--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Well, I'm of a different opinion. I'd probably be quite > (over)sensative to any Scandinavian jokes if the rest of > the world was ripping our wealth from us harrasing us > infiltrating our governments hunting us fighting us invading > us humiliating us forcing us to our knees. They are > desperate. I can see it is very comforting looking at > them as being different from and inferior to us. Sooner > or later a whiplash is bound to occur though, that's common > sense. Better make it softer by not creating any more > terrible karma. Arrogance can only last so long.
It's lasted for almost 800 years, since the Crusades. And with reason. Muslims have been treated like the niggers of the world since then, starting with a systematic campaign on the part of Europeans to put them down and regard them as less than human after those same Europeans got their butts kicked in the Crusades themselves. That said, what we're talking about is, in Buddhist terminology, *attachment*. The people who are overreacting to these cartoons are angry because they are *attached* to their beliefs. They cannot tell the difference between someone poking fun at those beliefs and someone attacking them physically. They honestly believe that they *are* their beliefs. The *same* thing happened in Europe and America with regard to Christianity. A bunch of attached people grew so fearful of anyone laughing at the things they held sacred or treating them lightly that they killed hundreds of thousands of people for doing it. Remember the Inquisition? The solution is not, in my opinion, to cave, to submit to these dogma-bullies, but to *continue* to express oneself -- whether that expression happens as humor, or academic criticism, or in whatever fashion it manifests itself. If a bunch of people hadn't stood up for their right to think for themselves, we'd still have the Inquisition. Oh...wait...we still *do* have the Inquisition. It was officially disbanded in the 1950s, but the current Pope brought it back. Never mind. :-) Anyway, as you can tell, I'm a fan of humor and laughter with regard to spirituality and spiritual beliefs. I don't have the exact quote with me, but here's the gist of what one teacher said on the subject: "Any spiritual organization that has lost the ability to laugh at the things it considers holy for fear of losing their way has already lost their way." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
