I haven't gotten enough sleep, still wearing off the tension from the computer malice and the craft onslaught.
But, I have pulled together enough brain cells to realize that I need to let out some more thoughts that do not help my trust of mankind.
The muffin was discussing this some the other day, in relation to the neverending issues of Palestine and Israel.
People do not want peace. Some people who say they do actually do mean it- the ones who go out of their way to be kind to other people, the ones who don't incite violence, the ones who actually care about their own lives enough to know that they should do unto other and they would have done to themselves.
But many people, especially in this day and age who talk about peace and say they want it, don't really want it --- if they wanted it they wouldn't let violence beget violence. They wouldn't be clinging to their political, moral, religious dogmas instead of actually trying to change their perspective. They wouldn't be projecting their own fears of themselves, their own issues with their own conditions, their need to be put above others on other people. These people see only what they want to see. They are unwilling to accept that other people who think differently, who dress differently, who live differently are not infidels or heretics or people to be feared and mistrusted simply because they have not the same point of view.
I bring this up at all because of the whole mess with the teacher in the sudan with the teddy bear and the violence that is springing up from such a non threatening act, which is being taken as blasphemy.
This kind of extremism can be and has been seen in almost every major culture and religion in one form or another. How anyone who can call himself a man of God and demand the deliberate harm of another person for any reason is a complete mindblow to me. But wait, this isn't really about God anyway --- it's about who believes the right thing. who says the right thing. Whose morals are better. Whose book is the truth.
it's never about who DOES the right thing, despite what a bunch of loud mouthed single minded ignorant people say.
The situation degrades itself to the level of highschool thinking. I'm right, and your not. here's why. it's printed right here.
You know why we never hear more about people who are doing the right thing instead of flapping their pie holes (assuming their religion allows the consumption of pie)? Because the people who do the right thing are to busy doing and being, not talking. Why does mankind always like to pay more attention to the people that talk? You get in trouble for talkking too much at school, then grow up and are expected to listen to windbag politicians and talk show hosts that obvious didn't get yelled at enough in school, apparently. Where's the consistency?
Do as I say, not as I do. It's like the cops who pull you over for speeding, but then they run red lights, don't use turn signals and get involved in other forms of corruption.
Who wants to listen, let alone obey someone whose actions contradict their own words?
I'm getting slightly off track here....
What I'm trying to say is that actual good people never make the news. They don't care if they end up on the news. It's the talkers, the self righteous, the extremists who want everyone to know that they are right.
We as humans have far too many labels, divisions and borders that we have dissected ourselves into to function as a unit. How can anyone band together to make any kind of positive progress when we're too busy pointing fingers at each other because they belong to that party, and he believes that, and she's from that country....
We will never have peace unless people actually want it enough to drop their labels and step out from behind their flags and badges and remember that the names and borders of countires are arbitrary and only exist because we have set them up and named them, and that it is perfectly possible for two, if not more people to come to the same conclusion by different means.
People love to make life a black and white thing, a heroic GOOD against EVIL. And it's never the case. Everyone has the capacity and potential for both. it's your experiences and the way you act upon them that denotes which end you may tip towards.
Do I have to whip out Harry Potter at this point? Do i have to mention how gray many of the characters ended up being? oh I don't know, Snape? Dumbledore? Harry? Oh course, the fundamentalists would have my head for bringing that up because they are so misguided, self righteous, and afraid of change or even researching views that are different that they can't pull their heads out of their own asses.
My point being that NO ONE is perfect and NO ONE is totally evil. People love to treat other people as two dimensional characters and don't even bother to ask or think of how and why someone may act or speak as they do. they don't bother to try to know other people.
People don't want peace because they are afraid of change. the ones that want or have power don't want to lose it. Same with money. But money only has meaning because we give it meaning, and the same with language. Language is just noises that are agreed upon by a group. Writing is just scribbles.
Actions have far more meaning, because they are translatable through any language. Turn off the sound on the TV and watch people's faces. Watch their body language and see what they do.
Actions say everything.
