“… I agree that our community, local, regional, national or whatever, used to be far more friendly, given to helping one another, gracious, gentlemanly and gentlewomanly, willing to reconcile and forgive….” – RJ
Jim, while I think I understand your point, I suggest that IF one takes xenophobia (including all forms of racism) into account, ‘our’ history does not support such a Pollyannaish view. On Jul 28, 10:45 am, retiredjim34 <[email protected]> wrote: > Slip - a very interesting and timely topic. Thanks for introducing > it. > I agree that our community, local, regional, national or > whatever, used to be far more friendly, given to helping one another, > gracious, gentlemanly and gentlewomanly, willing to reconcile and > forgive. Now extremeism, hatred, and revenge seem to be so prevalent. > I think a large part of this change is due to political gerrymandering > - the drawing of political boundaries to encompass only those of a > particluar party, or viewpoint, or attitude. Thus, to get elected the > candidate had to be extreme, and this extremeism had carried over into > our communal life. There are hardly any moderates any more, whereas > when political boundaries used to be drawn without regard to -isms, > moderates got elected and were our leaders. The Supreme Court had an > opportunity to strike down political gerrymandering a few years ago > but did not. So we are stuck in a society now filled with extremeists. > Anyway, that's my two cents. Jim > > On Jul 26, 3:22 pm, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Are we losing the ability to reconcile in the world? Have we slipped > > so far from the understanding of brotherhood, of forgiveness that we > > have simply become a world of hatred and revenge. We are literally > > mortified by the specter of terrorism that is plaguing the world. The > > mindset of terrorism is anchored in the inability to allow forgiveness > > to override anger and instead caters to hatred, anger and violence > > towards those deemed the wrongdoers without regard for the harm > > imposed upon the innocent bystanders. > > Aside from that our culture seems entrenched in the business of > > revenge, we rather employ legal means to inflict suffering upon those > > who we think have done us wrong before we would sit down directly and > > discuss the problems. Politics seems to be leaning more toward > > instilling anger and fears among us which leads to a polarization of > > society while most media seem devoted to divisive and anger driven > > reporting with a general attitude of who is to blame. > > Can we ever stop sending messages attached to missiles, bombs and > > bullets? Our attempts to establish peaceful means of resolution have > > failed miserably because there is never a general consensus on any > > issue. We sanction and punish to no end in order to force change but > > to no avail. People are at war in every quadrant of the planet while > > new agitations are festering in the background waiting to emerge as > > full scale skirmishes.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
