Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BitaTruble Thank you for the in-depth analysis, Aswad. After reading it, I don't even know what to say except I hope it's an isolated incident and not a harbinger of things to come, not only in your country but elsewhere around the world. Thanks for the kind words. My hope is the same in this regard. I remember hearing a recent interview with Chomsky on the subject of the political undercurrents in the US at the moment, comparing the situation to the late Weimar republic. It echoed what I had been struggling to put good words to in reply to an exchange where someone I respect was expressing enthusiasm about those exact movements. A failure of leadership can easily lead to disenfranchisement and such turning into a mob that is readily wielded by people who do not have at heart the best interests of the individuals in such a mob. Not really taking these people seriously enough is, from my perspective as an outsider, the primary failure of leadership on the part of Obama, and could easily prove the ticket back onto the downslide Bush Jr started, leading goodness knows where. Similar problems exist in Norway, and I would not be surprised to learn they are part of how this attacker arrived at a frame of mind in which he could rationalize bombing and killing. Indeed, if there were a path out of the impasse by way of violence, I would find it a very difficult situation, morally. But there isn't. Sadly, it takes vision and alternative thinking to find ways out, and those not capable of it may well take their chances, as we've seen in Libya and so on. The sad part being that we cheer those on, even as they march onward with no viable migration path to any substantial improvement. While I may cheer the sentiment, I am not optimistic about the outcome. I spent years arriving at a way out, without such needless violence, and was planning on spending years on giving it a go. This guy has managed to make that a lot harder, in the span of a day. Not so much so that I'm giving up on my country, probably, but enough that it has become necessary to rely on others to carry a part of the burden, and may take a lot longer to get there. Still without a guarantee of success. So, while I still hope, as you do, that this will be an isolated event, the realist in me sees it as the logical continuation of a worldwide pattern. Taking steps to find ways to direct the sentiments found in the world today in constructive ways is probably the most patriotic and valuable action anyone can undertake for their country right now, the US included. One can't fight sentiment with law and the like. That's like fighting a river. Instead, it must be diverted to fertilize crops instead of flooding villages. Health, al-Aswad.
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"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way. We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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