freedom of expression. In the case of suicide, free speech dissonantly
clashes with the sanctity of a meaningful life. To rid itself of the
anxiety brought on by this conflict, society cast suicide as a
depraved or even criminal act and its perpetrators are much
castigated.
The suicide violates not only the social contract - but, many will
add, covenants with God or nature. Thomas Aquinas said that - since
organisms strive to survive - suicide is an unnatural act. Moreover,
it adversely affects the community and violates the property rights of
God, the imputed owner of one's spirit. Christianity regards the
immortal soul as a gift and, in Jewish writings, it is a deposit.
Suicide amounts to the abuse or misuse of God's possessions,
temporarily lodged in a corporeal mansion.
This paternalism was propagated, centuries later, by Blackstone, the
codifier of British Law. Suicide - being self-murder - is a grave
felony, which the state has a right to prevent and to punish for.
In certain countries this still is the case. In Israel, for instance,
a soldier is considered to be "military property" and an attempted
suicide is severely punished as "a corruption of a army chattel".
Paternalism, a malignant mutation of benevolence, is about
objectifying people and treating them as possessions. Even
fully-informed and consenting adults are not granted full, unmitigated
autonomy, freedom, and privacy. This tends to breed "victimless
crimes". The "culprits" - gamblers, homosexuals, communists, suicides,
drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes - are "protected from
themselves" by an intrusive nanny state.
The possession of a right creates a corresponding obligation not to
act to frustrate its exercise. Suicide is often the choice of a
mentally and legally competent adult. Life is such a basic and deep
set phenomenon that even the incompetents - the mentally retarded or
mentally insane or minors - can fully gauge its significance and make
"informed" decisions, in my view.
The paternalists claim counterfactually that no competent adult "in
his right mind" will ever decide to commit suicide. They cite the
cases of suicides who survived and felt very happy that they have - as
a compelling reason to intervene. But we all make irreversible
decisions for which, sometimes, we are sorry. It gives no one the
right to interfere.
Paternalism is a slippery slope. Should the state be allowed to
prevent the birth of a genetically defective child or forbid his
parents to marry in the first place?
Should unhealthy adults be forced to abstain from smoking, or steer
clear from alcohol? Should they be coerced to exercise?
Suicide is subject to a double moral standard. People are permitted -
nay, encouraged - to sacrifice their life only in certain, socially
sanctioned, ways. To die on the battlefield or in defense of one's
religion is commendable. This hypocrisy reveals how power structures -
the state, institutional religion, political parties, national
movements - aim to monopolize the lives of citizens and adherents to
do with as they see fit. Suicide threatens this monopoly. Hence the
taboo.
IV. Race
Social Darwinism, sociobiology, and, nowadays, evolutionary psychology
are all derided and disparaged because they try to prove that nature -
more specifically, our genes - determine our traits, our
accomplishments, our behavior patterns, our social status, and, in
many ways, our destiny. Our upbringing and our environment change
little. They simply select from ingrained libraries embedded in our
brain.
Moreover, the discussion of race and race relations is tainted by a
history of recurrent ethnocide and genocide and thwarted by the dogma
of egalitarianism. The (legitimate) question "are all races equal"
thus becomes a private case of the (no less legitimate) "are all men
equal". To ask "can races co-exist peacefully" is thus to embark on
the slippery slope to slavery and Auschwitz. These historical echoes
and the overweening imposition of political correctness prevent any
meaningful - let alone scientific - discourse.
The irony is that "race" - or at least race as determined by skin
color - is a distinctly unscientific concept, concerned more with
appearances (i.e., the color of one's skin, the shape of one's head or
hair), common history, and social politics - than with heredity. Most
human classificatory traits are not concordant. Different taxonomic
criteria conjure up different "races". IQ is a similarly contentious
construct, although it is stable and does predict academic achievement
effectively.
Thus, racist-sounding claims are as unfounded as claims about racial
equality. Still, while the former are treated as an abomination - the
latter are accorded academic respectability and scientific scrutiny.
Consider these two hypotheses:
I. That the IQ (or any other measurable trait) of a given race or
ethnic group is hereditarily determined (i.e., that skin color and IQ
- or another measurable trait - are concordant) and is strongly
correlated with certain types of behavior, life accomplishments, and
social status.
II. That the IQ (or any other quantifiable trait) of a given race or
"ethnic group" is the outcome of social and economic circumstances and
even if strongly correlated with behavior patterns, academic or other
achievements, and social status - which is disputable - is amenable to
"social engineering".
Both theories are falsifiable and both deserve serious, unbiased,
study. That we choose to ignore the first and substantiate the second
demonstrates the pernicious and corrupting effect of political
correctness.
Claims of the type "trait A and trait B are concordant" should be
investigated by scientists, regardless of how politically incorrect
they are. Not so claims of the type "people with trait A are ..." or
"people with trait A do ...". These should be decried as racist tripe.
Thus the statement "The traits of being an Ashkenazi Jew (A) and
suffering from Tay-Sachs induced idiocy (B) are concordant" is true 1
of every 2500 times.
