Magical Realism and Information Operations

[Rob Thornton]

Please take my advice on this, and don't try to do it yourself! Ask questions, learn about it, but don't try and use it in any active, I/O way.

Marc, no worries - I'm not a "Do I cut the blue wire with the red stripe, or red wire with the blue stripe?" kinda guy. When I get done with job this I am gonna do some real reading on it though. I've gotta feeling in my next gig it might be helpful - I'm more interested in the background stuff though that could help me understand its place in the things that make peoples what/who they are. Its hard to explain; its kind of like white noise, but white noise that means something. Ex. knowing that about the BN CDR, and seeing the other IA at the table and my interpreter accept it as if it were as solid as the table we ate off of told me something, but damned if I know what it was (aside from the obvious). The other 2 Americans at the table (a Mormon and a N.Carolinian Methodist) were more or less dismissive. Maybe its because I've been some strange places as odd times, maybe its just disposition.

What bothers me right now is that during our cultural trianing with the countless useless things that were taught, nobody thought to tell us how solid and real things like Djinn are to the people here - its like they ommited it by default (sort of a "I don't beleive in them so how could it possibly be relevant to another culture"). It doesn't matter a stitch if I believe in them or not - but it does matter that they do - and somehow it goes beyond not mocking their culture, it goes to understanding who they are - which allows me to understand why someone might do something, or would never do something. Analysis done on a false or bias set of assumptions is largely useless except perhaps in this case for the persons you are trying to understand.

As I look out into the possible places where a person could wind up these days (not just in terms of where material interests might put a person, but identifying the conditions that might allow for an organization like AQ to exploit and set up shop)- border states along the Caspian, any of the "stans" or continental interiors where clans and tribes are the rule, and the religious practices are combination of major movements that are still grounded in local supersticion and supernatural, I'm feeling more then a little ignorant. This war (GWOT in what ever stage and name it morphs into) has so much to do with people, and people are the sum of their experiences and beliefs (however I think their actions are something to do with the context of their environment)
Regards, Rob

[marct]

Hi Rob,

Marc, no worries - I'm not a "Do I cut the blue wire with the red stripe, or red wire with the blue stripe?" kinda guy. When I get done with job this I am gonna do some real reading on it though. I've gotta feeling in my next gig it might be helpful - I'm more interested in the background stuff though that could help me understand its place in the things that make peoples what/who they are. Its hard to explain; its kind of like white noise, but white noise that means something. Ex. knowing that about the BN CDR, and seeing the other IA at the table and my interpreter accept it as if it were as solid as the table we ate off of told me something, but damned if I know what it was (aside from the obvious). The other 2 Americans at the table (a Mormon and a N.Carolinian Methodist) were more or less dismissive. Maybe its because I've been some strange places as odd times, maybe its just disposition.

I 'spose it could be either - "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet, Act !, Scene V) Or, as one of my favorite heretoic mystics once noted "those that have eyes, let them see". To disregard the djinn in a Muslim context would be as insane as disregarding the Holy Ghost in a believeing Christian context (well, that's something Anglicans do well <wry grin>).

Sometime, if we ever end up sitting together in a bar, we can trade stories of "strange places" . Personally, I've seen stuff that would freak most people and that is almost impossible to explain in modern English.

What bothers me right now is that during our cultural trianing with the countless useless things that were taught, nobody thought to tell us how solid and real things like Djinn are to the people here - its like they ommited it by default (sort of a "I don't beleive in them so how could it possibly be relevant to another culture"). It doesn't matter a stitch if I believe in them or not - but it does matter that they do - and somehow it goes beyond not mocking their culture, it goes to understanding who they are - which allows me to understand why someone might do something, or would never do something. Analysis done on a false or bias set of assumptions is largely useless except perhaps in this case for the persons you are trying to understand.

True. It's really a simple thing to do during training, but it is left out. I've seen the same show up in Anthro lectures where the lecturer dismisses things like this as superstition. What was Stans' phrase? "Bravo Sierra" (love it, Stan). If you believe that there are non-physocal actors present in the world and have a set of indicators for their actuions, then they are "real" for you.

As I look out into the possible places where a person could wind up these days (not just in terms of where material interests might put a person, but identifying the conditions that might allow for an organization like AQ to exploit and set up shop)- border states along the Caspian, any of the "stans" or continental interiors where clans and tribes are the rule, and the religious practices are combination of major movements that are still grounded in local supersticion and supernatural, I'm feeling more then a little ignorant. This war (GWOT in what ever stage and name it morphs into) has so much to do with people, and people are the sum of their experiences and beliefs (however I think their actions are something to do with the context of their environment)

Well, Rob, much as I would dearly love to see Magi-Colonels, we are unlikely to develope them <wry grin>. You know, this is sytarting to get into the heart of what I was meaning with the idea of symbolic warfare - symbols are "real", be they djinn, angels or demons, to the poeple who believe in them. As such, they are actors on the stage of life who we cannot afford to disregard.

Marc