Misdirected Anger
The email forwarded here was sent to me. I have a different take on the meaning of it all. (Now I can't locate the email. It was a video of Muslims in Britain screaming death threats to non Muslims and demanding all sorts of things).
The last time I saw these kind of hate signs and rhetoric goes back to the 60's and the Black Panthers. I felt then, the way this email is supposed to make Americans or Canadians feel today----really angry.
I guess I start with the belief that human qualities of kindness, justice, cooperation, tolerance, etc. are qualities existent to about the same degree in all humans of all ethnic ilk. I also have learned to regret that religious extremists of all ilk tend to bring out the worst in human nature.
Back in the 60's my anger at the Black Panthers and black demonstrations in general was coupled with my first exposure to teaching in a University with a large component of blacks. In fact the first two years the University was located in the worst section of Chicago in buildings that duplicated the movie Blackboard Jungle. To say I was on edge was an understatement. To say the students were on edge was an understatement.
I suspect all the turmoil came to a head in the 60's because Television made it possible for all people everywhere in the country to become aware of how others lived. When I was growing up there was a sizable black population in my town but they may as well have lived on Mars. I knew they existed but that is about the sum of it. And it was probably vice-versa. Much of the angry conflict prevalent across the globe is probably of the same nature---as modern communication makes more and more people aware of how others live, more and more anger and conflict becomes generated.
At any rate the Black Panthers may have forced everyone's attention, but the average blacks I faced in the classroom were good persons---reasonable, fair, and honest---BUT, now they had a more hardened sense of hope and expectations. And I, well aware of the tension, had a heightened sense of pressure to evaluate everything I did in terms of fairness and opportunity. In other words, the extremism and hatred of the Black Panther demonstrations and speeches forced all sides to recognize a problem existed and forced the more reasonable people to address legitimate issues.
These Muslim extremists are the Black Panthers of the Muslim world. It is no more logical to claim all Muslims are extremists than to say all blacks are Black Panthers. It is as necessary to realize the Muslim extremists are not without legitimate issues as it was to realize the Black Panthers brought to the surface legitimate issues. These screaming hate filled Muslims are no more the solution than the Black Panthers were the solution. The solution, as always, is to be found among the less radical, less emotional, fair minded, more tolerant population on both sides---those with no braces on their brains.
As a general rule when sizable groups of people gather with such a level of anger and threats of death to others, beneath it all there are invariably legitimate grievances. Another general rule is that solutions can only be arrived at by attempting to view the issues at hand through the eyes of the protesters. Finally, one must distinguish between conflicts based on beliefs and conflicts based on injustice. People who are just trying to shove their beliefs down someone else's throat will be the most difficult population with which to deal. We already know that with issues like abortion, gay rights, prayers in schools, etc. To this day I can't really claim any simple way to instill in all citizens the importance of leaving religious beliefs out of politics. No one should be forced to follow the religious beliefs of another.
The basis for resolving the kind of conflict evidenced in such hostile and threatening demonstrations is always to get the root problems on the table and each side apply the golden rule. When each side is prepared to do unto others as they would have others do unto them, justice and peace can be achieved. The Golden Rule is why slavery was abolished, women got the right to vote, schools were desegregated, job opportunities were made a more level field, etc.
In the case of Muslim anger it probably starts with Non-Muslim interference in Muslim countries. After all it is only non Muslim countries invading Muslim countries. I am trying to think of any Muslim country which has invaded a Non Muslim country in this modern Age. I think there are cases in Africa where Muslim populations within a country have been genocidal toward non-Muslim populations as well as vice-versa. There is, of course, the Muslim attack on the World Trade Center Towers. But this gets a bit complicated in that Al Queda was formed originally to oppose American Military bases in Saudi Arabia. Almost all the hijackers were Arabians and most of the money to sustain Al Queda-like groups across the world has come from wealthy Arabians. Arabia has always played both sides of the turmoil. I suppose, if I were a Muslim, I would feel that non-Muslims are the ones interfering in Muslim countries and that Muslim countries have not invaded non-Muslim countries or established military bases in non-Muslim countries, etc.
