posted by Sam Richards
So what do you think about the lecture? What did you walk away contemplating?
IF YOU DID NOT COME TO CLASS, DON’T EVEN BOTHER TO COMMENT ON THIS VIDEO BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THE POINT OF THE LECTURE. ALSO, I WAS NOT SAYING THAT IT IS A “CHRISTIAN INVASION” BUT, RATHER, THAT IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE IF MUSLIMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST PERCEIVE IT TO BE A CHRISTIAN INVASION. THAT’S A BIG DIFFERENCE.
I think it is rare times like this lecture that we actually put ourselves in another person's position. As a Christian, I was not offended by what was said at all, and do not think anyone should have been because what was said was not insulting or wrong. The use of videos and examples for us to put ourselves in another person's shoes worked very well, and they point was well conveyed. In the beginning of class we all saw the Muslims as the bad guy, but towards the end of class I think many people realized that we were that exact same bad guy to them. It was nice to try to imagine at least a small portion how an opposing side may see us here in the United States of America, and why they may dislike us. There are always two sides to the story. We tend to only look at a very small portion of the entire picture. We see them in the most negative light, and they see us in the most negative light. Every country is going to frown upon intruders no matter what religion they are. If some one storms in to your home demanding change of the way you do things, you are going to be upset. Many people of Iraq see what we are doing as a good thing and helpful, while many of course believe we are ruining their country. After the terrorist attacks, we felt attacked so we took action to go into Iraq to try and do something. Now, just like us Iraqis may feel the need to defend themselves or attack us. Religion does make matters ten times worse because Christian and extreme Muslim views are very different. This fact makes invasions much more heated. This is why many Iraqis may have hatred towards us and why many Americans have prejudice towards Muslim people. When we think the other side is doing something wrong, we tend to focus on their religious beliefs and disregard what we have contributed to their decisions. Our media also greatly helps to shape the world for our eyes. Many times what is portrayed on television is just what we want to see. I think both sides need to come together and see what is really going on behind the scenes. Two parties should gather without the violence, without the war, and most of all without the ulterior motives. These misunderstandings and wrong judgments are causing a large loss of lives on both sides. We are in such a different time in age today that war should not be our answer. I know this will take a lot of time because there are things we can not agree on, but we should try soon.
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This lecture was very interesting, though I had a hard time putting myself in the mind set of an Arab student after seeing the video on the terror attacks. That video put me more into an ethnocentric mindset of us vs. them. A mindset that was hard to shake as the lecture went on. Also I would be interested to find out how Sam knows what information Arab students have access to. Did he talked to a sample of students from that area? Did he pick out those specific videos and news reports because it would support his argument? And the idea that all members of our military are Christian is silly.
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My Mom has always been really big on trying to understand. She has read a lot of books about the Muslim faith and has always tried to get me to see things from another perspective. As much as she has done to try and get me to understand, this one lecture made everything make more sense. As I sat there it made perfect sense to me why these people think what they are doing was right. From my family I only ever got the “well see if from their perspective, they think they are right”… but I never knew WHY they thought they were right. This really put it into perspective. Of course I would fight and stand up for myself and my family if I thought people were coming to my country to take away our resources and kill us because of our religion, itsn’t that kind of what some people in America think they are doing in some respect? We think they hate us because we are “Americanized” and we are Christians, just like they think we are fighting them because we want to take their oil and because they are Muslim.
I hope that people truly understood the point of this lecture. I think some people that seem angry might have not truly understood what you were trying to do as a teacher. You were educating us on understanding ethnocentrism and how it works for other people as well. Just how we revolve around our culture, they revolve around theirs. I think people saying this is stupid and wrong aren’t getting the point. Sam is not picking on Christians either, the evidence is there! I am a Christian, but even I can admit that there are some people out there who really do believe this is a Christian war in they own mind, and some of them are or were running this country- can you understand why that would be scary to the Muslim people we are fighting against?!
Another good point htat was made was those about the youtube videos. How we tend to send out on e-mail list serves all the good videos of the soldiers that are so amazing over there (which they are) and all of the good things that are happening. However, at the same time they are sending around all the bad things—all the people that don’t have the right mind set. One of the most important things that Sam said to help us understand is when we talking about how WE know that those are just a couple of assholes but that most everyone in the army is actually amazing….BUT THEY DON’T. people just need to open up to understand.
