view from istanbul future is ottoman

The View from Istanbul: The Future Is Ottoman

A reader in Istanbul responds to my suggestion, in the wake of the

Mark Steyn censorship case in Canada, that the world will increasingly

look like the Ottoman Empire: diverse but boring.

A few details about the "Ottoman" model.

As I've said a couple of times before, the world is a naturally

multi-cultural place. But what is called a "multi-cultural" society

is hardly that -- since that is impossible by definition. A society

cannot exist where multiple tribes live entirely isolated lives

without ever running into each other and clashing. The actual

reality is "poly-ethnicism" and, therefore, "hetero-culturalism."

And to be able to deal with the chaotic outcome of that, an

oppressive "meta- culture" has to be put in place. By which I mean

the masquerade of "civility" that passes for "liberal culture" when

those multiple ethnies have to cohabit under a single geopolitical

administrative unit.

In fact, under that configuration, not even the constituent groups

are at peace with, or within, themselves. In order to deal with

inter-group rivalry, everyone has to develop stealthy ways to push

their agenda, even to survive. For example, "statism" is greatly

favored (paradoxically) by all since that monopoly on violence is

viewed as the guaranteed and the ultimate tool for protecting even

so-called "natural" rights. That's because if one group "naturally"

excels at anything, it instantly becomes visible to other groups

and easily becomes a matter of dispute. So, what you would consider

what is rightfully yours under conditions of "normalcy" becomes

artificially tainted with the protection of the state, and becomes

viewed as a "privilege."

Each group has to learn to be secretive (e.g. about how much

property, influence, connections, etc. they have) in order to avoid

the "evil eye" of the others.

If a member of one group develops a close relationship with a

member of another group due to perfectly natural reasons (such as

sharing the same educational, professional, residential

environment), this is immediately interpreted as having a tendency

to "sell out" your co-ethnics.

All in all, everyone ends up having to develop an extremely

"polite" code of conduct to minimize tensions. As a result,

"civilization" becomes equated and identified with "civility," and

that in turn with "civil niceties." You won't believe how

mind-numbingly polite -- and/or "artificially" spontaneous (read

"extra inclusive") -- everyone is, especially in "elite" circles.

Moves like these of so-called Islamic "councils" -- whatever that

is -- in places like Canada is the knee-jerk reaction of ethnies

that are accustomed to this warped, reduced, and very narrow notion

of "civilization." Since "politeness" for them is the same thing as

being "civilized," and since that in turn is a kind of truce-making

("let's stop murdering each other because it is too expensive for

both parties; let's, instead, continue hating each others' guts by

devising intrigues and insidious games of back-stabbing with

kid-gloves"), they naturally perceive any "criticism" of Islam --

or even just the Muslims and their frequently ethnically

traditional ways -- not as any honest attempt to "improve" or

"reform" it (God forbid) but as an attack on the group. Criticism?

How uncivilized!

One of the consequences of this is the dumbing down of "critical

thought." Remember the extreme example of the impact of the

environment on IQ that you give now and then, Steve? Locking up

someone in the basement and throwing away the key? Well, I'm not

saying this to counter the data that the ex-Ottoman land's IQ

average appears to be 88-90 -- in fact, that is likely to be skewed

since the sample is probably from the urban environment; more

likely, it is at best around 85 among the population at large. But

there *is* the fact of social mechanisms and culture -- otherwise

each and every European country (Germany, France, Netherlands,

Italy, etc.) would be identical not only in the number but in the

types of scientific and artistic advances and their historical

order. So, think of this over-riding and heavy-handed culture of

politeness as one form of locking you up in a social atmosphere and

throwing away the key. If everyone around you is a member of this

or that tribe/ethny, faith/sect, or culture, whatever you say,

you'll end up offending someone, so the only thing the "elites" in

the Ottoman lands is equating civilization with blandest and the

blankest form of politeness. Which is hardly conducive to

creativity and discovery.)

All my youth, I have fantasized that one day I could escape this

stultifying pseudo-civility; that over there, on the other side of

the pond, I could one day have my MLK moment. Instead, the whole

world seems to be swinging in the other direction, and becoming

Ottoman -- i.e. a civilizational quagmire behind the facade of a

cheap, perfumed eclecticism of grandiosity barely breathing (with a

case of halitosis) under the dank and oppressive

pseudo-intellectualism of politeness.

It seems we -- the undead and the unescaped -- will die as slaves

to this pseudo-civility.