Rico, Pastor Bergen suddenly died of a
the hemorrhaging of a brain aneurysm and fell off the roof. Suddenly his
young family was left without a father and husband; John Kane suddenly
died of natural causes in Puerto Rico leaving his wife Betty and their
three children, etc. So many died suddenly and before their time leaving
families suddenly without loved one who they counted on to spend the
rest of there lives.
Disasters and changes make us take our homes, family and
arts more seriously. After the 2004 Florida hurricanes we planned to
shutter and be more prepared for the next season and potential of being
hit by another hurricane. In time of trouble and sudden change, I have
turned to God for help, rescue and His salvation. The tsunami of December 2004 left millions without context, family, connections, place, metaphors, reference, nor identity.
Eternal Life:
Did you ever have a friend and or family member suddenly
reappear after a long absence? And then died. Or,when one who died
you were at peace because you believed they remained part of your life
whether you saw them or not. In other words in your mind, whether
they are alive or not or that you see them or not is inconsequent since
their importance in your life has less to do with their flesh and blood
and more to do with an idea you have that about who they might really
be.
This kind of awareness resists anomie
by faith and belief in divine will. It transcends flesh and its changed
status. What you did not have you can not loose. The idea and impact of
anomie is to those of the world whose faith and
credibility depends on tangible coveted flesh and the flesh’s evidence.
My own experience with the death of so many relatives, both parents,
close friends distant acquaintance, pets and icons has been more about
ideas and disputes; about unfinished differences; about ongoing love and
passions; about their well being and affection than it has been about
their physical presence. In most cases my relations have been about
their spirit and soul or there status and meaning or about their
accomplishment or meaning than about their flesh. And when it was about
flesh they have been replaced or eclipsed by more flesh. Most of my
affection, love and concerns for people is about their heart, minds,
courage, passions, zeal, ideas even in their physical presence. The
physical presence bore the passion and mind but the mind and passion is
what lives in their name, song, memory, words, and accomplishments. My
closest friends who were absent for a long time and died are absent but
it is in their physical death that they are no longer a contributing
link in the world. Since they were not present with me their absence by
death or by space is negligible in the realm of their spirit, idea and
my memory of them. There are many deceased persons whom I have known and
loved and whose departures I grieved and bear sorrow. However, the
sadness and sorrow is no more or less for their death than their active
involvement in my life. A loved one's death is not about us but about
them and their hope.
Technically "ab” or “a” or “off”, “away”, or “from" while "nomie" is name and the idea of a name without any objective existence but simply the identity tied to artifacts against which it represents. Nomie is therefore the personal metaphor bridging one with another, the person and the artifacts, place and context.
The Greek's word for lawlessness is anomie such as a person out of the agreed realm of the law and what is right. Anomie (without an identity) is a person who is out of the law and all that the law represents including righteousness, agreement, standards, values and the artifacts and systems that limit and bound such agreements.
Anomie is
personal state of isolation and anxiety resulting from a lack of social
control and regulation including a possible lack of moral standards in a
society. It includes states of disorientation and a definite sense of
alienation and distancing from normalcy and the average workings of
society. Nothing one does seems to have any contexts or make any sense
because the boundaries and gyroscope keeping the social norms from
flying into space are gone. All artwork called "Gibe" by the author and available to purchase on Amazon.com .
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