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This lecture was ground breaking and i absolutely loved all the emotions and thoughts that i felt as i was listening to Sam Richards. I have thought about this issue before because i watched a documentary called zeitgeist which talks a lot about the war in the Middle East and 9/11. Its all the about oil anyway you look at it. If you have ever done independent research on what really happened on 9/11 you will then see how the people at the very top keep our minds in control, the same way dictators in the Middle East do to their people. I find it sad that college students in our soc 119 class cant are not able to simply put themselves in a position that forces them to see things in a different perspective. Richards was not asking the students to change their ideas, and he's been warning us about that since the beginning of the year. I feel like a lot of students in our class don’t listen and like to stay in their ignorant state complacency. I’m not saying to abandon your values and agree with everything Sam Richards says because that would be the same thing it just makes me feel some type of way when my fellow college peers can’t even understand how we look to someone with a different perspective. When Sam mentioned the government officials from the U.S that spoke so ignorantly about the middle east it just clicked with me that we do the same thing they do to us so who really is the good guy? Propaganda has been such an important instrument throughout history for swaying public opinion and leaving out a lot of important facts. Our government understands how sheltered we are compared to the rest of the world. It’s very easy to scare us into believing whatever it is they want us to believe because they promise to keep us safe from all the evil in the world. And then 9/11 happens and everyone freaks out and we believe everything the media is telling us to believe because it’s just that easy. The majority of American citizens are so ignorant and it’s not necessarily their fault because our education system DOES teach us to stay ignorant and complacent so we don’t get in the way of the people at the very top with their own world domination agenda. I feel that after this lecture my mind has opened up even more and that’s all I ask from professors and I’m glad Sam Richards was able to deliver what I’ve been trying to get out of this college experience.
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After attending Sam’s lecture last Thursday, I can definitely say he made me think. Think in a way differently than I would normally. I never thought about the war in the way in which he presented it. I’ve always been against the war because from the start I never understood what it was actually solving. And after Thursday’s class I actually learned more about the situation we are in. Some parts of the lecture I definitely agreed with while other parts I was like, “I can’t believe he said that!” I really enjoyed Sam’s passion and enthusiasm throughout the whole lecture it really helped me remain on task, and pay close attention to the different viewpoints he was presenting.
I definitely think that making the class pretend that we were Middle Eastern students helped me view the war from a different perspective. How would we, as Americans, react if others came to our land and were trying to steal our oil, when it was ours in the first place? After seeing it like that, I definitely thought of how differently we would react if we were in their position. I also enjoyed the part of the lecture where Sam showed us pictures of what Iraq and Afghanistan looked like before the war. The mall was five times the size of the local mall in my community; I didn’t imagine buildings like that to exist there. My eyes were definitely opened to a different view of Afghanistan and Iraq, a view that I never knew existed.
After watching the lecture, I went home and wanted to show my roommates the trailer for the lecture. It just so happened that my roommates boyfriend was coming up to visit for the weekend. He’s a marine and just returned in January from Afghanistan. She then showed the trailer to him because she found it interesting. The guy couldn’t watch past the first thirty seconds, he asked us if we could turn it off before I got seriously mad. Then we started to talk about the situation over there and he said, “The funny thing is we don’t even try to convert them to Christianity, we don’t even bring religion up when we encounter them.” He said in his unit the closest he’s come with the people was when he was handing out cupcakes to young children. But after watching the video for thirty seconds he wasn’t able to fully understand Sam’s point. And at first I didn’t either. Sam’s not against war or Christianity. He said it himself if he saw Taliban in the streets they are the people he would go after, not the innocent civilians who in fact are the ones losing their lives. Overall, I thought the lecture was very effective and interesting. I definitely saw the war in a different view, I didn’t necessarily change my opinion on the topic, but in a way that I can see where they are coming. It was different seeing it from another perspective.
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Very good class Sam. I am taking another class on International Mass Communications and one of the aspects we focus on is framing in the media. A survey taken by adolescent teens taken Afghanistan, who through the influence of television and the news, had bad images of Americans. They had never visited the United States and had negative opinions based on what was said in the news and displayed on television. This is the same here in the United States. When we are exposed to constant negative images of terrorism in movies, television and the news, we start to form our own ideas and opinions about countries that perhaps we never even visited before in our lives.
