hahaha, now Zumba is bad too, along with everything else? And people can't get fit, in a multicultural celebratory way, and be engaged with the political process as well? Perhaps you think Zumba keeps me from voting or reading or being involved in my community? I assure you that is not the case.
There's more than one way to bring about change, as a matter of fact. Getting to know actual people and having fun with them can be a more effective agent of change than alienating others, putting them down constantly, telling them how awful they are, and making veiled threats.
P.S. Oh, yeah... and, my point was, if people can get along in New York, and in other parts of the US (where there is also a Muslim anti-defamation league) they can very well get along in the Middle East too, if it weren't for all the extremists. I grant you the governments of Israel and the various Arab governments are extremely screwed up, but I also suspect that for every 1 incident of violence, you probably have 9 incidents of people either ignoring each other or getting along fairly well, but there is no reporter there saying "News Flash!!! Jews and Muslims Not Fighting Today!!!!"
You're spending more of your energy attacking me than taking part in the discussion. I should've skipped the zumba comment but i guess i was reacting to you telling me to 'take my head out of my butt'. However i would really like to avoid being dragged into trading insults
If you want to debate the points i've made i'll be happy to reply
I do agree with the spirit of what you're saying which (correct me if i'm wrong) seems to be that most people just want to get along and when they are left to their own devices they do just get along; I totally agree with that
What the thread is about is anti-jewish feeling with a leaning towards islamic attitudes
I've tried to make the point that there are drivers which are often out of the control of average people which are driving bad feelings on both sides; the positive aspect of identifying these drivers is that a solution can then be theorised
Like Socrates asking everyone 'why'. It means that we all self reflect. The problem with that is that it uncovers painful truths.
I don't blame jews for the worlds problems. But i do think that they are active participants in the big human drama and like everyone else their actions should be called into question when they are causing damage
Socrates questioning also caused conflict however as people don't like the ugly stuff being talked about....that's why they made him drink poison
If conflicts are to be resolved however it needs for the ugly stuff to be dealt with; by ugly stuff i mean the layers of truth that lie beneath facile, surface ideas such as 'people do things simply because they are anti-semitic'
There's more to these stories, i don't mind trying to plumb those issues but i understand that it is difficult territory for others and that somepeoples knee jerk reaction will be to react with anger and start hurling insults
The same reaction happens when people question Israels policy...they get called 'anti-semite' or 'self hating jew' and the same happens with other countries where people are called 'traitors' or 'unpatriotic'....its all part of a METHOD to shut down dialogue and to stop people questioning
The real danger comes, i think, when people stop questioning
