MB Civic

By James Carroll | Monday, December 4, 2006 | The Boston Globe

News analyst, former foreign correspondent and war correspondent, James Carroll is the senior analyst on the Boston Globe’s editorial board, and he has (to paraphrase the slogan of Smith Barney) won his spurs the old fashioned way: he earned them. Here he takes on the symbolism of Pope Benedict XVI’s mission to Turkey in terms of European identity (birn in response to Islam) and new realities. It is a very hopeful line of thought:

“…Group identity follows from group threat. We know who we are by knowing whom we oppose. From tribalism to nationalism, this polarity has shaped human responses, with the wars of the 20th century as their tragic outcome…The East-West battle is unwinnable. The old structures of mind must be dismantled. We see this very process unfolding in the person of Pope Benedict, who still insists on Europe’s Christian identity. But in Turkey he began to change, which shows the power of Europe’s new hope — the twain meeting at last.”…BS

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/04/the_twain_begin_to_meet/