CITIZEN ALERT v4.06
THE GRAY VIEW
I've often told people not to look at the world in such a black and white, wrong and right point of view. The world is a huge place, full of an enormous amount of people, all trying to survive, each with a bag full of issues that overlap into other peoples issues. One issue affecting directly or indirectly the outcome of another issue immediately or in some lagging fashion.
The world is gray. This makes it a terribly difficult place to make one's voice heard over the static so to cut through all the white noise, issues can be distilled down to a more concise presentation and displayed in a more black and white manner. This is how politicians have been communicating to you since, well, forever. One can not go on TV and hope to convey the fullness that is the drug industry/drug economics and have most people understand it or want to even pay attention. It's much easier to just declare "war" on it, and leave it at that. THAT you can put on a poster. THAT you can get a sound bite off of. THAT might get you votes.
Abortion - you're either for it or against it. Those are your only two choices. There is no thinking to be done outside the box. That would involve time and another check box on the ballot.
I thought I had this in my head safe and sound, but I was reminded how tricky it is sometimes and how stupid I can be and let something slip past me as I was watching a debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza on the questions Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil? and Can you be Good without God? Both of them pointed out that these battles between religions while seemingly in the name of religion are in fact not. Usually, it's simply about land.
In my head, I instantly jumped to some friendly debates I had been having on the internet where I was arguing that terrible things had been done in the name of Christianity as much as they had with Islam. This is wrong. This is me falling for the black and white presentations and then spitting it back out again. Now I just felt like an idiot.
I remember when the US went into Afghanistan and we had Bin Laden on the run. I thought this guy was a terrible man, a lunatic, but a lunatic that had beliefs he was willing to back up. Then I heard the reports of him and Omar fleeing through Tora Bora radioing to their followers to martyr themselves against the American forces. I remember thinking, well why isn't HE martyring himself? It's because he's a fake. A complete fake. He didn't really believe in what he was doing because he had other issues he was actually fighting for. Land, Saudi Arabia, politics, power. These were too complex to convey to the masses and far too greedy to find followers, so they were presented in Black and White - Islam vs. Christianity, Muslims vs. Americans.
Back at home our then "president", a couple of years later would tell this enemy to "bring it on". Easy for him to say standing on the other side of the world in an air conditioned Oval Office surrounding by luxury while some 18 yr old is dodging gun fire for him. He was a fake too. What his administration wanted could not be explained in a manner that would facilitate the funds needed to carry out their issues. Black and White.
When you hear of a suicide bomber, it is another radical Muslim battling America. Is it? Or is it more complicated than that? Is it a person so poor, believing that they're going to heaven anyway that they'll provide their family with some money because someone else willing to put up the money has yet another issue of their own that they are trying to resolve but didn't feel that blowing themselves up would get it done for them. Maybe they want the Americans or NATO off their property but it's more important that they still be around when they leave. Anything could be happening, but what's NOT happening is no one is running into the battlefield screaming Muhammad is better than Jesus or Jesus is better than Muhammad.
I will not fall for it anymore. I slipped up. I thought I had my lenses set to filter out the black and the white but apparently there are some good salesmen out there and they got even me pitching their line for them. No more.
The world is gray. This makes it a terribly difficult place to make one's voice heard over the static so to cut through all the white noise, issues can be distilled down to a more concise presentation and displayed in a more black and white manner. This is how politicians have been communicating to you since, well, forever. One can not go on TV and hope to convey the fullness that is the drug industry/drug economics and have most people understand it or want to even pay attention. It's much easier to just declare "war" on it, and leave it at that. THAT you can put on a poster. THAT you can get a sound bite off of. THAT might get you votes.
Abortion - you're either for it or against it. Those are your only two choices. There is no thinking to be done outside the box. That would involve time and another check box on the ballot.
I thought I had this in my head safe and sound, but I was reminded how tricky it is sometimes and how stupid I can be and let something slip past me as I was watching a debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza on the questions Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil? and Can you be Good without God? Both of them pointed out that these battles between religions while seemingly in the name of religion are in fact not. Usually, it's simply about land.
In my head, I instantly jumped to some friendly debates I had been having on the internet where I was arguing that terrible things had been done in the name of Christianity as much as they had with Islam. This is wrong. This is me falling for the black and white presentations and then spitting it back out again. Now I just felt like an idiot.
I remember when the US went into Afghanistan and we had Bin Laden on the run. I thought this guy was a terrible man, a lunatic, but a lunatic that had beliefs he was willing to back up. Then I heard the reports of him and Omar fleeing through Tora Bora radioing to their followers to martyr themselves against the American forces. I remember thinking, well why isn't HE martyring himself? It's because he's a fake. A complete fake. He didn't really believe in what he was doing because he had other issues he was actually fighting for. Land, Saudi Arabia, politics, power. These were too complex to convey to the masses and far too greedy to find followers, so they were presented in Black and White - Islam vs. Christianity, Muslims vs. Americans.
Back at home our then "president", a couple of years later would tell this enemy to "bring it on". Easy for him to say standing on the other side of the world in an air conditioned Oval Office surrounding by luxury while some 18 yr old is dodging gun fire for him. He was a fake too. What his administration wanted could not be explained in a manner that would facilitate the funds needed to carry out their issues. Black and White.
When you hear of a suicide bomber, it is another radical Muslim battling America. Is it? Or is it more complicated than that? Is it a person so poor, believing that they're going to heaven anyway that they'll provide their family with some money because someone else willing to put up the money has yet another issue of their own that they are trying to resolve but didn't feel that blowing themselves up would get it done for them. Maybe they want the Americans or NATO off their property but it's more important that they still be around when they leave. Anything could be happening, but what's NOT happening is no one is running into the battlefield screaming Muhammad is better than Jesus or Jesus is better than Muhammad.
I will not fall for it anymore. I slipped up. I thought I had my lenses set to filter out the black and the white but apparently there are some good salesmen out there and they got even me pitching their line for them. No more.
Labels: Afghanistan, George W. Bush, Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, War on Terror
posted by Bobot Adrenaline at 7:39 PM
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