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Date Posted: 11:29:44 12/13/10 Mon
Author: stewart
Subject: Re: ignorance
In reply to: En Pointe 's message, "Re: ignorance" on 18:55:47 12/10/10 Fri

I appreciate your response and believe me I don't disagree that the loss of cultural diversity is problematic in terms of well derived and valuable traditions art, music and pharmacopeia being lost to mankind in general. Perhaps you misunderstand me . The nationalism/ethnic argument is, I believe, definitely not hyperbole as it pertains to many conflicts and their beginnings. That some dissent from the common view is always the case. You misunderstand me if you feel I don't appreciate diversity and want for the globalization of the world. That couldn't be further from the truth . What I ultimately desire is that we celebrate those differences but look beyond them when it comes to accepting one another. That if we accept one another on gods spiritual level the diversity becomes the patchwork of the glorious quilt that is man/womankind as opposed to the reason for conflict. Acceptance of our sameness doesn't mean we cannot be diverse. If I can go back to the quilt analogy then each piece may be made from different threads, different colours and different patterns. Yet all pieces have the same basic DNA of the quilt. We will never be truly us or them because genetically we are all woven from the same cloth. Genetic science as it moves forward is bearing the vast majority of this out. I believe nature's selected randomness is God's way to make this world an interesting place.

Man's need for power and control over his environment have precipitated much good but also much suffering. Unfortunately the urbanization of mankind has made the simple a nomadic life all but impossible except in the most remote places. What may become the future is we will return to that nomadic existence based on a transitory culture driven by climate change social unrest etc.


If you take the former Yugoslavia for example you will find peoples religious and ethnic backgrounds were exploited to the point where neighbour turned against neighbour. Suddenly enthicity and religious diversity became the reason to commit attrocities against those who you once called friends. That's mankind's folly, not the diversity of man, but his inability to see his pathetic humanness and his gullibility in accepting otherwise.

As a student of the Cambodian conflict let me say that Pol Pot's Kmer Rouge were anything but democratic. They practiced a form of nationalistic nihilism and anti intellectualism that knew no bounds. America supported them because, for a time, we thought it better to support anything that was anti Chinese and in doing so could establish a secret front in a country bordering Vietnam. Vietnam being the country in which were entangled in a proxy war against the communists who were being supported by Chinese and Russians. That some at the time were advocating nukes in that conflict or that we "bomb them back to the stone age" speaks loudly to power run amok. I have ultimate respect for those who became, for whatever reason, a part of that conflict and who fought there. That war will always for me be about losing a neighbour and older friend on my block who, being called up, went and did his duty for his country. He lost his life in the jungle ,he, like most at the time, knew nothing of the inner workings of that conflict.His number was picked out of a raffle cage and he proudly went . Now his cross stands next to all those who died along with him .To me he was a hero, to some he was a victim, to god he was a soul lost. Whatever your opinions about that war it's end came too late for him and too many like him.Love on Ya Stewart

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[> [> [> [> [> Re: ignorance -- En Pointe, 15:28:53 12/13/10 Mon

Stewart:

I actually agree with you about seeing our differences and moving beyond them... I just disagree about nationalism being the root cause for human conflict. There are so many other causative factors which are equally, and in some cases, much more implicit in human conflict than nationalism. For example, you mentioned religion in an earlier post... Aside from religion, there is ethnicity, perceived biological differences arising from the belief in 'racial' distinctions among humans, etc.

With regards to my post on Pol Pot, it was NOT to imply that he was a great person... quite the opposite. Merely that non-Western nations such as Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, etc. have been construed by the West as diplomatically and humanly inferior to those countries whose governments are derived from a Western European democratic tradition. Ironically, the foreign policies of many Western nations influenced many of these non-Western nations to implement antagonistic policies towards the United States, for example (i.e. Japan's involvement in WWII, Pol Pot's turn towards mass-genocide after an initial enamor of democracy, etc.). One of my professor's at uni here was a 'friend' of Pol Pot, and he described Pol Pot as 'misunderstood' and that his policies were an 'experiment' gone awry. I intensely debated these issues with this particular professor... mainly on the point that experiments are not conducted on a population at large and that he could have ended his policies of mass relocation, forced enslavement and genocide when realizing the errors of this 'experiment.' Although I was the only one in class to question this professor's fondness for Pol Pot, I for one do not share in his romanticism of Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s, nor for his romanticism of Pol Pot's days in Paris during the 1950s.

I'm a military brat, and certainly appreciate the sacrifices made my servicemen and servicewomen overseas... I certainly respect the sacrifices made by your friend.

Take care y'all! (It's super cold and super snowy here in Michigan)

Joanna -- GO BLUE!!


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