Commentary & Reply - Saving Private Ryan - Sir Halford Mackinder - Letter to the Editor

Parameters, Winter, 2000 by Reed R. Bonadonna, William J. Prior, Michael P. Noonan

* That cities on the "fringes of civilizations" have problems is not a result of the causal power of history (i.e., "they have always hated each other"). Rather, "causes for killing" are clearly related to political, economic, and/or ideological factors.

* Munich may have "whimpered" not in relationship to its categorization as a "hierarchical city" but because it was the end of a painful war. Likewise, Mogadishu was just really beginning to mobilize political and military forces against a number of likely "enemies." That war will also eventually end with a whimper. They all do.

* I am not sure how cities "squander" creative energies by being multicultural. We need some clarification on that point. Some people even like having spaghetti, chow mein, sushi, and hot dogs available on the same street. It is only when differences become politicized that competition can turn into conflict. This is a challenge for democratic politics.

* Most people agree that the fighting between Palestinians and Israelis is not irreconcilable, given historical patterns which have more peaceful times than conflict periods, and not related to profound difference in beliefs, values, and ambitions-- they are all "peoples of the Book(s)" having remarkably similar codes of belief and conduct but very different political experiences. Most of the time, under most conditions, their social relationships are quite peaceful.

* There seems to be some definitional problems with race, blood, and color. If there are "differences in blood" one just might find differences in "race." Race is associated with genotype and phenotype and becomes important when associated with preferential access to valued goods and services. Blood types A, B, or O are not predictors of violence. And color is not the same thing as race or blood. If people, like flowers, come in different colors, we just might have to blame God. We can make color either a benefit or a curse.

* Social organization is most basic at the level of intermarriage--usually an ethnic in-group or out-of-group phenomenon. Hence Lieutenant Colonel Peters' argument about the former Yugoslavia disintegrates. Ethnic groups are not primitive social organizations on an evolutionary march to civilization. They are simply one way human populations organize in support of socialization. The marriage patterns (endogamy) may have been overlooked by modernists, but are critical indicators of political loyalties and economic consumption patterns whether under the rule of an empire or modern state.

* We do know many of the reasons why people kill, and it isn't for a phantasmagoria of identity. There are very real political, economic, and social concerns that form "more than the total of the sum of the parts." But in knowing, there is responsibility.

* A major ethical concern is the implication that single ethnic group or monocultural cities are somehow "best"--if they can be found to exist. Admittedly, there are practical, even compelling arguments for separating people so they can't fight (ethnic cleansing), and/or the deprivation of the object of hatred (genocide). However, the solutions should not be less palatable than the problem.