The statements "people who are Jews (i.e., with trait A) are
(narcissists)", or "people who are Jews (i.e., with trait A) do this:
they drink the blood of innocent Christian children during the
Passover rites" - are vile racist and paranoid statements.
People are not created equal. Human diversity - a taboo topic - is a
cause for celebration. It is important to study and ascertain what are
the respective contributions of nature and nurture to the way people -
individuals and groups - grow, develop, and mature. In the pursuit of
this invaluable and essential knowledge, taboos are dangerously
counter-productive.
V. Moral Relativism
Protagoras, the Greek Sophist, was the first to notice that ethical
codes are culture-dependent and vary in different societies,
economies, and geographies. The pragmatist believe that what is right
is merely what society thinks is right at any given moment. Good and
evil are not immutable. No moral principle - and taboos are moral
principles - is universally and eternally true and valid. Morality
applies within cultures but not across them.
But ethical or cultural relativism and the various schools of
pragmatism ignore the fact that certain ethical percepts - probably
grounded in human nature - do appear to be universal and ancient, if
not eternal. Fairness, veracity, keeping promises, moral hierarchy -
permeate all the cultures we have come to know. Nor can certain moral
tenets be explained away as mere expressions of emotions or behavioral
prescriptions - devoid of cognitive content, logic, and a relatedness
to certain facts.
Still, it is easy to prove that most taboos are, indeed, relative.
Incest, suicide, feticide, infanticide, parricide, ethnocide,
genocide, genital mutilation, social castes, and adultery are
normative in certain cultures - and strictly proscribed in others.
Taboos are pragmatic moral principles. They derive their validity from
their efficacy. They are observed because they work, because they
yield solutions and provide results. They disappear or are transformed
when no longer useful.
Incest is likely to be tolerated in a world with limited possibilities
for procreation. Suicide is bound to be encouraged in a society
suffering from extreme scarcity of resources and over-population.
Ethnocentrism, racism and xenophobia will inevitably rear their ugly
heads again in anomic circumstances. None of these taboos is
unassailable.
None of them reflects some objective truth, independent of culture and
circumstances. They are convenient conventions, workable principles,
and regulatory mechanisms - nothing more. That scholars are
frantically trying to convince us otherwise - or to exclude such a
discussion altogether - is a sign of the growing disintegration of our
weakening society.
T H E A U T H O R
SHMUEL (SAM) VAKNIN
Curriculum Vitae
Click on blue text to access relevant web sites - thank you.
Born in 1961 in Qiryat-Yam, Israel.
Served in the Israeli Defence Force (1979-1982) in training and
education units.
Education
Graduated a few semesters in the Technion - Israel Institute of
Technology, Haifa.
Ph.D. in Philosophy (major : Philosophy of Physics) - Pacific Western
University, California.
Graduate of numerous courses in Finance Theory and International
Trading.
Certified E-Commerce Concepts Analyst.
Certified in Psychological Counselling Techniques.
Full proficiency in Hebrew and in English.
Business Experience
1980 to 1983
Founder and co-owner of a chain of computerized information kiosks in
Tel-Aviv, Israel.
1982 to 1985
Senior positions with the Nessim D. Gaon Group of Companies in Geneva,
Paris and New-York (NOGA and APROFIM SA):
- Chief Analyst of Edible Commodities in the Group's Headquarters in
Switzerland.
- Manager of the Research and Analysis Division
- Manager of the Data Processing Division
- Project Manager of The Nigerian Computerized Census
- Vice President in charge of RND and Advanced Technologies
- Vice President in charge of Sovereign Debt Financing
1985 to 1986
Represented Canadian Venture Capital Funds in Israel.
1986 to 1987
General Manager of IPE Ltd. in London. The firm financed international
multi-lateral countertrade and leasing transactions.
1988 to 1990
Co-founder and Director of "Mikbats - Tesuah", a portfolio management
firm based in Tel-Aviv.
Activities included large-scale portfolio management, underwriting,
forex trading and general financial advisory services.
1990 to Present
Free-lance consultant to many of Israel's Blue-Chip firms, mainly on
issues related to the capital markets in Israel, Canada, the UK and
the USA.
Consultant to foreign RND ventures and to Governments on
macro-economic matters.
President of the Israel chapter of the Professors World Peace Academy
(PWPA) and (briefly) Israel representative of the "Washington Times".
1993 to 1994
Co-owner and Director of many business enterprises:
- The Omega and Energy Air-Conditioning Concern
- AVP Financial Consultants
- Handiman Legal Services
Total annual turnover of the group: 10 million USD.
Co-owner, Director and Finance Manager of COSTI Ltd. - Israel's
largest computerized information vendor and developer. Raised funds
through a series of private placements locally, in the USA, Canada and
London.
1993 to 1996
Publisher and Editor of a Capital Markets Newsletter distributed by
subscription only to dozens of subscribers countrywide.
In a legal precedent in 1995 - studied in business schools and law
faculties across Israel - was tried for his role in an attempted
takeover of Israel's Agriculture Bank.