And until people's actions reflect what they say they want, I have no reason to believe that peace is desired. until people stop trying to control and manipulate each other for petty reasons, I will not believe that peace is desired. Until people can realize that they are following fallable man made laws, are sitting behind manmade borders, touting manmade dogmas and see that they are only limiting themselves further by doing so, I will not believe that peace is desired.
I understand that in thid day and age, it is difficult to argue for peace when it seems that one cannot fight violent people with it- especially when all these people understand is violence. But there is a reason these people are violent to begin with - and it is rooted in violence, in neglect, in greed, in BAD ACTIONS. The circumstances did not spring out of nowhere.
So, in fighting violence with violence, it may seem like the only way and that it works, but all it does it stave off the violence until another bout comes around. it's treating a symptom, not the cause. It's like fighting a group of video game warriors who just keep coming at you, instead of realizing that there is a location somewhere in the game that they are spawning from, and them dealing with that.
Violence still begets violence. it does not, and never has solved anything. Until man can open its eyes enough to address seriously WHY we have this problem to being with, to retrace our steps, to look into the eyes and step into the shoes of those we call our enemies and understand why they are who they are, we we never have peace.
The people who want peace, and have ideas of how to get it, all always silenced. ever notice that? because people don't want peace.
The way to start peace is to act right from the get go - for example, to show those school kids who NAMED the teddy bear THEMSELVES by voting, that they can be better ( and hell, they already are) than the adults they are supposed to look up to who are at best, behaving like very bad children. if those kids are taught and but into a culture of violence, oppression/repression, dogma, and maltreatment of themselves and mankind, of course we will have more suicide bombers on our hand. Who can believe in peace in an environment like that?
Forest for the trees people.
But, I have pulled together enough brain cells to realize that I need to let out some more thoughts that do not help my trust of mankind.
The muffin was discussing this some the other day, in relation to the neverending issues of Palestine and Israel.
People do not want peace. Some people who say they do actually do mean it- the ones who go out of their way to be kind to other people, the ones who don't incite violence, the ones who actually care about their own lives enough to know that they should do unto other and they would have done to themselves.
But many people, especially in this day and age who talk about peace and say they want it, don't really want it --- if they wanted it they wouldn't let violence beget violence. They wouldn't be clinging to their political, moral, religious dogmas instead of actually trying to change their perspective. They wouldn't be projecting their own fears of themselves, their own issues with their own conditions, their need to be put above others on other people. These people see only what they want to see. They are unwilling to accept that other people who think differently, who dress differently, who live differently are not infidels or heretics or people to be feared and mistrusted simply because they have not the same point of view.
I bring this up at all because of the whole mess with the teacher in the sudan with the teddy bear and the violence that is springing up from such a non threatening act, which is being taken as blasphemy.
This kind of extremism can be and has been seen in almost every major culture and religion in one form or another. How anyone who can call himself a man of God and demand the deliberate harm of another person for any reason is a complete mindblow to me. But wait, this isn't really about God anyway --- it's about who believes the right thing. who says the right thing. Whose morals are better. Whose book is the truth.
it's never about who DOES the right thing, despite what a bunch of loud mouthed single minded ignorant people say.
The situation degrades itself to the level of highschool thinking. I'm right, and your not. here's why. it's printed right here.
You know why we never hear more about people who are doing the right thing instead of flapping their pie holes (assuming their religion allows the consumption of pie)? Because the people who do the right thing are to busy doing and being, not talking. Why does mankind always like to pay more attention to the people that talk? You get in trouble for talkking too much at school, then grow up and are expected to listen to windbag politicians and talk show hosts that obvious didn't get yelled at enough in school, apparently. Where's the consistency?
Do as I say, not as I do. It's like the cops who pull you over for speeding, but then they run red lights, don't use turn signals and get involved in other forms of corruption.
Who wants to listen, let alone obey someone whose actions contradict their own words?
I'm getting slightly off track here....
What I'm trying to say is that actual good people never make the news. They don't care if they end up on the news. It's the talkers, the self righteous, the extremists who want everyone to know that they are right.
We as humans have far too many labels, divisions and borders that we have dissected ourselves into to function as a unit. How can anyone band together to make any kind of positive progress when we're too busy pointing fingers at each other because they belong to that party, and he believes that, and she's from that country....
