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Freedom of speech indeed - no YOU grow up!
Feb. 6th, 2006 11:52 amThere are things that I am fed up hearing and things that I wish would be easier to express and understand.
1) The muslim world should "grow up".
Ok, this is beyond bizarre. Fundamentalists in any society will not "grow up" unless the society changes, and this is a slow and painstaking process, possible, but hard, and only under the right circumstances, which we are far away from now in most places. (and indeed, no, mr Bush is not familiar with them)
Try telling violent anti abortion evangelical Christians to grow up, and see what happens.
2) There are sociological dynamics that are just as big as the religious ones playing a huge part in why certain people are as locked as they are in their views, and THIS is a fact that is greatly overlooked in the "discussion" of the "muslim" problem. As well as the taboo tainted factors of how you turn out if you grow up in a violent and underprivileged cultural environment.
We don't GET how it is to grow up and be molded in such cultural spheres (even if those spheres are immigrant circles in privileged countries), and they don't GET several aspects of us. THIS is what I view as the most important and biggest fucking forgotten fact in this war. The minute the shaft is recognized, the slim odds of it being overbridged are strengthened.
I have trouble expressing this because it's so complex, the discussions I've had with Iranian dissidents, Kurdish farmers and freedom fighters and exiled Bosnians, as well as "normal" muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey and the middle East have presented a picture of the huge differences in means and values, but also the greatness of those people in those environments that strive for reason and peace.
Their efforts are so superior to ours because they are created under such impossibly hard pressure.
3) There is nothing valiant in a newspaper printing pictures that everyone will know be deeply provoking to fundamentalist groups from a vastly different sociological and cultural background.
There is something valiant in being a leader of those groups and speaking for peace. But the way of Gandhi is always the hardest, and there will be more war, anyone can see that. If not over this, than over something else.
So sending the muslim world home with a red note and the order to "grow up" is as laughable as telling someone who thinks the Danish caricature printing (and every country that happily has followed the trend) is despicable, that they are against free speech.
As long as no one wants to change any fucking laws promoting free speech, we're not against it, ok?
Ok.
We do however have the right to despise warmongers on both sides, and we have the right to despise warmongers on the side of welfare, water closets, education and peaceful living a little more than the ones that grew up in countries where free speech isn't even in the vocabulary.
Make no mistake. I want terrorists, honor murderers and others that can not find their way to respect the laws of their new country, convicted, or even in some cases deported. I have a very hard heart for the individually proved atrocious act, but I won't be a damn sheep of wrath, following the lead of warmongers saying baaa, this is bbaaaad, all is baaad.
This fight will never be won by winning, and that's the trick of it, it can only be won by realizing just how vastly different, uneven and complex the sides are. And just how many people are stuck in the middle bleeding. And yeah, bleeding people will very rarely go the Gandhi way, but they will say Baaa if someone ignites them.
1) The muslim world should "grow up".
Ok, this is beyond bizarre. Fundamentalists in any society will not "grow up" unless the society changes, and this is a slow and painstaking process, possible, but hard, and only under the right circumstances, which we are far away from now in most places. (and indeed, no, mr Bush is not familiar with them)
Try telling violent anti abortion evangelical Christians to grow up, and see what happens.
2) There are sociological dynamics that are just as big as the religious ones playing a huge part in why certain people are as locked as they are in their views, and THIS is a fact that is greatly overlooked in the "discussion" of the "muslim" problem. As well as the taboo tainted factors of how you turn out if you grow up in a violent and underprivileged cultural environment.
We don't GET how it is to grow up and be molded in such cultural spheres (even if those spheres are immigrant circles in privileged countries), and they don't GET several aspects of us. THIS is what I view as the most important and biggest fucking forgotten fact in this war. The minute the shaft is recognized, the slim odds of it being overbridged are strengthened.
I have trouble expressing this because it's so complex, the discussions I've had with Iranian dissidents, Kurdish farmers and freedom fighters and exiled Bosnians, as well as "normal" muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey and the middle East have presented a picture of the huge differences in means and values, but also the greatness of those people in those environments that strive for reason and peace.
Their efforts are so superior to ours because they are created under such impossibly hard pressure.
3) There is nothing valiant in a newspaper printing pictures that everyone will know be deeply provoking to fundamentalist groups from a vastly different sociological and cultural background.
There is something valiant in being a leader of those groups and speaking for peace. But the way of Gandhi is always the hardest, and there will be more war, anyone can see that. If not over this, than over something else.
So sending the muslim world home with a red note and the order to "grow up" is as laughable as telling someone who thinks the Danish caricature printing (and every country that happily has followed the trend) is despicable, that they are against free speech.
As long as no one wants to change any fucking laws promoting free speech, we're not against it, ok?
Ok.
We do however have the right to despise warmongers on both sides, and we have the right to despise warmongers on the side of welfare, water closets, education and peaceful living a little more than the ones that grew up in countries where free speech isn't even in the vocabulary.
Make no mistake. I want terrorists, honor murderers and others that can not find their way to respect the laws of their new country, convicted, or even in some cases deported. I have a very hard heart for the individually proved atrocious act, but I won't be a damn sheep of wrath, following the lead of warmongers saying baaa, this is bbaaaad, all is baaad.
This fight will never be won by winning, and that's the trick of it, it can only be won by realizing just how vastly different, uneven and complex the sides are. And just how many people are stuck in the middle bleeding. And yeah, bleeding people will very rarely go the Gandhi way, but they will say Baaa if someone ignites them.
