Episode 2. Let’s start with his lede:
In the West, the predominant unit of societal organization is the nation. And the individual constituent unit of the nation is the citizen. In the East the primary unit of social organization is the tribe. And the individual constituent unit is the tribesmen. These are two different breeds of cat. They see the world completely differently and see themselves completely differently.
K, for starters, “tribesmen” is plural, not singular. Ahem. I’ll just say that I don’t think Pressfield has ever really studied “the East,” if he thinks that everything east of Anatolia is tribal. It hasn’t been for a couple of centuries. Indeed, one of the reasons Afghanistan is such a wicked problem is because it is uniquely “tribal” (I’m getting to that)—none of the surrounding countries, whether Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, or Turkmenistan, are overridingly “tribal” the way he is describing “the East” like a 19th century Orientalist.
Then there is the assumption that the “self versus other” mindset is really any fundamentally different when the unit of organization is national versus tribal. It’s not, not if we’re generalizing at such a high level. If only he had stopped there. Pressfield continues:
The citizen, remember, is a fairly recent invention. There never was such a thing as a citizen until 500 B.C. in Athens. Even today, if you think about the totality of the globe, there are only legitimate citizens pretty much where there are industrialized nations, you know, in Western Europe, North and South America, Japan.
Yeah, f*ck the Chinese, Indonesians, Australians, Iranians, Turks, Indians, Russians, Kazakhs, Sri Lankans. Their citizenry is not “legitimate” because it’s not… umm, Athenian? Also, the U.S. doesn’t exclude slaves and former slaves from citizenship anymore. It’s worth noting.
A citizen is an autonomous individual. A citizen is free. A citizen claims the right to determine his or her own destiny. A citizen can rise or fall, pursue their dreams, pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That’s not a citizen. All citizenship refers to is membership in a political community. Even within the west, there are fundamental differences in how people define and extend citizenship between countries. And note the assumptions: Afghans are not autonomous individuals, they do not make free choices, they do not have the right to live their lives as they see fit.
I won’t even go any further than these first few descriptions. Pressfield is working off such a fundamental misunderstanding of citizenship, nationhood, and identity, that discussing his “point” in any more detail would be like arguing why I am not a tomato sandwich. It is just ludicrous analysis. I mean, really, this guy comes off like some 19th century British Imperialist discussing the prospects for “civilising the savages” or something. It’s borderline offensive for its quasi-racism alone, to say nothing of his apparent contempt for all other research in this area, and the theory behind citizenship and nationhood and tribe and how Afghanistan really isn’t.
Perhaps Pressfield could try “immersing” himself in what he’s talking about before recording a video about it.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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aieee. I’m with Greer in the last post, I don’t think this is harsh enough. To be fair, no, Pressfield is not a historian. And his works (novels) have all been on ancient Greece, so he probably doesn’t know too much about Central Asia. But again, this wouldn’t be any different than any other drunken pontification if it wasn’t for the fact that his Athens = greatest thing evarrrr, screw everyone who doesn’t follow the narrow teleological historiography that he invented sort of thing is embraced with open arms by the US Military. Yikes.
My favorite part is that 500 BC is “recent.” I guess if we’re comparing it to the entire span of human history (conservatively 150,000 years) then sure, citizenship is pretty “recent.” But then again, so are water reservoirs and the printed word, and I’m betting those have slightly more impact on daily Afghan life than whatever ethereal notion of citizenship they happen to have.
Oh, and the bit about them being a “different species of cat” is just awesome! I wonder when we get to start measuring their filthy Afghan skulls…
I agree with AJK and Greer–i came out against what you said about Rashid, and this is precisely the type of shit you should be saving it up for.