Originally posted by teacher:
Some people = me.
Put it into your words for us Billo. I can go to links all day. I'd rather view them through the eyes of those on this site, while on this site that is. In other words, any of us can get ideas everywhere, but I like to see how those of us here in our little DP world interpret such things. If that makes sense. Read; I'm just friggin lazy, but then you know that.
Here's my guess.
Islam.
I've had quite a bit to say about this in the majority of my bouts with Gunny. But in the interests of time (and to save you a walk), I will give a brief summary.
I've never played the victim. I always look at the world around me as objectively as I can. I have prejudices like everyone else. But one thing I'm consistant with is calling things as I see them without outside influence. Even though I post things from websites, I decide what I consider to be relevent. And I decide how much weight that relevance is. I post things to also show that I'm not making anything up. I have reasons to believe what I believe. And if information comes in (as a rebuttal for example) that makes me rethink a position, I got no problems admitting I'm wrong and moving on with it. Gunny would call this a flip-flop. I don't really care what he calls it. My position is not his call. With that being said...
The one thing that has bothered me since that day is the lack of effort or discussion into what would be the driving factors that produce that level of hate. That's a lot of hate that flys suicide missions on skyscrapers. And it had to come from somewhere. Gunny broke this down to islamic fanaticism and its inherrent hatred of the west. But I can't blame an entire sect of religion as the problem at the causal level. I think that is the symptom of the problem. Not its genisis. And you should know, in order to solve a problem, you have to get to its roots. Algebra taught us this. I always hated those word problems (solve x in terms of y). But they are good calistentics for logical pragmatic deduction.
So since I do not play the victim, I am forced to always look at my role in causing what happens in the world around me. Everything that happens to me I am responsible for to some degree. I have a hand in whatever happens in my life. So going a little macro with this, everything that happens to us as a country, we have to take some responsibility for. We need to look at just what we have done, that contributed to the situation or event. Or at least be willing to consider those possibities. By flat out denying that it is absurd, and that we have done nothing wrong, is lessoning our ability evaluate the contributing factors and draw conclusions on how to proceed. Simply put, we are lying to ourselves.
So looking at this objectively, these people that hate America, have reasons why they hate so much. Putting the shoe on the other foot and looking at it from their perspective in order to understand their motives, realizing that understanding someones point of view is not the same as agreeing with it, then it is logical to assume that a combination of our foreign policy of supporting tyrannical dictators in Iran with the Shah, Samoza in central America, our CIA in Chile, this obscene arrogance we have as a nation (I'm a god-damn American), the complete hypocrisy of our actions and the disdain we have for anyone that doesn't see things our way, and as the last straw on the camels back, the entire world looks at this sh_t that is being done in our name and with our tax dollars by our elected officials all the while not seeing Americans not doing anything about it, I can see how they get their hate.
I believe we have the best model for a system of government. But we are certainly no angels. And we certainly do no wrong. The best thing we can do is clean our own house starting with the 2006 elections. I don't care who gets in office, as long as they do their job. And their job is representing their constituants, which is us. Not some f_cking corporation that doesn't pay income tax and has the same rights as a living breathing human being, but with a lot more capitol to influence politicians.
The one thing I do know about Americans that is an absolute good, is that when we collectively get a hair up our ass, we do something about it. Things start happening. We take action. This country is a bunch of doers. When were motivated.
Now that Nick and Jessica broke up, maybe we can find our mojo?