Was interned in the State School of Prison Wardens.
Managed the Central School Library, wrote, published and lectured on
various occasions.
Managed the Internet and International News Department of an Israeli
mass media group, "Ha-Tikshoret and Namer".
Assistant in the Law Faculty in Tel-Aviv University (to Prof. S.G.
Shoham).
1996 to 1999
Financial consultant to leading businesses in Macedonia, Russia and
the Czech Republic.
Collaborated with the Agency of Transformation of Business with
Social Capital.
Economic commentator in "Nova Makedonija", "Dnevnik", "Izvestia",
"Argumenti i Fakti", "The Middle East Times", "Makedonija Denes", "The
New Presence", "Central Europe Review" , and other periodicals and in
the economic programs on various channels of Macedonian Television.
Chief Lecturer in courses organized by the Agency of Transformation,
by the Macedonian Stock Exchange and by the Ministry of Trade.
1999 to 2002
Economic Advisor to the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and to
the Ministry of Finance.
2001 to present
Senior Business Correspondent for United Press International (UPI)
Web and Journalistic Activities
Author of extensive Websites in Psychology ("Malignant Self Love") -
An Open Directory Cool Site
Philosophy ("Philosophical Musings")
Economics and Geopolitics ("World in Conflict and Transition")
Owner of the Narcissistic Abuse Announcement and Study List and the
Narcissism Revisited mailing list (more than 3900 members)
Owner of the Economies in Conflict and Transition Study list.
Editor of mental health disorders and Central and Eastern Europe
categories in web directories (Open Directory, Suite 101, Search
Europe).
Columnist and commentator in "The New Presence", United Press
International (UPI), InternetContent, eBookWeb and "Central Europe
Review".
Publications and Awards
"Managing Investment Portfolios in states of Uncertainty", Limon
Publishers, Tel-Aviv, 1988
"The Gambling Industry", Limon Publishers., Tel-Aviv, 1990
"Requesting my Loved One - Short Stories", Yedioth Aharonot, Tel-Aviv,
1997
"The Macedonian Economy at a Crossroads - On the way to a Healthier
Economy" (with Nikola Gruevski), Skopje, 1998
"Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited", Narcissus Publications,
Prague and Skopje, 1999, 2001, 2002
The Narcissism Series - e-books regarding relationships with abusive
narcissists (Skopje, 1999-2002)
"The Exporters' Pocketbook", Ministry of Trade, Republic of Macedonia,
Skopje, 1999
"The Suffering of Being Kafka" (electronic book of Hebrew Short
Fiction, Prague, 1998)
"After the Rain - How the West Lost the East", Narcissus Publications
in association with Central Europe Review/CEENMI, Prague and Skopje,
2000
Winner of numerous awards, among them the Israeli Education Ministry
Prize (Literature) 1997, The Rotary Club Award for Social Studies
(1976) and the Bilateral Relations Studies Award of the American
Embassy in Israel (1978).
Hundreds of professional articles in all fields of finances and the
economy and numerous articles dealing with geopolitical and political
economic issues published in both print and web periodicals in many
countries.
Many appearances in the electronic media on subjects in philosophy and
the Sciences and concerning economic matters.
Contact Details:
palma@unet.com.mk
vaknin@link.com.mk
My Web Sites:
Economy / Politics:
http://ceeandbalkan.tripod.com/
Psychology:
http://samvak.tripod.com/index.html
Philosophy:
http://philosophos.tripod.com/
Poetry:
http://samvak.tripod.com/contents.html
Return
After the Rain
How the West
Lost the East
The Book
This is a series of articles written and published in 1996-2000 in
Macedonia, in Russia, in Egypt and in the Czech Republic.
How the West lost the East. The economics, the politics, the
geopolitics, the conspiracies, the corruption, the old and the new,
the plough and the internet - it is all here, in colourful and
provocative prose.
From "The Mind of Darkness":
"'The Balkans' - I say - 'is the unconscious of the world'. People
stop to digest this metaphor and then they nod enthusiastically. It is
here that the repressed memories of history, its traumas and fears and
images reside. It is here that the psychodynamics of humanity - the
tectonic clash between Rome and Byzantium, West and East,
Judeo-Christianity and Islam - is still easily discernible. We are
seated at a New Year's dining table, loaded with a roasted pig and
exotic salads. I, the Jew, only half foreign to this cradle of
Slavonics. Four Serbs, five Macedonians. It is in the Balkans that all
ethnic distinctions fail and it is here that they prevail
anachronistically and atavistically. Contradiction and change the only
two fixtures of this tormented region. The women of the Balkan -
buried under provocative mask-like make up, retro hairstyles and too
narrow dresses. The men, clad in sepia colours, old fashioned suits
and turn of the century moustaches. In the background there is the
crying game that is Balkanian music: liturgy and folk and elegy
combined. The smells are heavy with muskular perfumes. It is like time
travel. It is like revisiting one's childhood."
The Author
Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited
and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for
Central Europe Review and eBookWeb , a United Press International
(UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health
and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of
Macedonia.
Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com