learn something every day...

[capri0mni]

Just out of curiosity, I went nosing around to see if I could find any Quaker LJ communities and I found quakers. Deep in the replies in this thread, davetrow gave some cultural background for that old admonition to "Turn the other cheek":

1. For the Pharisees, the left hand was considered unclean and it was taboo to use it.


2. The backhanded slap was always intended as an insult -- given to someone who is considered inferior.


3. The foreslap (slapping with the palm of the hand) was reserved for equals.

So, if someone strikes your right cheek, then it must be a backhanded slap (i.e. an insult), because a Pharisee must use his right hand, to avoid the taboo. If, instead of slapping the person back, you present your left cheek, you force the attacker to break a taboo, acknowledge your equality or simply stop hitting you. In one simple act, the balance of power is shifted.

Kind of puts a whole different spin on this classic advice on non-violent response, doesn't it?

I have much more respect for that saying now...

Comments

[rob-t-firefly.livejournal.com]

That is damned interesting!!! I had no idea. Must remember this one, thank you so much for the post!

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I can't help thinking about how, in all the intervening centuries, "turning the other cheek" has come to be seen as the human equivalent of a puppy exposing its belly in surrender.

When in actuality, it was more like a Greenpeace activist chaining herself to a tree...or the civil rights protesters of the '60's, who dared sit down at a "white's only" lunch counter -- peaceful, but hardly "passive."

Well.... there have been rumors that Jesus was a radical leftist hippie...

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I knew the left hand is considered unclean in lots of cultures, but didn't know that! Heee! Useful knowledge.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

It would be a lot more useful, though, if our culture were a taboo-ridden as the Pharisees. These days, you're just as likely to get backslapped with the left hand (now that we have running water, and durable, absorbant 2-ply toilet tissue).

Still, the principle message is the same -- instead of answering insult with insult, find some way to force the other person to acknowledge your equality. We just have to be more creative in finding answers to that puzzle.

And there's also the third option: simply walk away.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a friend of mine told me about that a couple of years ago. I don't know how it mutated into "look away".

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, you do turn your gaze to the side, if you turn your cheek... But I'd always thought it had mutated into "meek surrender to abuse."

Are you sure you're not thinking of "Turn a blind eye"?

[brassfire.livejournal.com]

Very, very cool. Wish it was always easy to see how to shift the balance of power though.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Amd even if the "seeing how" were easy, following through with the consequences in a non-violent way is still damned hard.

But then again, few things worth doing are easy to do.