Weekly Commentary: Recognizing cultural differences

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
17 February '11


Are we really all on the same page?

That seems to be an article of faith for many in the West.

And in a way this is ironic because the very same people who claim to embrace pluralism reject the notion that different groupings of people can have radically different value systems.

This is hardly a benign phenomenon.

Assert that all human beings share the same "universal" (Western) value system and that religious, political and other beliefs that are at odds with these universal values are no more than window dressing but not truly adhered to by those who claim to embrace them and your analysis and in turn policy making may be catastrophically blind.

And it happens.

Not so long ago an Israeli acting out Iran's president in a simulation exercise assumed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not use nuclear weapons to destroy Israel if he had the opportunity. The Israeli, who spent years in the intelligence community, could not accept the notion that Ahmadinejad and his top echelon genuinely believed in a well-documented value system. A value system that, when weighing the "cost" of a devastating Israeli second (according to foreign press reports nuclear) strike against Iran against the "benefit" of destroying the Jewish State concludes that the benefit is worth the price.

We should respect our enemies.

And the first element of respect is not to dismiss either their stated goals or their stated values.

Yes. It means taking into account far worse scenarios than those derived from potentially dangerous simplifying "best case scenario" assumptions.

But the alternative is devastatingly reckless.

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