I agree, often in conversations I am the one questioning who is 'them' and then saying.. well 'them is us'.
There are many factors involved in the cause of this phenomena... I believe increase in affluence, propagating personal prejudices (consciously or sub-consciously) and personal experience have a huge contribution to this phenomena... It is my personal belief and observation, that it takes no effort to keep propagating it, and a lot of conscious effort in breaking the cycle. I have seen that as affluence increases, the amount of interaction with the neighbors decreases... I spent a fair amount of my teen years in Sudan, had friends who were black, white, Muslims, Christians, of all shades, went to a British Run primary school for Expatriate children , and a Catholic Missionary High School. So due to my exposure from early child hood, my level of comfort in dealing with folks from all different backgrounds was/is .. that I start with the assumption that everyone is a normal person.. (each with their own unique traits). When I came to the US, I had very confused dealings with American Blacks.... their actions/reaction dealing was very different than Blacks from other Nations... they were very edgy, guarded, and a lot more defensive / sensitive... Similarly, my first boss, a New Yorker of Chinese decent, used to get very tense, automatically roll up all the car windows when ever we drove thru over-town ..... I had discussions about both of these auto behavioral traits with each of them... and each of them said that they were surprised to see that I had noticed it, and quickly said that this was hard for them to explain why.... because I did not have their experiences (bad experiences ) in this regards. So, yes this gets to be a complex topic, I have learned to be more conscious of it in my behavior, and work on not trying to propagate such. It takes more work to do so than to simply let it self propagate. Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet & Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, FL 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Help-desk: (305)663-5518 Option 2 or Email: [email protected] > From: "That One Guy /sarcasm" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 3:58:16 PM > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again > The us vs them thing gets old when people think its a problem caused by anyone > other than those who choose to identify as a them as opposed to us. BLM, KKK, > 31 flavors of gender, whatever. If you define yourself as primarily being > something other than the us, then you are the problem. > Case in point, Faisal, never occurred to me he was a muslim, because he doesnt > come here saying " Hi, Im Muslim Faisal" He opts to let that be a component of > his whole identity, rather than his whole identity. > Any ism these days is a tool to divide. Johnny punches everybody, so johnny > doesnt get invited to your pool party, you are practicing nopunchism, you are > the problem. > On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Chuck McCown < [email protected] > wrote: >> I recently heard this described as the rise of “otherism”. >> From: Faisal Imtiaz >> Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:25 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >> BTW, circling back to the original point question raised... >> Speaking for myself, having grown up in a different time, and in a different >> place, I am sad to say that the fundamental 'human' concept of "Live and let >> Live" is being attacked from all sides, and all parts of the world. >> Every time I see this 'bad behavior' the root cause is a thinking of 'us vs >> them' vs what used to be the norm of... Let you be, and let me be.... >> :( >> Regard >> Faisal Imtiaz >> Snappy Internet & Telecom >> 7266 SW 48 Street >> Miami, FL 33155 >> Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 >> Help-desk: (305)663-5518 Option 2 or Email: [email protected] >>> From: "Chuck McCown" < [email protected] > >>> To: [email protected] >>> Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 2:33:37 PM >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >>> Oh, and that little event we define as “the first day”. >>> From: Chuck McCown >>> Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 12:28 PM >>> To: [email protected] >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >>> The Mormon version is: God sent his Son to organize matter that was as of >>> yet >>> “unorganized”. >>> I interpret this to be prior to the big bang, and this organization was the >>> big >>> bang... whatever that was. >>> From: Adam Moffett >>> Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 12:25 PM >>> To: [email protected] >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >>> I always felt that God "creating" man could be interpreted to mean "setting >>> in >>> motion a series of events that led to human's existence". >>> ------ Original Message ------ >>> From: "Chuck McCown" < [email protected] > >>> To: [email protected] >>> Sent: 12/22/2016 2:20:06 PM >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >>>> I presume the “we” is the royal we, not your specifically? >>>> And evolution I presume you are talking the origin of Man, not how we have >>>> a >>>> different flu vaccine each year due to the evolving flu virus. >>>> I mean.... do you personally.... not believe that the flu virus evolves? >>>> It is pretty much proven. >>>> From: Faisal Imtiaz >>>> Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 12:11 PM >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - trolling again >>>> Interesting discussion... If I may join in :) >>>> From a Muslim perspective.... >>>> We don't believe in Evolution, believe in Adam & Eve being the first humans >>>> created by God (A Singular Unique Entity), and Jesus being the Messiah. > -- > If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as > part > of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.
