We are less divided than usual. Happy Ray? :) (Pet the Raymond.)
The greatest thing about this country is that it is always divided. We can
feel however we want to feel about this. Most people in our country agree
that this is really horrible, myself included. But there are other people
who think that it's about time that we have to pay for things that we've
done in other countries.
I don't think that everyone waving a flag is doing so ingenuinely, but some
are. I'm sure that some are waving a flag because they always thought we
should just nuke the rest of the world anyway and it's about time that
other people are starting to see the light. And there are some who are
waving flags because their neighbors will think they are horrible people if
they don't.
If you look at any poll, you need to look at the wording of the question.
The poll I'm looking at says that if Afghanistan refuses to give up bin
Laden, 79% of people polled think we should bomb them, 21% think we should
not. That's not "79% of people think we should bomb them no matter what,"
and that is what people keep implying with these statistics. In fact,
that's 21% of people polled who think that we shouldn't even bomb that
country if they continue to harbor a terrorist. Other people think we
should bomb the entire area back into the Stone Ages and repopulate it with
people who can get along. That seems to be a pretty big division to me.
What I'm saying is that we still have our own opinions, we still disagree
on the best way to handle this, we even disagree on the extent to which the
perpetrators of these crimes are evil, and it's A Good Thing(TM) that we do.
It's unrealistic to think that we all agree on this. I keep hearing on the
news that everyone agrees how horrible this is and everyone agrees that we
should take whatever action necessary to stop future terrorism. I don't
even agree with all of my friends about how horrible this is and I
generally choose people who think like me as my friends. I have a friend
from New York who is so furious that he can't even talk about it.
Gel sees that it's unrealistic to think that we all agree. Hell, some of us
are attacking others of us. I won't even repeat some of the things that
have been said about me because I'm trying to encourage people to only
attack the guilty people. Some people who are saying these things about us
all banding together are being genuine-- that is how they interpret our
behavior. Good for them for having an opinion; it's not my opinion.
As a side note, Gel, I've been having a discussion on another mailing list
about how the US media is downplaying and failing to report on the
backlash. Many people in this country simply haven't been informed how
severe the backlash is. Reports in other countries seem to compare better
to the things that I see and hear.
There are other reasons to say things like this and that shouldn't be
ignored. One reason is to make the victims feel supported. That's a good
effect. I'm for supporting the victims. Another reason is to make up the
minds of people who are too lost to know what to feel. Well, I'm not so
sure how I like that effect but it's not so bad. But another reason is to
garner support for future actions by making outsiders of anyone who
disagrees. Woah, Nelly. I wanna get off of this ride.
Obviously a lot of people in this situation are good, but it is naive to
think that everyone is good who agrees with people who are good.
At 01:36 PM 9/14/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>And...
>
>As the polls indicate (take it for what its worth) 80% of the US approve
>of President Bushs' leadership during this troubling time - Apposed to
>8% that don't And 83% of the US agree on a military strike - Apposed to
>8% that don't.
>
>Mark
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Raymond Camden [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 1:33 PM
>To: CF-Community
>Subject: RE: I'm puzzled..
>
>
> > America, or rather America(TM), is a word that is being used as a
> > propaganda tool. They want people to be convinced that America is not
> > divided, so they say it has been brought together. This is partly to
> > convince the stragglers who don't agree to join the bandwagon.
>
>Hogwash. You telling me that all of the people proudly waving their
>flags are doing for propaganda? I'm cynical too, but I don't believe our
>leaders are this low.
>
> > Yes, most of us (in fact, almost all of us) think this was A
> > Bad Thing(TM).
> > Beyond that anything goes.
> >
>
>It's not an either-or type thing. As Judith said, "we are all in this
>together".
>-RC
>
>
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