Howya,
Platt said:
"Say anything critical of a black in this country and you are immediately
accused of being a racist"
This could be rephrased (entirely unjustly, of course!)
"Say anything critical of the U.S./Israel in this forum and you are
immediately accused of being anti-American/Israeli..."
My point: Criticism of "Blacks", "America", "Israel", or "Islamic society"
can seem heavy-handed, if you are either Black, American, Jewish or Muslim.
Collectivisation in terminolgy and blame, does an injustice to the
individual.
None of us are purely Intellectual beings either, we each have a Social
component that it is foolish to try and deny.
We each have loyalties and solidarities to different, sometimes
antagonistic, groups. Group loyalty is a psychic, social and material form
of self-protection. At the last resort, when everything else collapses, we
look to those most like ourselves for protection. Being protective of ones
affiliated group(s) is a natural, rational response.
A 'bad' example of this is in the Balkans. For the last couple of
generations, people had been mixing and intermarrying. Once the former
Communist bosses started using exclusivist-nationalism as a way to retain
(even increase) their power and authority, through collectivist ethnic and
religious strife, it didn't matter that you were former neighbors and
friends with people, the fact that massacres were taking place, or alleged
conquests were being plotted, on a _group_ membership basis, meant that
people started looking to their 'own' kind for protection.
There is a basis for criticising 'Groupthink' in general, but only if
recognising that none of us are immune from this, and only if we remember
that the surest way to breed it, is to accuse others of it.
There is a difference also, between the actions of States, and 'the People'
they allegedly represent. Leo Tolstoy pointed out that most States have an
army not simply to defend against neighboring brigands, but to protect their
ruling classes (domestic brigands) from their own subjects. This is
particularly true in the Middle East.
Religion, cultural affiliation, and governmental structures and political
attitudes may all be elements within the Social level, but they are not
equivalent, nor are they necessarily even related. Problems with one element
does not automatically infer lack of quality in any of the others.
A great way for any regime/wannabe Big Shot to consolidate/increase its
power, and to deflect internal dissent, is to create/focus on an external
enemy. The fact that the poor saps at the bottom of the pile may fall for it
is not necessarily a fatal flaw in their religious or cultural preferences.
Look at the USA for example, it's ruling class has suckered the population
into a near-constant state of "moral" warfare for the past century, to
consolidate an imperial-style influence globally (and checks on dissent
internally). Corporations ride on the back of American Wars for
Freedom/Justice/Goodness/Great-Cause-of-the-Month in the same way that the
British justified colonisation in Africa (spreading civilization and
abolishing slavery, how could you disagree with that? you barbarian!).
Internally at least, the USA is arguably still the freest society in the
world (though for how long it can "maintain an empire abroad and remain a
republic at home" remains to be seen...)
On a related topic:
Bombs are the ultimate expression of Groupthink. They have the unfortunate
tendency to ignore whether they are killing the appropriate people or not.
I'm sure that the intentions of the bombers/shooters, and appeals to the
greater cause, are of the same significance to the bereaved families of
collateral damage, in Afghanistan and The West Bank, as they are in Belfast
and London.
This does not mean that people don't have the right of self defense. No
actions are without consequences however, and if the result of your actions
cause/create the very sort of consequences you are trying to prevent, then
it doesn't matter if you have God, or Reason, or the MoQ on your side.
Good luck,
- Oisín.
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:36 BST