The class on Tuesday was a big eye opener because I was actually sitting in class and I completely understood the concept that Sam was trying to get through our heads.He wanted up to put ourselves into the lives of Arab Muslims, something I had never thought about before because I am American, i only think about my life and what needs to be done in order to succeed in my life. But, putting myself into the shoes of other people, my eyes were open to how hypocritical everyone can be. Radical Muslims are just angry and want to act out while radical Christians are just as angry and want to lash out. We are all different and we will all act out in a different way. We can not fault all Arab Muslims for thinking the same way when not all Americans think the way Radical Christians do.
I admit that as a New Yorker and living in the big city for my entire life, after the 9/11 incident, i was only an ignorant 12 year old who was angered by what the "terrorist Muslims" did to MY city. I wanted the country to go to war because of the extreme patriotism that i felt right after the incident. i thought, my country deserved revenge and retaliation against the country that made us suffer and I know many people shared my same view. But, man, how radical my thoughts were at the time and how revengeful I must have been. Now I am anti-war, with the more education i received which formed my opinion about the topic. Today, more and more civilians are being murdered overseas and what is really being solved? I am sorry is I am offending pro-war believers and I 100% respect all the soldiers that are fighting for our country (one of them happen to be a family member) but I honestly feel like this war needs to end.
Because of the differences in opinion, politics and religion, there will always be conflict and disagreements. Until we learn to settle things peacefully, without the need to kill innocent people, than our worlds will be split.
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Personally, I think that this is the best lecture I have attended at Penn State so far. I mean, I am only a freshman, but I don’t think many lectures I will sit through in the future will compare to this one either. Sam really challenged us to imagine what the other side was feeling, and I think that his approach was brilliant. Looking at it from a Muslim’s perspective was completely mind blowing. Then the videos he had us watch were pretty interesting. How about the one of the US soldiers running over a civilian’s car? Or the one where the US soldiers ran a civilian off the road for no reason? In these cases, I would say that the soldiers were completely unprovoked. In these cases, I would agree that the soldiers are indeed Christian Invaders.
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One thing that shocked me was Bush’s quote about this war being a crusade. Could he have picked a worse word? I will say something for the man though, since I am not a fan of his. Perhaps he just didn’t think clearly about what he was saying beforehand. In my opinion, however, that was a huge mistake. When dealing with war, especially one that I believe he jumped into prematurely, maybe he should’ve taken a look in a dictionary before he went and opened his mouth. Since we were supposed to be taking in this whole lecture as if we were Muslims, I thought about it. If the leader of another country said this when launching a war against my country, I would be really angry. Why would I be angry, you may ask? Well maybe because this Christian thinks he is better than us. Maybe he wants to convert us. Or maybe, just maybe, he might want all of our resources. Our oil.
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Another quote I found interesting was the one about Iraq being to Americans like a toy store is to children. Wow. Great quote right there. It seems to me as if some Americans really need to watch what they say. Looking at it from a Muslim’s point of view, this quote would’ve made me angry just like the one by Bush did. The quote makes it seem as if the only reason that the Americans invaded is because they want what is ours. They want what is on our land. How can they live with themselves for stealing what is ours?
At the beginning of class, Sam told us that he would be telling us a tale of patriotic defenders against invaders and thieves and killers. I didn’t think that he would have us look at the situation how he did. In my opinion, it was shocking. At the end of class, I will admit that I raised my hand. If I were in the Muslim’s place, I would fight against the American soldiers.
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I am a Christian. And I actually thought this was a really good lecture. My only question on reflecting back is why Sam when asking if we had any questions about this lecture only asked Christians if they were cool with things? Why not mention Hindus or Buddhists or Atheists or any religion for that matter? That was pretty much my only question. Other than that I thought this lecture was a great demonstration of ethnocentrism. While I could not seriously picture myself as a Muslim I did have one of those “ah hah” moments where I thought I can completely understand how they would see this. I was not offended in the least by the material presented. I really thought that the media examples were great because they are a huge part of what shapes our views of the other side. It really saddened me that in a world so advanced there is so much misunderstanding between people. I also got really annoyed that some Christians took this lecture as a personal affront. This is not about you. This is about trying to understand how other people see things. Sam isn’t trying to force this view on us either…he is just trying to make us think. I am a firm believer that you should not really voice your opinion about something if you do not have a complete understanding of what you are saying and are able to argue it from all sides. If you can say ok I understand your vision and this is what makes mine better then it is ok. Instead some of the backlash from this lecture really came from the people who just could not get over themselves to see that this is just an opportunity to enhance your opinions and views because you have more knowledge. A little off topic now: the video about Muslims wanting to take over the world. Sam said he actually gets scared watching that video whereas when I watched it I thought what a ridiculous bit of American propaganda. I feel like videos like that are what give Americans the ideas that anyone who practices Islam wants us dead. Videos like that just foster ignorant opinions. The Jesus camp video on the other hand actually scared. I had previously watched the whole documentary on HBO and it is more frightening to me that there are people in any society who can practically brainwash children with beliefs before they have the time to develop opinions themselves. I am less afraid of adults who have hostile beliefs than children. Because at least in my mind those adults lived through experiences that helped them shape their opinions. These children are just being told these things instead of experiencing them. To sum things up I really thought this was a great lecture and to those who can only take offense with it…get over it because it is not about you.
