Your Passport Please Mr.Morals

The Jordanian pilot, ISIS, vengeance, conspiracy theories and the western blue print of all of it have been on the news and social media networks in the past month or so. Regardless of the in-depth analysis, a Jordanian soldier died and the news spread. Every Jordanian was appalled to see Muaz Al Kasabe, a fighter jet pilot, burnt to death by the Islamic State’s militants. When the political leadership decided to retaliate, people expressed boisterous support to the retrieval of social dignity. The Jordanian flag hanging on the picture of the deceased pilot became the profile picture of many...the calls for vengeance for the crime committed against beloved Jordan escalated and national pride only was bolstered.

The idea of a welfare state is that which protects its citizens and provides them with all necessary services and goods to guarantee a dignified life. This promise must be met in the good and bad times. Just as the water authority is committed to supplying non-interrupted high quality water services to its citizens across the Kingdom, the army is committed to acting in utmost bravery and sacrifice to protect the nation against any attack. Sweet national social contract.

But then again, what if a neighbouring country went through a period of draught…will the neigh boring country simply ignore the pleas and suffering of the adjacent nation? And what if that same nation were under attack by a ruthless barbaric force (that posed exclusive danger to that nation and not to neighbouring countries); will people stand looking? Will the excuse of “These barbaric thugs pose no immediate danger and so we must stay still and wait” do? Will the social contract signed exclusively between the sovereign/government and the people living within a restricted geographic boundary hinder the facilitation of services to people outside the contract? To what extent are legality and morality mutually exclusive?

The death of the Jordanian pilot was tragic, but it was no more tragic than the death of thousands of children and civilians in Syria and Iraq at the hands of ISIS. The pilot was courageously performing his duties that involved a possible death…the children in ISIS’s captured lands did nor. Outraged should the society have been with the massacre and enslavement of the neighbouring nation, with equal if not surpassing indignation.

For a nation that had prided itself upon following religious codes of conducts (Muslim and Christian) and has enjoyed a long history of nationalist movements that have fought since the Great Arab Revolution for the dignity, rights and equality of Arabs, the reaction of the Jordanian street is very very disappointing. When an opinion poll reveals that many Jordanians are against the coalition forces fighting ISIS, on the premises that there are other priorities facing national security, it is no surprise to be perplexed and embarrassed. When the same poll was conducted after the slaughter of the pilot, the number of supporters to military action soared. So that means that now that a Jordanian is involved in these vicious acts, we must retaliate.

The argument that many employ against intervention is that what the ISIS is doing is no less barbaric than what the Israeli Defence Forces have been doing to Palestinians for years, or what the Americans are doing/have done in Iraq and Afghanistan, or what dictators in Arab states are doing to their very people. Other arguments are based on the claims that the USA, Israel and Gulf States are funding this bogyman to create chaos and facilitate military intervention. Clearly these arguments are neither invalid nor moral. Despite the factors leading to the birth of ISIS, the people behind it, the symmetry between their barbaric actions and those of other powerful nations, the very bottom line of the issue is wrong is wrong. By not fighting the Islamic State militants on the basis that “we are being tricked into a war orchestrated by the devil himself” is not valid. People are dying, children are being orphaned, and women are being enslaved; this IS happening, and stopping it is a moral necessity, even if injustice is not being fought elsewhere.

According to Larry Nucci, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, there are three areas that encompass social behaviour: the personal domain, the domain of social conventions, and the moral domain. In the last domain, social attitudes and conducts are intrinsically right or wrong… not socially conditioned or constructed. If we go back to morals, if we think about the essence of moral behaviour, any other considerations must be stripped off the argument. The justifications of “we are not in direct danger”, “other priorities”, “shortage of supplies”, “economic constraints”, “the western manipulation” etc. should not be any way relevant. What the ISIS is doing to these people is wrong, and our intervention is right. Loving thy nation does not mean forgetting about other nations, our humanity, or our morality. Perhaps the moral compass is broken in that segment of the society that opposed reaching out a helping hand, or perhaps our understanding of what morals are is flawed. And if it were a matter of social convention – not to interfere unless it is absolutely self-threatening -  and if morals are affected and blinded by national pride, then perhaps revisiting one’s senses of national identification and belonging needs to be done.

To conclude, and in the spirit of such a flaring moral discourse and hypocritical calls for self –sacrifice (writing this article whilst sitting safe and warm at home) I post a video of a song written and performed by a Spanish band (Mundo Chillón**). The artist relays the story of a man selling nations with a thank-you –for- buying gift…a catalogue of nations that you can choose from. Well, perhaps I too should consider disowning my national sense of belonging in the sole case of nationalist romanticism and pride possibly hazing my moral judgement. Ah self-sacrifice and moral-enslavement…thinking about Middle East suffering while recalling a night spent listening to the magical tunes of a Spanish guitar and chirpy songs in a coastal peaceful Spanish city.

** Permission has not been requested to post the video. Please don´t sue me.