We will never have peace unless people actually want it enough to drop their labels and step out from behind their flags and badges and remember that the names and borders of countires are arbitrary and only exist because we have set them up and named them, and that it is perfectly possible for two, if not more people to come to the same conclusion by different means.
People love to make life a black and white thing, a heroic GOOD against EVIL. And it's never the case. Everyone has the capacity and potential for both. it's your experiences and the way you act upon them that denotes which end you may tip towards.
Do I have to whip out Harry Potter at this point? Do i have to mention how gray many of the characters ended up being? oh I don't know, Snape? Dumbledore? Harry? Oh course, the fundamentalists would have my head for bringing that up because they are so misguided, self righteous, and afraid of change or even researching views that are different that they can't pull their heads out of their own asses.
My point being that NO ONE is perfect and NO ONE is totally evil. People love to treat other people as two dimensional characters and don't even bother to ask or think of how and why someone may act or speak as they do. they don't bother to try to know other people.
People don't want peace because they are afraid of change. the ones that want or have power don't want to lose it. Same with money. But money only has meaning because we give it meaning, and the same with language. Language is just noises that are agreed upon by a group. Writing is just scribbles.
Actions have far more meaning, because they are translatable through any language. Turn off the sound on the TV and watch people's faces. Watch their body language and see what they do.
Actions say everything.
And until people's actions reflect what they say they want, I have no reason to believe that peace is desired. until people stop trying to control and manipulate each other for petty reasons, I will not believe that peace is desired. Until people can realize that they are following fallable man made laws, are sitting behind manmade borders, touting manmade dogmas and see that they are only limiting themselves further by doing so, I will not believe that peace is desired.
I understand that in thid day and age, it is difficult to argue for peace when it seems that one cannot fight violent people with it- especially when all these people understand is violence. But there is a reason these people are violent to begin with - and it is rooted in violence, in neglect, in greed, in BAD ACTIONS. The circumstances did not spring out of nowhere.
So, in fighting violence with violence, it may seem like the only way and that it works, but all it does it stave off the violence until another bout comes around. it's treating a symptom, not the cause. It's like fighting a group of video game warriors who just keep coming at you, instead of realizing that there is a location somewhere in the game that they are spawning from, and them dealing with that.
Violence still begets violence. it does not, and never has solved anything. Until man can open its eyes enough to address seriously WHY we have this problem to being with, to retrace our steps, to look into the eyes and step into the shoes of those we call our enemies and understand why they are who they are, we we never have peace.
The people who want peace, and have ideas of how to get it, all always silenced. ever notice that? because people don't want peace.
The way to start peace is to act right from the get go - for example, to show those school kids who NAMED the teddy bear THEMSELVES by voting, that they can be better ( and hell, they already are) than the adults they are supposed to look up to who are at best, behaving like very bad children. if those kids are taught and but into a culture of violence, oppression/repression, dogma, and maltreatment of themselves and mankind, of course we will have more suicide bombers on our hand. Who can believe in peace in an environment like that?
Forest for the trees people.
posted by Peep at
11/30/2007 09:10:00 AM
1 Comments:
I have to disagree with you here. The vast majority of people do want peace. The trouble is that it only takes a small handful of people to prevent it.
The reality is that nearly everybody in this world wants a few basic things. They want their basic safety needs met. Food, shelter, security, etc. They also want to make sure their children have the same, if not better. If tomorrow you could somehow guarantee a good job and standard of living for everybody in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, except for a few extreme religious zealots on either side, you'd be golden.
One of the disputes that comes up is over Israeli settlements. why are those settlements there? Primarily because it's cheap land in the suburbs where Israelis can have nice big homes and yards at the expense of potential security issues. It is practically speaking little different than moving to the far suburbs, or an "up and coming" neighborhood here in the states, it just has larger geopolitical concerns.
The problem is that it's difficult to come to any kind of settlement because nobody feels safe. You've got terrorists and the military fighting eachother in people's neighborhoods and the people, desperate for some safety, give power to those who promise to end that and appear to be most capable of delivering. The PLO lost elections in palestine, not because of the fight with Israel, but because they were corrupt and did a shitty job of providing basic services.
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