A rchive Date
[ 09-03-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/richardson.html
Looking for a new view on world
MARK RICHARDSON, For the London Free Press
2004-03-09
There's a difference between unity and unanimity. But, lately, it has been a distinction under siege.
Scanning the pages of this newspaper Friday, I came across two headlines: Labatt plant a jewel in beer mega-merger was one; Source of Iraq terror argued was the other. Both show the vulnerability of variety.
The Labatt story is close to home. Interbrew of Belgium, Labatt's parent company, announced last Wednesday an $11.4-billion deal to combine with AmBev of Brazil. Some analysts are saying the Brazilian brewers will muscle in their own brands and close Canadian plants. Globalization may rear its ugly head in the Forest City. Is there anything we can do?
We could retreat to our neighbourhoods and start talking about "family." Clan Richardson, for example, could become a noble collection of historical heroes. Everyone else, in this model, would belong to the dark side.
As one wag put it: "There's none so perfect as me and thee . . . and I'm not too sure about thee."
But this is tribalism. We could wax romantic about loving our own, but "us" always implies "them."
In real life, last Tuesday's savage bombings of Shiite Muslim religious shrines was likely an example of tribalism at work. If it was, how can anything that kills 271 in Karbala and Baghdad be considered a solution?
Fortunately, Jonathan Sacks has a third option. The Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, London, England, Sacks is pushing a new take on the Bible.
Sacks says universalism -- or globalization -- has, for too long, been the West's answer to tribalism. In his book The Dignity of Difference and his 2002 Templeton lecture -- see www.chiefrabbi.org -- Sacks calls universalism the "ghost of Plato."
The Greek philosopher said only in abstract, universal forms do we approach reality. This, Sacks says, is a dangerous notion. If truths are universal and I care about truth, then I must either convert you or eliminate you.
So universalism leads to bloodshed. Hence inquisitions, jihads and the grisly track record of empires throughout history.
The Bible, says Sacks, gives us a better answer. It moves from the universal to the particular, but does not give in to tribalism.
"The paradox," he says, "is this: the God of Abraham is the God of all humanity, but the faith of Abraham is not the faith of all humanity."
Melchizedek, Jethro and Pharoah's daughter, for example, were all "with God" yet outside the Hebrew covenant. So, says Sacks, you don't have to be a member of the Jewish community to be a man or woman of God.
Not surprisingly, Sacks has taken flack from some of his fellow Jews. But he explains how God can be God of all humanity and yet not demand adherence to one way.
Sacks looks at the Hebrew word for holy (kadosh) and says "after Babel and the collapse of the global project, God calls on one people -- Abraham, Sarah and their children -- and says 'Be different' (kadosh)."
For Sacks, the Bible shows us holiness creating difference. In fact, "the real miracle at the heart of monotheism is not there is one God . . . The miracle is that (the) unity (of God) creates diversity."
So, perhaps, our Western search for the lowest common denominator has been misguided. Maybe the solution to war doesn't have to be McWorld.
After I read Sacks, I took in the Celebration of Diversity at Brescia College. There were table displays, exotic snacks and dancers from Greece, India and the Sudan, all in advance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racism (March 21).
At first, the foreign nature of the program threatened to leave me cold. But then I was welcomed inside and, after meeting some of the participants, I felt more a part of things. By the time I left, I was reminded of what Sacks had said: we all come from the same source, and difference is a sign of vitality.
Mark Richardson is a London freelance writer. His column appears Wednesdays. Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
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