J'accuse! Charleton Heston, The Ten Commandments, 1956
[from FB post: January 23, 2017]
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment always bothered me growing up. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" Why not just say "Don't lie?" What was "false witness" anyway? The other commandments were pretty much straightforward. "Thou shalt not kill" was not "Thou shalt not cause another person's vital signs to be extinguished" With the other commandments so straightforward, why was the Ninth so obtuse? It always caused me some degree of doubt.
Without getting into a big religious debate (which will no doubt happen anyway), my life has taught me that lying is, in fact, necessary to get by. Anyone who ever saw the Jim Carey film "Liar, liar" would immediately conclude that a life without lying to some degree would really be just unlivable. To lie is to say something that is not true. There are times when we are better off hiding the truth or not speaking it -- we learn this from an early age notwithstanding the Mosaic Code which admonishes us about doing it.
So back to the Ninth Commandment -- why do I even bring it up? Here in Saudi Arabia this commandment actually springs to life. I would like to remind everyone, I am really not all that far from Jerusalem - it is only a few hours from here by flight and I live along the caravan routes that went from the Levant or Egypt, through the Hejaz Mountains to either Yemen or Oman, so this is all kind of "the Biblical Zone". The culture of the Arabian Peninsula is ancient too -- in some ways it has not changed for centuries (millenia?) in the face of huge changes across the globe. The culture of Saudi Arabia is remarkably resilient and I believe it keeps many traditions that date back a couple thousand years. So again - I bring up the Ninth Commandment.
To cut to the chase - if two people here swear on the Quran something happened, "it happened". The potential for using this to take revenge on others is then huge. The burden of proof is virtually zero, especially if those doing the accusing are morally irreproachable (read: very religious people). Of course, there are civilian limits to this. If not, the country would simply cease to function. Nonetheless it happens, and happens a lot. Me, my colleagues, my Saudi friends - we have all been on the receiving end of it. And let me tell you, nothing sucks more than being called into your boss's office to hear you have been accused of something ridiculous which MUST BE taken seriously regardless of its unlikelihood. For me, it is like being in some dream sequence where someone higher up is telling you "now I know all of this is probably not true, but we have to discuss it". Since this is a culture of compromise, regardless of how baseless or ridiculous the accusation is, there is a "negotiation". Those who brought forth the false claim get "something" and the one whom the accusation is put against must accommodate the accusers to some degree. "Swallowing a bitter pill" does not really cover the feeling.
What are the ramifications of this? I live in a society where everyone is simply TERRIFIED of pissing other people off for fear of them taking some kind of revenge via this channel. It can get serious - it can go to court, but in most cases an elder is consulted to make/keep the peace. One of my friends here had a brother sent to jail on moral charges simply because two very religious types decided he had the "potential" to be a troublemaker in high school! So the Saudis have a pathological need that there be no conflict - EVER. For those of you who have been in Japan and thought the Japanese were the world champions of politeness and "no offense", let me assure you, they are rank amateurs compared to the Saudis. I think mainly because beneath the surface, this places roils and seethes with animosity against rival tribes or simply against personal rivals.
So my friends, the Ninth Commandment really is around for a reason. There still exist cultures where slander and libel are actually part of everyday life. I am not naive enough to think that people in the USA or other Western countries are not slanderous or libelous, but it does not carry the legal implications and ramifications that it has here. Because of this, I now understand the "fear" I have felt among my colleagues since I moved here. The fear of offending others is palpable and so strange to me. The longer I stay, the more I feel it weigh on me and the more I feel this place is very "other". It really does feel wonderful "not to give a shit" - I never realized how much I took that for granted until now.
Not much I would like to add to this other than I still get angry reading it and remembering these incidents. This ultimately was the biggest reason I left Saudi Arabia, a country where rumors and accusations must be taken seriously. How odd and how disturbing.