4 Comments

1. Reg Webb says:

   November 7, 2009 at 6:30 am

   From the UK, I wonder how much hatred was visited on Irish people living here at the height of the Provisional IRA’s bombing campaign. It was not much reported, although I’m sure it happened, but it didn’t assume epidemic proportions. I don’t know where the tipping point is which triggers tribal violence purely on the basis of one’s tribe. Because the point at which the UK or the US might slip into the horror that was Boznia or Ruanda is unknown, the news organisations which feed us their particular version of events bear a heavy responsibility here. Even if, as has been suggested, the US military is being infiltrated on its own soil, as the police in Afghanistan and Iraq have been infiltrated, we are dealing here with Jehadist extremists, just as we were dealing with armed Irish Republican zealots. Even if infiltration is occurring, we are not dealing with Muslims Per Se here, just as we were not dealing with Irish people in general.

   Whether there is any infiltration of the US military by extremists perverting Islam for their purposes or not, it’s an understandable conclusion to be jumped to by those who need an identifiable target. But we can’t go around suspecting every Christian just because a very few of them go around shooting doctors. And so it is with Muslims. History shows us that we, as a mob, are desperate for some excuse to ddestroy some identifiable group, fuelled by a sense of righteous vengeance. We can’t no what’s in the hearts of other anthropoids of course, but Jane Goodall has reported similar behavior in chimpanzees, which will occasionally go off and destroy another group for no apparent reason. Of course, their local media may have been winding them up with all the good reasons to hate this “other lot”. Perhaps this kind of chimp is seen by their attackers as threatening some sacred tenet of chimpanzee culture, whereas the vast majority of them are the chimp equivalent of Jewish and Muslim shop keepers just trying to make a living.

   In short, when talking up events, or observing our own reactions to them, we should beware the slippery slope. One of these days, if a few people “like us” start going around shooting people, we might become the target for the righteous mob.
2. John says:

   November 8, 2009 at 11:00 pm

   Hello Reg,

   To be honest, your response has given me a lot to think about. I have to give it more thought before giving a decent reply… As such I am putting off replying to this until I have the chance to really absorb what you are saying.

   You’ve churned my mind, and that’s a good thing, guy.

   Namaste.
3. Reg Webb says:

   November 9, 2009 at 6:19 am

   Thanks John. Trying not to make the results of my thinking aloud even more vague, I worry about our tribal triggers, and that news organisations may use them in an unprincipled attempt to boost their ratings.

   If I have any advice for myself this morning, it is that i should categorise as I would be categorised.
4. UUMA Convocation, growth and reform, Ft. Hood, and more « uuworld.org : The Interdependent Web says:

   March 11, 2010 at 5:59 pm

   [...] their own. If there is any sense to be of the massacre at Fort Hood, I think it should be that hatred always yields violence. I fear, however, that many will only think of this as another reason why not to trust Muslims. [...]