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Obviously the war in Iraq and the Middle East has a lot to do with oil. It may have everything to do with oil. However I think a lot of what Sam says is border line bashing the Christian culture. I understand that he's trying to make a point. But does that mean that I agree with the point he's making? Not at all. Yes I could see how people outside of the United States would not like us and think that we are evil. I can understand that the people living in the Middle East are very scared of Americans and probably have the completely wrong view of what a typical American is like. I was thinking about this whole situation, and I thought to myself that yea maybe citizens of the United States and the people the Iraq and the Middle East aren't that different when it comes to each other's viewpoints. And then I sat back and I thought no way. Hold on a second. Am I to sit here and really believe that were the same at all? We're from different parts of the world and obviously there are millions of differences in our cultures. We don't think the same. We barely do anything the same. Just because Sam sits us down and tells us to try out this experiment, I'm going to leave class and automatically believe that the Iraqi's and all other middle easterners involved in war are justified for their actions. There's a bomb going off every day over whether it be a car bomb or someone becoming a martyr and blowing themselves up. C'mon now that stuff rarley happens in America compared to it happening every day over there. The people in general are much different. Yes I'm there are some people over there who are rational and don't want to be at war, but their culture is just much different and some of the things that terrorists and insurgents do on a daily basis is mind boggling. We're not the same at all. And at the end of this lecture, after all the things he said about Americans and Christianity, his final point was just that I can see why someone would become an insurgent? Okay that's good for them I guess, but why would I care about that? We're at war with them, and it doesn't really matter to me if Sam can understand them. In this particular situation I'm only concerned about my country and the well-being of my family friends and other Americans. We're at war. We're not supposed to be friends, and I don't think it matters if people can understand their way of thinking. I got the sense that Sam was trying to give us a sense of "see we're not so different after all." I don't agree with that. We're different people who live completely different lives. I found it very hard to put myself in the shoes of an Iraqi because I don't know how they live. I don't understand their way of life so I'm not about to try and understand why they would want to join the insurgency.
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That video was in your face and if you attended the lecture you would completely understand where this video and Sam is coming from. Thumbs up to whoever edited this too. Good work, it is very intense just like the Jihad video we watched in class. On another note I am not sure how you could get offended by this after attending the lecture and understanding what Sam was trying to do. We were switching places and cultures to better understand where Muslims are coming from and why some might join the fight against America. Just like some Americans believe all Muslims are bad there are Muslims that think all Americans are bad. This is a small portion of each culture but the media presents only one side of each argument for each country. For America were fighting nothing but radicals and for Muslims in the Middle East it’s a fight against radical Christians who are invading their land. The lecture was just meant to show that this does not just happen by chance but is instead created from many misunderstood interpretations by both sides. Just like we develop our ideas from what we see about Muslims on the news, Muslims do the same in relation to Christians.
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CONT. It all just really made sense to me. For this reason I find it strange that some people could still get offended by this lecture. The only way I could see someone getting offended by this lecture is if you were not paying attention closely and then heard something out of context and then just completely shut Sam out. Which in my opinion is very possible with what I see people doing around me each class (texting, talking, reading. etc)? Either way it was a great lecture and I want to give props to same for crushing it.
