Spiral Logic IV Debate goes spiral (2/4)

“When Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot secretly drew their lines on the map of the Levant to carve up the Ottoman Empire in May 1916, at the highest of the First World War, they could scarcely have imagined the mess they would set in train: ---“ (The Economist; May 14, 2016, page 9)

            Sinful Sykes and Picot drew their (not God’s) lines, playing God. Something had to give. As it turned out, something did give. Breaking bad.

            Imperial betrayal, Palestinian issue, Arab resentment, wars, colonizations, oppression, slavery, radicalism, uprisings and current terrorism. Line drawers and line-crossers. Heaven or hell. Us or them.

            White Americans drew the lines to conquer the predominantly black virgin island, North America and played God, to realize the Manifest Destiny. Those early settlers, with the Bible and weapon on hands, played the bee game of colonization as part of their marketing strategy. They were hornets disguising themselves as pollinators.

            Japan’s military crossed the line between US and THEM. Japan was not one of them. Out of the chorus line. So she deserves to be judged guilty and punished, humiliated.

            American presidents loved lining. “If you’re not with us, you’re with terrorists.” This either-or logic, the product of single-celled logic proved to be an effective weapon for ambitious monotheists to manipulate atheists or polytheists into submission, by free trade or else… .

            How does the straight logic work the way it does? It works like the swindler’s logic does. Either-or logic that begins with the line. Are you in or out? Pro or Con? With us or with them? The line, the L-word, loves life, Lord, lofty, luminary vision of light (heaven) over darkness (hell).