Theme: Ethnoculture

WHY DO ARABS “MAKE STUFF UP” AND SPEAK NONSENSE, AND WITH BRAVADO?
Yampeleg, (all):

“Because of hermes and the cart of lies”

A large part of my work consists of the study of methods of lying across the spectrum, especially sex differences, but also cultural differences.

The Middle east (Traditionally ‘near east’ or ‘orient’) has never practiced anything approximating the equivalent of testimonial (and later empirical) truth at any scale, and the entire history of the regions civilizations consists of mythicization (making stuff up) which is rather obvious in the various religious texts.

The reasons for this are understood but won’t go into them at depth here.

It’s partly one of those “the first tech discoverd is the worst tech, and all later tech’s are better because they had the earlier techs to improve upon, and the older techs couldn’t be reformed because they’d become an inescapable tradition upon which all culture was built.” Supernatural Religion is the worst first tech it turns out.

The rest is reducible to the challenge of tribal conflict and continuouis political turnover by conquest that plagued that part of the world.

And the 83 average IQ thing doesn’t help either. IT’s not like empirical and operational prose matters to 2/3 of the population when any semblance of logic crashes in the low 90s.

And so there is a reason for the greek fable of “Hermes and the Cart of Lies”

HERMES AND THE ARABS
(Hermes and the Cart of Lies)
—“Hermes filled a cart with lies and dishonesty and all sorts of wicked tricks, and he journeyed in this cart throughout the land, going hither and thither from one tribe to another, dispensing to each nation a small portion of his wares. When he reached the land of the Arabs, so the story goes, his cart suddenly broke down along the way and was stuck there. The Arabs seized the contents of the cart as if it were a merchant’s valuable cargo, stripping the cart bare and preventing Hermes from continuing on his journey, although there were still some people he had not yet visited. As a result, Arabs are liars and charlatans, as I myself have learned from experience. There is not a word of truth that springs from their lips.”– Source: Aesop’s Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World’s Classics): Oxford, 2002.

(Greek Original)
Ἑρμῆς ἅμαξαν ψευσμάτων τε πληρώσας
ἀπάτης τε πολλῆς καὶ πανουργίης πάσης,
ἤλαυνε διὰ γῆς, ἄλλο φῦλον ἐξ ἄλλου
σχεδίην ἀμείβων καὶ μέρος τι τῶν ὤνων
νέμων ἑκάστῳ μικρόν. ὡς δὲ τῷ χώρῳ
τῷ τῶν Ἀράβων ἐπῆλθε καὶ διεξῄει,
λέγουσιν αὐτοῦ συντριβεῖσαν ἐξαίφνης
ἐπισταθῆναι τὴν ἅμαξαν. οἱ δ’ ὥσπερ
πολύτιμον ἁρπάζοντες ἐμπόρου φόρτον,
ἐκένωσαν αὐτὴν οὐδ’ ἀφῆκαν εἰς ἄλλους
ἔτι προελθεῖν, καίπερ ὄντας, ἀνθρώπους.
ἐντεῦθεν Ἄραβές εἰσιν, ὡς ἐπειράθην,
ψεῦσταί τε καὶ γόητες, ὧν ἐπὶ γλώσσης
οὐδὲν κάθηται ῥῆμα τῆς ἀληθείης.

by Babrius
https://t.co/9UWrGpx9xH

Babrius (Greek: Βάβριος, Bábrios; c. 2nd century), somewhere between 3rd century BC and 3rd century AD. He was also known as Babrias (Βαβρίας) or Gabrias (Γαβρίας), and was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of which are known today as Aesop’s Fables.
Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Hellenized Roman, whose original name may have been Valerius. He lived in the East, probably in Syria, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity.

-Cheers
CD

Reply addressees: @Yampeleg