> evil debate. You know how many people GW pissed off when he used the word > 'crusade' in his rhetoric? How offensive must that have been to people of > the Islamic faith (given history). Maybe our so called advanced civilisation > really isn't that different from the dark ages of the crusades...
A. Why should "crusade" be less offensive to Moslems than it is to Jews? We were also victims of the crusades. You don't see us protesting the use of that word. B. The Dark Ages and the Crusades were two different periods. The Dark Ages were several hundred years earlier. Ah, you meant that metaphorically. Not a great term to use here -- just pointing that out. C. I don't, for the record, feel this argument is sound -- "crusade" is a valid English word that has many meanings. There are other "objectionable" words we could ban: Did you know that a point of thumb originated as a rule by which a husband was allowed to beat his wife (i.e. how much was he allowed to do so?) I use the term -- should I now eschew it? How far do you take this argument? Must we be concerned because words may have alternate meanings that are objectionable to other groups and we therefore shouldn't use them? Boy, will the English language be bankrupt if we take this to its logical conclusion. This is semantics really -- now for some more direct points: We don't > read anymore, we are incapable of forming independent opinions, all we do is > consume (which is the measure of our worth) and we boil complex > international politics down to simple binaries philosophies because we are > incapable of seeing a more complex reality in which we aren't as innocent as > we make ourselves out to be. In short, we are reactionary and are motivated > by our emotions (fuelled by the media which feeds on our fear). I really > think that the so called american 'way of life' is just a guise for > maintaining western luxuries at the expense of the rest of the world. > American culture has always been at war with other cultures. It is at war with Jewish standards of morality and modesty. What's our response? We have our own community institutions, we have our own schools. We basically teach our children separately so that we can pass on our values and filter out the American values we don't want our kids to absorb. But to be honest, the assimilation rate in the U.S. in the Jewish community is high because yes, Western culture is insidious. It surrounds us and we can't really escape it. I'm wondering what the assimilation rate is in Islamic communities. But I think that there are many good things about America. I do not have blinders on; I see the bad too. But this country has given Jews the kind of freedoms to worship that few other countries do, from the time we came here. It has done the same for Muslims. Yes, there is sometimes prejudice, yes, there are sometimes inequalities. But the good far outweighs the bad. But yes, there is and always has been a "culture war" out there at odds with the traditional religions -- Christianity as well. And I'm not talking Fallwell here. I'm talking traditional Catholics and Protestants who don't like the messages the mass media is blasting at their kids (or at themselves.) That's why there is a whole subset of the religious Jewish community that will not own a television set because there's too much stuff that's impure coming from it. So in a way, I see Benjamin's point, although I don't agree with his anti-Americanism. Judith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
