People today are forming group identities with groups they donтАЩt understand over conflicts where they understand none of the complexities.
News Flash: The world is full of people and conflicting perspectives and narratives.
For example:
You can say the Holy Wars were an evil war of aggression in the name of religion. I can say the Holy Wars were an attempt to unify a fractionalized Europe and push back expanding Islamic powers that reached the very gates of Western European power.
LetтАЩs trace this conflict and who is right and who is wrong down through history and debate who is right.
You know what? ItтАЩs way easier than that debate though.
No one is right. We are a species whose great triumphs lie in our ability to form and hold surprisingly large groups. Our great evils are committed when we identify others as outside our group and dehumanize them.
AND WE ALL DO IT. BECAUSE ITS PART OF OUR BIOLOGY.
ItтАЩs really remarkable how religion nailed the cure without really understanding the scientific cause.
ItтАЩs joy and love. ThatтАЩs all that will reduce the violence in the world today. That is it. I think it has been robustly demonstrated that globalization alone wonтАЩt do it.
We have to figure out how to see people as people.
And invading a deanтАЩs dinner? Or portraying him in an anti-Semitic way?
Sorry - not sorry - that kind of thinking and conduct is part of the problem and a perpetuation of violence.
Will love and joy heal the world for real?
I donтАЩt know. I get the skepticism.
But in all seriousness: Have we ever really fucking tried it in a real and large scale way? And I am not talking in a lip service kind of way.
Exactly. Working on the ground in Palestine would make far more of a difference than protesting in a backyard.
People today are forming group identities with groups they donтАЩt understand over conflicts where they understand none of the complexities.
News Flash: The world is full of people and conflicting perspectives and narratives.
For example:
You can say the Holy Wars were an evil war of aggression in the name of religion. I can say the Holy Wars were an attempt to unify a fractionalized Europe and push back expanding Islamic powers that reached the very gates of Western European power.
LetтАЩs trace this conflict and who is right and who is wrong down through history and debate who is right.
You know what? ItтАЩs way easier than that debate though.
No one is right. We are a species whose great triumphs lie in our ability to form and hold surprisingly large groups. Our great evils are committed when we identify others as outside our group and dehumanize them.
AND WE ALL DO IT. BECAUSE ITS PART OF OUR BIOLOGY.
ItтАЩs really remarkable how religion nailed the cure without really understanding the scientific cause.
ItтАЩs joy and love. ThatтАЩs all that will reduce the violence in the world today. That is it. I think it has been robustly demonstrated that globalization alone wonтАЩt do it.
We have to figure out how to see people as people.
And invading a deanтАЩs dinner? Or portraying him in an anti-Semitic way?
Sorry - not sorry - that kind of thinking and conduct is part of the problem and a perpetuation of violence.
Will love and joy heal the world for real?
I donтАЩt know. I get the skepticism.
But in all seriousness: Have we ever really fucking tried it in a real and large scale way? And I am not talking in a lip service kind of way.