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That video was in your face and if you attended the lecture you would completely understand where this video and Sam is coming from. Thumbs up to whoever edited this too. Good work, it is very intense just like the Jihad video we watched in class. On another note I am not sure how you could get offended by this after attending the lecture and understanding what Sam was trying to do. We were switching places and cultures to better understand where Muslims are coming from and why some might join the fight against America. Just like some Americans believe all Muslims are bad there are Muslims that think all Americans are bad. This is a small portion of each culture but the media presents only one side of each argument for each country. For America were fighting nothing but radicals and for Muslims in the Middle East it’s a fight against radical Christians who are invading their land. The lecture was just meant to show that this does not just happen by chance but is instead created from many misunderstood interpretations by both sides.
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Just like we develop are ideas from what we see about Muslims on the news, Muslims do the same in relation to Christians. We see the destruction and the resistance and Muslims see "Christian invaders" such as George Bush who label the war as a crusade. When the media reports this to the public what are they suppose to assume about the war other then it is a religious conquest? This idea is what Sam was getting at and that is why we were supposed to be in the shoes of the Muslims and try to understand everything from their side. Which I fully grasped and I now have a totally different appreciation for the war and why Muslims in the Middle East may hate us. Prior to the lecture I never really took the time to understand why Muslims may hate us but after the lecture it became quite clear and to me it was very understandable. This was probably the best lecture of the year in my opinion and possible the best lectures I have attend in my college experience thus far.
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Part 3: It all just really made sense to me. For this reason I find it strange that some people could still get offended by this lecture. The only way I could see someone getting offended by this lecture is if you were not paying attention closely and then heard something out of context and then just completely shut Sam out. Which in my opinion is very possible with what I see people doing around me each class (texting, talking, reading. etc)? Either way it was a great lecture and I want to give props to same for crushing it.
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Part 2: We see the destruction and the resistance and Muslims see "Christian invaders" such as George Bush who label the war as a crusade. When the media reports this to the public what are they suppose to assume about the war other then it is a religious conquest? This idea is what Sam was getting at and that is why we were supposed to be in the shoes of the Muslims and try to understand everything from their side. Which I fully grasped and I now have a totally different appreciation for the war and why Muslims in the Middle East may hate us. Prior to the lecture I never really took the time to understand why Muslims may hate us but after the lecture it became quite clear and to me it was very understandable. This was probably the best lecture of the year in my opinion and possible the best lectures I have attend in my college experience thus far. The information and perspective of being a Muslim in the Middle East really opened my eyes and helped me fully understand what is happening and partially why it is happening.
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We see the destruction and the resistance and Muslims see "Christian invaders" such as George Bush who label the war as a crusade. When the media reports this to the public what are they suppose to assume about the war other then it is a religious conquest? This idea is what Sam was getting at and that is why we were supposed to be in the shoes of the Muslims and try to understand everything from their side. Which I fully grasped and I now have a totally different appreciation for the war and why Muslims in the Middle East may hate us. Prior to the lecture I never really took the time to understand why Muslims may hate us but after the lecture it became quite clear and to me it was very understandable. This was probably the best lecture of the year in my opinion and possible the best lectures I have attend in my college experience thus far. The information and perspective of being a Muslim in the Middle East really opened my eyes and helped me fully understand what is happening and partially why it is happening. It all just really made sense to me. For this reason I find it strange that some people could still get offended by this lecture.
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. We see the destruction and the resistance and Muslims see "Christian invaders" such as George Bush who label the war as a crusade. When the media reports this to the public what are they suppose to assume about the war other then it is a religious conquest? This idea is what Sam was getting at and that is why we were supposed to be in the shoes of the Muslims and try to understand everything from their side. Which I fully grasped and I now have a totally different appreciation for the war and why Muslims in the Middle East may hate us. Prior to the lecture I never really took the time to understand why Muslims may hate us but after the lecture it became quite clear and to me it was very understandable. This was probably the best lecture of the year in my opinion and possible the best lectures I have attend in my college experience thus far.
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The information and perspective of being a Muslim in the Middle East really opened my eyes and helped me fully understand what is happening and partially why it is happening. It all just really made sense to me. For this reason I find it strange that some people could still get offended by this lecture. The only way I could see someone getting offended by this lecture is if you were not paying attention closely and then heard something out of context and then just completely shut Sam out. Which in my opinion is very possible with what I see people doing around me each class (texting, talking, reading. etc)? Either way it was a great lecture and I want to give props to same for crushing it.
