From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Tue Aug 05 2003 - 13:29:09 MDT
I recall seeing a program on TV about a junior school in Israel that
makes a policy of including both "Palestinian" and "Israeli" children in
its classrooms. The pedagogical emphasis is directed towards common
ground, sameness as opposed to difference.
Possibly foreign aid benefactors of Israeli coffers could encourage such
initiatives?
Here in South Africa the integration of races in the classroom seems to
be having a positive effect. Many of the younger generation seem to be
genuinely puzzled at the notion of racism.
One of the prime vectors of U/Tism is this thing we call "culture".
(Interestingly the root of this word, and also "cult", is from the Latin
"coltere"(?) which means "to worship".)
It seems to be much easier to get along with a person who looks
different to you when he has a similar accent and a similar educational
background.
Many have tried to cut through the Gordian knot with no success: perhaps
the only way forward is to patiently unravel it in this manner?
Regards,
Blunderov
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf
Of Joe Dees
Sent: 05 August 2003 03:02 AM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: Re:virus: Help me Help you
Let me furnish you with a real-world example, so you can try out
different approaches on it...
Pro-Israel people are accused by anti-Israel people of ignoring
distinctions between Arabs (many Arabs are not Muslim), Muslims
(most Muslims are not Arabs), and jihadist Wahhabi terrorists (who
espouse a violent and vurulent minority mutational subset of
Islam, and are predominately, but not entirely, Arab), and of covertly
attacking Islam and Arabs when they critique the Wahhabist
fantasy ideology. Anti-Israel people are accused by Pro-Israel people
of ignoring distinctions between Jews, Israelis (not all of
whom are Jews), Semites (which include Jews and Palestinians - they are
both susceptible to the genetically based malady of
Tay-Sach's disease) and Zionists (many Jews, both inside and outside of
Israel, are not Zionists), and of covertly attacking Jews
when they critizice Zionist ideology or the actions of the state of
Israel. Each side, in other words, accuses the other of racism
under the cover of religious and/or ideological critique. Each side
also accuses the other side of pointing out nonexistent sawdust
motes in the eyes of the opposing members whilst ignoring the ship's
masts obstructing their own vision. Both sides are right and
both are wrong to some degree, but to what degree? Is a truly objective
and independent evaluation of their competing claims
possible, and if so, can such an evalustion help to resolve or at least
ameliorate differences, or are all 'true believer'
extremists, regardless of the content of the memeset to which they are
in thrall, immune to such evaluations, and pre-programmed to
memebotically filter them out?
To solve this dilemma could help us VALIDLY and SOUNDLY criticize other
perspectives in a convincing manner and possibly win us
adherents, and also help us avoid similar pitfalls whilst engineering
our own phaith.
---- This message was posted by Joe Dees to the Virus 2003 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=54;action=display;threadid =28955> --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l> --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
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