After this the picture gets quite complicated. There is little individual freedom in Muslim countries and they spend an inordinate amount of energy killing each other, persecuting each other, while corrupt deadly religious gangs vie endlessly for control and power over others. As a result many Muslims move abroad for safety and economic reasons. The Iraq War, for example, has produced over a million Iraqi refugees who are homeless and have fled the country for their own safety. Who wants these refugees in their country? No one. When you are not welcomed any place---for legitimate or non legitimate reasons----you will have a hard time getting employment, getting a good education, and will end up living in ghettoes. And who do they blame for their misery? If the refugees are from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, etc, then the the blame most often is directed at the non-Muslim invading country. After all, they used to have a home, schools, a job, a community---now they have nothing. We, of course, prefer to talk about individual freedom, despotic rulers, democracy, and our own economic necessities.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly when this country decided to get so involved in the internal affairs of other countries. Certainly the founding fathers, almost to a man, warned us against getting involved in the affairs of other countries. Part of our misdirected mentality was the 'wild west', a long period in our history when guns and violence ruled local law enforcement. We have a long history of being 'gun nuts'. Then the youth of our democracy and our sparsely populated country rich in natural resources generated a notion of manifest destiny----the idea that we had all these riches and opportunities for success because God favored our nation over others. With such rapid success came, as always comes with such rapid success, a certain amount of arrogance, feelings of superiority, bullying, and exploitation. Human nature is human nature and were the roles reversed it would all go down the same way.
Of course if everybody followed the Golden Rule it really would make little difference what kind of religion or form of government reigned anywhere. Unfortunately, reality reigns and a lot of ifs serve merely as an exercise in pipe dreaming. The big picture in evolutionary history demonstrates endless upward progress in complexity of life and living, but evolutionary history has shown no mercy to any species unable to cope with the environment of it's time and place. Humans have always invented Gods of some sort, always a God who thinks like us and, with the proper worship, will intervene in our lives to make our own individual lives better. History and observation refutes this mentality. All advanced human civilizations have self destructed. It has always been some sort of combination of environmental abuse or catastrophe, an extended military empire too expensive to maintain, and an amassment of wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the many.
The difference today is human overpopulation of the globe. Adding this to the mix and it really seems evident that this is our Achilles Heel. We may in some sense be brighter than rabbits, but like rabbits we produce in the same fashion, and this irresponsible reproduction is destroying our environment, creating terrorism all over the globe as people compete for dwindling resources including land, food, water, shelter, health care, etc. Our impact on other species is so devastating now that species extinction rates are at a level unseen in millions of years. These pictures of enraged Muslims can easily be interchanged with enraged groups of people of different ilks all over the globe. Our anger is pretty much always directed at victims these days. And these victims of human overpopulation are all over the place. Ours is a relatively new country and is not yet in the dire straits of overpopulation seen in other parts of the globe. Even with dwindling natural resources we have the power, for now, to simply take what we need by force. But the limits of our power to do this are becoming increasingly evident. With all our sophisticated and deadly weapons we can't conquer and control the weakest of countries anymore---like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, etc. We can conquer, but we can't make their lives better and in fact, our attempts to do so is so expensive that our own domestic needs are coming up short on cash to help the unfortunate in our own country.
Most people know, at some level, that we are overrunning the planet. But we simply cannot seriously talk about it. We have Presidential debates ad-nausea and no one---no one---talks about it. Up until recently our policies were such that we could not even give foreign aid to help any country with birth control measures. And controlled family planning is an automatic no-no.
At any rate, I don't look at hate-filled mobs screaming hate filled comments toward those who they blame for their fates, and feel hatred toward them. Rather, I feel saddened that we live in a world where so many are trapped in lives of desperation and injustice. I can't recall, off-hand, any time when an ethnic or religious group ever displayed such hate and anger when some sort of injustice was not taking place toward them. Fate has been kind to me and I live in the best available circumstances for these times. It is not a question of 'there but for the grace of God goes I". I am not one who sees God as One Who chooses who gets what fate or a God meddling in such a way as to make life better for selected deserving followers of some inherited religion. God created the evolutionary process---a process which gave me the chance, by luck, not divine intervention, to be a part of this process. The sanctity of life is defined by this evolutionary process, not individual fates in the process. Humans were not the first species nor is there any reason to conclude we will be the last species. There is not even any assurance we as a species will survive. LIfe is a continuum and changes over time spans beyond our real comprehension---millions of years. I would genuinely like to be more self important to the process, and not myself become extinct through death. Life after death seems a real stretch, but then so does evolutionary history. In the end, whatever will be, will be, and the result be controlled by the God created laws of evolution. I think when one sees the bigger picture it is hard to hate those whose lives are such, that were I to mingle with them in their environment, they would do me harm.
As always, as the real solution to conflict, lies the Golden Rule coupled with Live and Let Live. We have the tools, but not always the will power. The question is not "how dare them express such hate" but what injustices exist in their lives to bring them to such a state of anger?
