From: MLuftmensch-AT-hubcap.mlnet.com (Michael Luftmensch)
Subject: Subject: Re-Suicide bombs & Middle Eastern mentality 
Date: 05 Jul 1996 06:12:28 GMT



Subject: Re-Suicide bombs & Middle Eastern mentality 

Greetings Zeynep. 

The elements you write of constituting a middle eastern 
mentality are so general that they seem universal. Islam
does not have a global monopoly on submission. Nor is 
belief in fate or the celebration of self-sacrifice unique 
to the peoples of the middle east.  

*

You also wrote that you were mystified by the willful 
martyrdom of the suicide bombers: 

   "What does it mean for the human existence that the 
    social-being can override the most basic instinct 
    of self-preservation?"

Given the social nature of human existence, self-preservation 
can only be understood in collective terms. Instinctual 
repression is bound up with socialization; it is the rule 
rather than the exception. 


Michael 



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