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Originally Posted by issybird
I think the book did an admirable job of illustrating the murkiness inherent in civilizations and moral systems at odds with each other. While some aspects of each culture are merely different, each has some that are intrinsically evil as best as one judge while trying to maintain a stance of impartiality. That of course is impossible since we can't ever entirely transcend our conditioning, but there are some easy calls. Was it necessary for a strong community to expose infants? Or allow men to beat their wives at will? It was just those inherent weaknesses of a strong community that allowed an alien religion to take root. It was already vulnerable, containing the seeds of its own destruction. Moreover, I'd argue that as with any mature, established culture, one reason it sustained itself was because it supported the existing power structure at the expense of the weakest members of that society. The way of the world, unfortunately.
This is why I found this such a terrific book. It explored such complexities with such a deceptively simple style and story.
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It's a fable, it's supposed to bring questions to light through a simple manner.
I would never abdicate the mistreatment of any group of people, but when it came to conflicts between tribes there was an understood penance to be paid. Whether I deem that right or wrong is a different question than what the effect of changing the rules of the penance would be. Effectively changing the laws in a culture is going to end tears. We've seen this time and time again.
I really enjoyed reading this book after having read Gourevitch's book on Rwanda earlier this year. I think it really broadened the picture that Gourevitch gave of the difficulties in laying blame and why we ever thought we should choose sides in conflicts and culture and peace that are hundreds and thousands of years older than us.
It was a good book. I enjoyed it a lot.