General Discussion

frazzled

(18,402 posts)

31. The old ones were artificial, too

Tue Sep 9, 2014, 03:43 PM

Sep 2014

The hundreds of years of rule by the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, to speak only of modern times (and we could go back much farther than that), were just as "artificial."

Fact is: all nation-states are artificial constructs. We just seem to accept some more easily than others. These geopolitical entities, just like the world's languages, change and evolve over time and with history. I am not a fundamentalist, so I accept these changes that occur with history. Many will change again. Sometimes they are bad changes, the result of invasions; sometimes necessary and just ones, agreed upon by the world community.

That region has been a clusterfuck for thousands of years--for millennia, as we like to say: invaded by Babylonians and Greeks and Romans and European Crusaders and Turks and so forth. So who is to say that today's configurations are any worse?

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Who Knows What 'The Levant' Is? [View all] MineralMan Sep 2014 OP

It's a term that dates back to British colonialism when Turkey ruled most Cleita Sep 2014 #1

I'm not "fond" of the term. MineralMan Sep 2014 #4

Earlier, actually. Donald Ian Rankin Sep 2014 #9

The term far predates British colonialism. Xithras Sep 2014 #11

That's where we got the name for Lebanon dtotire Sep 2014 #2

Lebanon's name comes from the Arabic for "white." NuclearDem Sep 2014 #17

I prefer Clusterfuckistan NightWatcher Sep 2014 #3

Indeed it is a lesson. MineralMan Sep 2014 #6

We don't remember what happened 10 years ago, much less 50 or 100 NightWatcher Sep 2014 #10

Indeed. Most Americans don't travel widely in that region. MineralMan Sep 2014 #13

I like Mess O'Potamia myself. n/t Cleita Sep 2014 #7

I have,I grew up in metro Detroit with a huge arab sufrommich Sep 2014 #5

Yes, Lebanon was part of that region. It still is. MineralMan Sep 2014 #8

how about Ile du Levant? hobbit709 Sep 2014 #12

Not really part of the region. MineralMan Sep 2014 #14

Was there once back in the days when my body wouldn't send people screaming away. hobbit709 Sep 2014 #16

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." -- Ambrose Bierce nt Nuclear Unicorn Sep 2014 #15

Yet another great MM thread. longship Sep 2014 #18

I looked up that area in Turkey on Google Maps MineralMan Sep 2014 #20

Not that uncommon on DU2 muriel_volestrangler Sep 2014 #19

Cool. I just added another one to the mix. MineralMan Sep 2014 #21

Excluding "alert abuse" excludes the more recent results from DU3 muriel_volestrangler Sep 2014 #24

Thanks very much. I'll remember that. MineralMan Sep 2014 #27

I'm surprised to hear that people don't know that term. I've been aware of it since childhood. Bluenorthwest Sep 2014 #22

I knew the term as well, and have been there, too. MineralMan Sep 2014 #23

Myself, as well, but had many Lebanese neighbors. raven mad Sep 2014 #38

As I understand it, "Levant" is a more accurate translation of the Arabic "al-Sham". Marr Sep 2014 #25

I knew....but, I'm so old I can even quote Oscar Levant. ; ) blm Sep 2014 #26

Oscar on the Jack Parr show.... Bluenorthwest Sep 2014 #28

It's a useful term, in that ... frazzled Sep 2014 #29

I agree. The actual current national boundaries don't MineralMan Sep 2014 #30

The old ones were artificial, too frazzled Sep 2014 #31

That's true. It has been a contentious region for a very long time. MineralMan Sep 2014 #32

Isn't it that homely piano player who co-starred in "An American In Paris"? Paladin Sep 2014 #33

Well played! MineralMan Sep 2014 #34

Thank you, sir. I'm here all week. Paladin Sep 2014 #36

My guess is the word comes from lever, the French verb for lifting, maybe because the JDPriestly Sep 2014 #35

No, your guess was right, according to the OED: muriel_volestrangler Sep 2014 #37