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I can understand why there was a lot of outrage for what Sam discussed in class regarding the ‘Christian Invasion’, but I think people really need to start putting themselves in the shoes of other people. Because I think that with Sam’s whole argument and putting us in the shoes of the Muslims, it is really easy to understand their negative thoughts about us. It all works out in a way that we make our beliefs and judgments based off of the information that we know, and sometimes if we are not well informed enough then we are going to make assumptions. Of course this is a terrible thing, but I really think this is something that is absolutely inevitable. Therefore, as hard as it is to hear all of the negative things that the Muslims say about us and vice-versa, only better communication can potentially solve this problem in society.
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We see the destruction and the resistance and Muslims see "Christian invaders" such as George Bush who label the war as a crusade. When the media reports this to the public what are they suppose to assume about the war other then it is a religious conquest? This idea is what Sam was getting at and that is why we were supposed to be in the shoes of the Muslims and try to understand everything from their side. Which I fully grasped and I now have a totally different appreciation for the war and why Muslims in the Middle East may hate us. Prior to the lecture I never really took the time to understand why Muslims may hate us but after the lecture it became quite clear and to me it was very understandable. This was probably the best lecture of the year in my opinion and possible the best lectures I have attend in my college experience thus far. cont.
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Propaganda: information put out by an organization or government to promote a policy, idea, or cause (from Encarta dictionary (English, North American).
That is one word that I feel as if a majority of students are unable or unwilling to fully understand. What aggravates me or rather frustrates me is to see all of the students in the class that can’t or don’t want to understand that there is more than one side to every story. I thought this class was one of the better lectures of the year but at the same time I feel as if Sam could have hit it even harder and brought it more to the heart then people realize.
When Sam was talking about the “War on Oil” what people don’t realize is that the U.S.A. went into the middle east back in the late 80s to early 90s and most people say that we (the U.S.A.) went in then for oil and would someday go back to finish what we started. I am not trying to sit here and say that it the war was solely based on oil because it wasn’t but at the same time I think there are some very ignorant people in the class who refuse to see any other point of view.
Personally I feel as if Sam did a great job and made it apparent of the double standards that are placed on the world for a U.S.A. perspective. We in the United States feel as if were the best and nothing else can touch us and that just isn’t true. People view all Muslims as bad and if you remember in the beginning of the war on the Middle East some news outlets were saying it was the us against the Muslims. So why is it so hard for you as a college student to understand why or how people in the Middle East view the war as a Christian Invasion?
People in the class who got mad at Sam for this lecture are clearly ignorant in some respects. Sam wasn’t trying to blame everything on Christianity he was trying to show another point of view to everyone and its completely ridiculous that some people can’t see any other point of view. I think he did a great job with this lecture and have had some serious conversations about the exact points that Sam covered in this class with some of my friends. Sam has said since the beginning of the class that he isn’t trying to change your opinion; all he is trying to do is get you to think. I feel like the most important thing Sam does in this class is that he makes you defend your opinions to yourself and that right there is one of the hardest things to do.
It’s our right and privilege as citizens of the United States to educate ourselves especially with all of the opportunities lying right in our hands. It is downright ignorant to blame someone or cast an individual out for having different opinions as yourself. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion yet at the same time I feel as if we as college students, which means we are by no means stupid, should be able to see another person’s point of view on any subject. We don’t have to agree with that person’s perspective but we must be able to see their side. It’s when we are unable to see another person’s perspective that leads to bigotry and prejudice.
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Two times a week for an hour and fifteen minutes, I come and I listen to Sam speak. For the longest time, it felt like every word out of his mouth was the same thing over and over. I began to hate the class. But listening to Tuesday’s lecture, something hit me. Through listening to his lecture on Christian invaders, and reading Laurie’s book, I finally began to understand, even if it was only the tiniest of bits. I realized that the reason I wasn’t getting anything out of Sam’s lectures had nothing to do with him, but it was because of myself and my own ethnocentric ways of thinking. I hate change, but who doesn’t. I didn’t want to change my way of thinking, but I realized that to understand other parts of the world, I am required to do that. There is a lot out there that I don’t understand nor will I ever, but I am recognizing that. According to Laurie, that is one of the first steps we need to take to make peace. I’ve always been considered the nicest one out of my group of friends. If someone was upset, it was always me that they asked to go talk to them. I know I am a good person, but listening to this lecture knowing that I too was a Christian, did not make me feel the greatest. I guess I began to touch on this so-called white guilt. If it weren’t for this class, I would never have really taken the time to “think outside the box.” I would never have looked at the war between the U.S. and Afghanistan in a different perspective. I would never have known that U.S. politicians could be so cruel. I almost felt embarrassed to be an American for the first time in my life. I guess “embarrassed” isn’t the best word to describe what I felt, but it was the sort of feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I am very proud to be an American, but I wish that what the Arabic people see over in Afghanistan was not the representation of the U.S and same goes for them. I love reading gossip magazines, and I guess this is a little different, but I get sucked into these magazines and believe everything I read. The media has such an impact on people. Whether it be celebrities, or war updates, we will believe what we see. But are people picking only the worst parts to show us to get higher entertainment ratings? All I know is that I need to be a better chooser as to what to believe. I need to stop being so gullible all the time, and I need to start making changes in my life to make my first steps towards peace. Taking the time to see someone else’s perspective is one way I am making changes.
