Quote Originally Posted by Ratzel View Post
Here's a very interesting report written by the CIA regarding Arab reasoning relating to the idea of objective truth. Here's a sample:
The analysis is, I think, a very old one (1964, if I remember correctly). It wouldn't past muster these days in either the social sciences (Marc may care to have a go at it as an athropologist), or in the cultural/social-psychology analytical material that the intelligence community produces today.

This is not to say, of course, that there aren't important cultural traits and tendencies--there are. But they vary by class, age, location, and education far more than the piece credits.

Having studied the region my entire professional career, and having worked both in the Arab world and with many, many Arab colleagues, I simply don't find the generalizations fit in any way that is useful. I've found no greater propensity to lie, for example--a centerpiece of the analysis.

Indeed, rather paradoxically, it is fair to say that most of the Middle East regard the West as having a flexible attitude to the truth, an accusation that one often hears backed with a litany of real and exaggerated grievances regarding colonial and post-colonial Western duplicity. It wouldn't be terribly hard to frame those anecdotes with some quotes from Machiavelli (or Lord Palmerston) and produce a similar alleged portrayal of American and European "culture."

Again, I'm not saying that there are no cultural attitudes at play--there clearly are, they are rich, complex, and multifacted, and they ought to be understood. But something this simplistic is, I think, far more likely to lead case officers and analysts astray than strengthen their actions and judgments.