Kingman, Arizona——15 minutes of ‘whatever’
I just watched Sacha Baron Cohen’s con job on citizens in Kingman, Arizona. To tell the truth I wasn’t outraged at all, it was comedy from the very start and would have been even if I didn’t know it was a hoax. We all know, despite the Statue of Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, the Golden Rule, our bragging about our country being a melting pot, and so on—we are basically a rather prejudicious cabal in many respects, not all that different from most other citizens elsewhere in the world.
The segment was neatly done I admit. He starts by telling them a mosque would be built in their town. He could have said it would be a Buddhist temple, A jewish University, a black entertainment center, the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses—and there would have been the same signs of mild irritation—like what do we need such a thing for?
Then the guy took it to the next level and announced it would be biggest Mosque outside of any Muslim nation. Of course the reaction was like, “What the hell are you talking about, why would they build it here? We don’t want Muslims invading our space.
Then it got real hilarious (at least to me) when he showed them a picture of the mosque, in which this huge structure towered over the whole town, making their own homes look like insignificant shacks, almost like little grass huts for the natives. That was the last straw.
Some would say there is nothing funny about this con job and none of the citizens were laughing. But it is funny and the same result obtained if some village official in rural/suburban community outside Baghdad made the same pitch to their citizens at a town meeting: A Catholic church was going to be built on prime real estate in the middle of their community; the largest Catholic church outside a Christian nation; no eyesore, it would be a huge gilded cathedral towering over the whole town, making their own homes look like insignificant shacks, almost like grass huts for the natives.
It is funny because it shatters the absurdity that people everywhere actually follow the Golden Rule. While everybody everywhere agrees it is an ethical principle, we all, in varying degrees, only practice it in certain situations. That’s the reality and behind this current global surge in terrorism. Myself, known to be contrary sometimes, I oppose any religion building glittering cathedrals anywhere, period. I don’t belong to any church, and one reasons is that I am not putting money in any collection plate to build a glittering cathedral with my money. My FANAFI Fund gives grants, for example, to organizations like Doctor’s without borders, EarthJustice, and Save the Redwoods league. The day they start using money collected to build huge gilded corporate headquarters with that money is the day I stop giving them any of my money.
Lets change Sacha Baron Cohen’s presentation a bit. Let’s say he simply announced that Muslims were opening an office in one of the downtown office buildings. The response would probably be: “What for? There are hardly any Muslims living here”. And the response were to be: “They want to provide financial aid to anyone who can’t afford health care and is sick” or “they want to build good schools for the poorer areas of our community” or “they want to provide legal assistance for the oppressed”, etc.“This is not just for Muslims?” “No, anyone can apply.” “Why would they do this”? “There’s something fishy going on here, we take care of our own, we don’t need their help.”
Several favorite quotes come to mind here:
“Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.” W.H. Auden (English/ American poet)
“Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.” Rene Dubos (American microbiologist)
“Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity. John Hume (Irish politician)
“Hard to dislike a chap who likes you, isn’t it? Well, there’s your peace plan.” Unknown
“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” Lenny Bruce (Jewish American comedian and social critic)
Here’s something to ponder:
Which religions originated or used the following at any point in history:
stoning people to death
beheaded them
burned them at the stake
fed them to the lions
launched some kind of crusade in which all heathens were put to death
quartered them in a public square
used machetes to kill fellow citizens
dropped atomic bombs to kill people
killed members of their own religion who were different sects of the same religion
hung people of certain races
burned heathens alive
tortured captives
cut off limbs or cut out eyes
enslaved others
The direction of evolution has never been easy to predict, probably not even possible for us to do so, but I am going to guess that if the human species is to survive it will be by learning to control our own population growth, learning to reduce our violent nature via the Golden Rule, protecting our environment, putting limitations of capitalism so the wealth of society can be spread around more, global regulation of all matters which have now become global in nature, and humans stray away from secular religions and alter their perceptions of God.