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That video was in your face and if you attended the lecture you would completely understand where this video and Sam is coming from. Thumbs up to whoever edited this too. Good work, it is very intense just like the Jihad video we watched in class. On another note I am not sure how you could get offended by this after attending the lecture and understanding what Sam was trying to do. We were switching places and cultures to better understand where Muslims are coming from and why some might join the fight against America. Just like some Americans believe all Muslims are bad there are Muslims that think all Americans are bad. This is a small portion of each culture but the media presents only one side of each argument for each country. For America were fighting nothing but radicals and for Muslims in the Middle East it’s a fight against radical Christians who are invading their land.
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That video was in your face and if you attended the lecture you would completely understand where this video and Sam is coming from. Thumbs up to whoever edited this too. Good work, it is very intense just like the Jihad video we watched in class. On another note I am not sure how you could get offended by this after attending the lecture and understanding what Sam was trying to do. We were switching places and cultures to better understand where Muslims are coming from and why some might join the fight against America. Just like some Americans believe all Muslims are bad there are Muslims that think all Americans are bad. This is a small portion of each culture but the media presents only one side of each argument for each country. For America were fighting nothing but radicals and for Muslims in the Middle East it’s a fight against radical Christians who are invading their land. The lecture was just meant to show that this does not just happen by chance but is instead created from many misunderstood interpretations by both sides. Just like we develop are ideas from what we see about Muslims on the news, Muslims do the same in relation to Christians.
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Ok. There are some parts of this lecture that I liked and some that I did not like. I will not be one of the ones saying that this was the greatest lecture they have ever seen, nor will I be one of the one's calling it supremely offensive. Was some of it offensive to me? Sure. Mainly his points about Christianity and how that relates to oil. Beginning with that. Sam made huge leaps in this lecture. HUGE. While I do agree that this war was mainly about oil, I think he was severely over reaching in his analysis of the George Bush quote. We have learned after eight years, that most things Bush said, were a) not written by him or b) he made them up. Sam's obsession with Bush using the word crusade was blown entirely out of proportion as that word has taken on an entirely different context in this century. People go on crusades all the time that have NOTHING to do with religion.
I have to state that I believe this war was not entirely about oil, but that was a HUGE part of it. Sure our country was attacked and we needed to do something about it, but neither Iraq nor Afghanistan attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us. Now I knew that the Afghan invasion would happen as they openly supported the group that carried out the attack. But Iraq did not really support them any more than many other countries in the world. the quote from the oil executive was truly shocking to me, and I think that that was more of the internal motivation for the Iraqi invasion for the Bush administration.
While I do believe that religion plays a small role in the war, I agree with some of the posts above me who said that it is more about the misunderstanding and lack of communication between the religions than the two religions being directly at war with one another. I mean, these are the two most popular religions in the world, and of course it is easy to assume that that is the reason for everything, but I think that that is a bit of an intellectual cop out to assume it's all about religion. During this lecture Sam made sweeping generalizations about people and their intelligence. He fed us small pieces of information and assumed that we would not try to intellectually reason through things. He showed us the snippet of the Christian camp and assumed that we all would just think Christians are crazy and trying to kill us. Do you not think that maybe, possibly some would see, as we do, that this is a small number of radical extremists and not the whole??
I think Sam severely underestimates the intelligence of people, because he seems to find himself on an intellectual level that many of us may just never achieve, at least that is how he seems in many lectures to me.
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