Know Thine Enemy

It is important to know yourself. In fact, I previously talked a little about this in “Know Thyself“. Recently, I have been thinking of another adage – “Know Thine Enemy”. I was reminded of it by all of the controversy over Columbia University having invited the president of Iran to speak there.

It has long been known to military strategists that “knowing your enemy” is just as important as knowing yourself. Although I don’t do it often enough, I have on occasion, forced myself to listen to speeches made by those I consider to be in opposition to all I hold dear. I have on occasion, forced myself to read articles written by those I highly disagree with. I do this all in the interest of keeping tabs on what my “enemies” are up to, how they think, and what they want me to think. And I don’t have to believe what they say, even when the “enemy” lies, it tells me something.

I understand that many are offended by the president of Iran. Many have very strong feelings of aversion. These feelings make it very easy to experience a “knee-jerk” reaction and stay stuck there. However, if you stop and think about it for a moment, what is the threat? Can a person’s words hurt you? Are you afraid he will sway you? (You know, good critical thinking skills can help you guard against being swayed by charismatic speakers.) Or are you wanting to hide your head in the sand and ignore him – pretend he doesn’t exist?

I think it is especially dangerous right now to get stuck in “knee-jerk” reactions, or hide our heads in the sand. I think we all need to be vigilant and question everything. I think we all need to use our heads and think. Do we want to rely on what the current administration tells us about leaders of foreign countries? Perhaps they tell us the truth sometimes,…but how do we know when they tell the truth from when they tell us what they want us to think? Why don’t we find out for ourselves? Let the man speak. Then, when he puts his foot in his mouth, he has done it to himself. Then we can all be sure of what a jerk he is.

I also think that the representative of Columbia University diminished his own credibility by his scathing remarks prior to letting Iran’s president speak. It just made it look like a set-up rather than an open forum. I know, he probably bowed to public opinion, but I was not impressed. I would have preferred letting Iran’s president speak, then asking him the tough questions and perhaps debunking his arguments. Why give the man warning before he speaks? It just made him clean up what he might otherwise have said. Reminded me of a kangaroo court…Personally, I don’t like to show my hand so quickly – I like the other guy to reveal himself before I take him apart.

Then there is the issue of values. We say we value free speech, but we continue to put conditions on it. Do we let fear rule us? Do we let fear lead us from our values? If we turn our backs on our values when the going gets tough, do we really value what we say we value? Freedom of speech is not just for us to have our say, but also for us to be allowed to hear what others have to say. Even when we don’t agree with what is being said. Perhaps it is especially important when we don’t agree. It is another form of “checks and balances” – as long as we are allowed to hear all sides of an issue, it is just that much harder for our government to program us with their agenda.

On the other hand, we don’t have to listen when someone speaks. I wonder what would have happened if no one showed up at the speech? What if no one demonstrated outside and no one attended the speech? He certainly would not have received the same publicity. It’s rather like the Christians protesting a movie like “The Da Vinci Code”. Many people had not even heard of the book or the movie. They probably would not have even gone to see it. But when such an uproar was made, those very people now had to go see it – just to see what all the “hoopla” was about. We all know about this syndrome, don’t we? In such a case, we give power to what we fight. By allowing our “knee-jerk” reactions to rule us, we fail to think things through…

Protests and demonstrations definitely have their place – mostly when we want to draw attention to something. For example the recent demonstrations in Jena, or the union strike at GM can be effective tools for change. But as tools for censorship, protests and demonstrations often have the opposite effect…

An aside: I found it interesting that the president of Iran states that they don’t have homosexuals. I think maybe it is because they have a death penalty for homosexuality – they have killed them off. Just like it says in the bible…