Jack Of Clubs

I was just reading the blog of JackofClubs, someone I've had many heated but interesting debates with in the past. I came across his entry called With Friends Like These... . It is the type of post I can't read without responding to it.

In my opinion, posts like this are extremely dangerous, and are the cause of much of the problems we have today, certainly not the solution.

First of all I think this type of post is completely single sided. Extreme intolerance or agression is a serious problem in the world today. it exists and it should be countered and eradicated. But the suggestion by examples like this that the problem is an exponent of a single cultural or religious group is absolutely ridiculous. Too easily do we forget similar tendensies that exist in our own culture, or that of our other neighbours. Have we forgotten the crimes of Nazi and KKK sympathisers? Of extreme black power groups? of violence between Sikhs and Hindus or the aggression that is displayed by Zionist militants? Furthermore, are we forgetting that even in the case of looking at Muslim fundamentalism, that there is no such thing as Islam versus Christianity? There are similar problems between Islam and Hindus, or even within Islam (Shia and Sunni for instance). This whole construct of "them versus us" with "them" as the evil aggressor just does not exist.

Even worse it is the exact same type of propaganda tat is used by extremists in the Islam camps or elsewhere to incite hatred to other groups. If you want an example of Christians abusing a Muslim, or any other combination of ethnic groups, you will have no problem in finding it. And that is the second major problem. Incidents like this do not even have a proper reference or clear link to facts or truth. Did this happen? Was this the whole story? We don't know. Even if it happened exactly like this, then the question of how representative of a whole culture / religion or ethnic group this is still remains.

In my opinion posting this post contributes to the same problem that it tries to identify and condemn: The aggression of one ethnic group to another. It puts the poster on a same level as the extremist imams that try to convince their followers that Christians are evil, or the Zionist calling for the eradication of Palestinians. As long as we keep hating people, and condemning their beliefs and values, we cannot expect anything else in return.

On a side note: I do agree with the comments made here about the European Union. It is far too eager to expand, and in doing so compromises the values it claims to stand for. until the EU manages to sort out it's decision making structure no one should be allowed to join. After that only when there is a sufficient equity in the values and morals that are displayed by its people and government.

Just semantics

More and more we live in a virtual world. I’m not talking about the virtual reality of computers and the internet; I’m talking about the virtual world of language and semantics. No longer do the mental constructs with which we judge the world around us come primarily from our own experience. It’s the subtle semantics of the media, politicians and other public broadcasters that build our moral views by associating words with certain connotations to events in the world in order for us to perceive them in a certain light.

Terrorists murder soldiers, Suicide bombers kill bystanders, and the Israeli army liquidates a senior Hamas operative. We’re talking about 3 more or less similar events here, which is taking the live(s) of someone outside of any possible lawful context. Still no western media would accuse the Israeli government of murdering Hamas operatives, nor would they say terrorists have liquidated our soldiers. Why?

Prisoners in Guantanamo are detained, the CIA uses extraordinary rendition when dealing with certain prisoners, Hamas have kidnapped an Israeli soldier, and the Israeli have captured senior officials in the Hamas government. Again we are talking about comparable events; impairing someone’s freedom outside of any lawful context. And again no one reports the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas. Why not?

While this may all seem very futile, I think it is tremendously important. And although in general people tend to say “it’s just semantics” I think semantics is really nothing trivial at all. Have we liberated Iraq, or are we occupying it? Is Hamas a terrorist organization, or are they freedom fighters? Is there an axis of evil, and does that imply that whoever is fighting the axis of evil is good? Is George Bush a religious fundamentalist when he asks god to bless America?

I think it’s time we become more aware of the little word games that are played by the powers that be. Subconsciously they are dividing the world in to good and bad, black and white simply by finding different labels for similar events. In stead of being able to use our own subjective judgment on an objective experience, we are now reduced to consuming someone else’s predefined subjective classification of events. You could wonder if we even have an opinion, or if we merely pick one from the opinions on offer. And with the single sidedness of the opinions on offer, I think that is a worrying possibility.