posted by Sam and Michelle
Post your 450 word (minimum) comment and 100 word (minimum) response to a classmate. You should be responding to the two lectures about ethnocentrism. You can write anything you want about whatever you hear in the lectures.
What really got into my head this lesson was the video lesson on Christian Invaders. I found it particularly interesting after reading Article 10: Who Will Speak for Islam, and gaining a different perspective on the Muslim people. It’s hard hearing and really grasping all of that information, being Christian myself, but most of what was said are things that I have thought about myself. I’ve meet some radical Christians in my life and understand how other people in the world can hate and fear them; mostly because I feel the same way sometimes. It irks me to hear people killing in the name of God, no matter what religion or God they are speaking for. I like how Sam made us come to the understanding we did through our role play. It was made more real, but “putting ourselves in their shoes”, so to say. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some people from Iraq at Penn State and have been even more lucky that they have helped answer many of my questions on their country and people. I think it’s sometimes hard for people in one part of the world to think that people from a completely different part of the world can be so similar to them. We may different opinions on certain topics and may eat different foods and wear different clothes, but most humans have the same needs: to eat, to sleep, to be sheltered, and most important to be loved. I liked the pictures in class that Sam showed of everyday life in Iraq before the bombings began, because those are things that we never see. Whenever I watch the news and the give stories on what’s going on overseas in the Middle East, it makes me angry all the propaganda that is used. But I think what really gets to me, is that a majority of the people in the U.S. actually take it for accurate information. It goes along with the whole idea of people are always going to put their people and country above the rest. We can’t show negative images of our soldiers in the media, no one wants to see that, we all want to see ourselves as the good guys. The ones who carry wounded children to safety, who can mourn with our “enemy” and show them compassion. Just like the Muslims are seeing all the negative images of the U.S. and not their people and country. On a side note, that video that Sam showed that the man who called him one of the 101 most dangerous professors in the U.S. sent him (I forgot his name), was ridiculous! I can’t believe he is calling Sam a danger to our society, when he is only perpetuating the cycle of ignorance and misinformation that Americans have on Muslims and Islam.
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June 2nd, 2010 3:00 pm
After hearing this weeks lecture I found myself confused. Not in a way that I didn’t understand what I had just heard but in a sense of my personal beliefs being confused. Growing up my father was in the Army and most of my favorite memories are from growing up on military bases. When I got to college I seriously contemplated joining Army ROTC, I had an interview with one of the recruiters right before Christmas break of my freshman year. I came home and during the entire break I thought about if I truly wanted to join the Army. After input from family members that I attempted to not hear I finally decided that it wasn’t for me. I also thought that I was only a freshman and I had until the summer before my junior year to decide. With this being said, it’s probably not a shocker to tell you I have also always held a very conservative political view. (I will be the first to tell you that is probably from my parents being republicans as well.) The way you presented the warn going on now in this lecture was the first time I had ever thought about it in a different way. I had my blinders on completely and I now feel like a hypocrite. The way that we view Arabs, and the way we assume all of them are radically Muslim, is the exact way that they feel about us. I’m a Christian, a Catholic to be precise and I attend mass every weekend alone while my three best friends at school are Catholics. We’ve talked about religion before and our faith but I have never once tried to impose my views on them or make them feel guilty for not attending mass with me. And I certainly have never gone around trying to convert others to Christians, yet when I used to think of Arabs I thought only of the most radical sorts of Muslims. Just like you pointed out in lecture they are only a small amount of the Muslims, just like in the United States there are only a small amount of Christians, who are very radical. Why is it that this is the first time this point has ever been brought up to me? I’m 20 years old and go to one of the best schools in the country, yet this is the first time I have been able to open my eyes and realize that the Arabs that I have been imagining for the past 20 years are probably only a small percentage of the Arabs that actually exist. With this being said I never thought that I was one to believe that my culture was “better” than another, but I do feel as if I wasn’t able to see the complexity of another culture. I wasn’t unwilling I guess I just never had been shown it in a different light. I feel as if after just this one lecture if it can’t alter how I view the world that there has to be so much more I am completely biased to.
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COLOUROFCHANGE Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:26 pm
June 2, 2010 (Response Blog)
Wow! You almost bought me to tears after reading this. I am a Catholic and I was a Republican too. I agree with you that it opens your eyes to what is really going on. I remember my supervisor being honored at a military event and the theme was about the War on Iraq and how much the United States is doing for the Middle East. (i.e. Building Schools and Homes). When I saw the film and our military ran over the car and ran a car off the road, I have so much more compassion for Muslims. I believe America is awesome, but some of the things we do is not right. College students have the opportunity to make the greatest and biggest impact on America. Most have gained autonomy and have a bond that is hard to achieve elsewhere. Your response has inspired me to show my mentees to become more plastic. Just like you thought all Muslims were radical, Muslims and other Christian religions look down on Catholics because of their history. When I started researching Catholicism I was horrified by what I discovered. It goes to show that people can believe anything is good or bad without knowing the history behind it.
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After watching the lectures I think that the most important thing I took from them was the idea of cultural relativism. I think that it is a really hard thing to do, but also really important to try to do. I think that if you try to understand the practices of another culture it may be easier to understand why they do some of the things they do. Certain things that other cultures do may seem strange and uncomfortable to us because it is different from what we do; however, I am sure that other cultures think that people in the United States do strange things as well. For example, bullfighting is almost like a leisure activity in some cultures. I personally find it gross and I would never want to go to one. But if that is what I grew up watching I am sure that I would not have a problem with it. It is the same thing with the use of the electric chair in the United States. I do not really see a problem with it because it is just something I have grown up hearing about. I believe that if everyone tried to understand other cultures, from that cultures perspective, than a lot of racism and stereotypes would disappear.
As far as people naming their children after a holy prophet or “God”, it is just not really done in the American culture. I do not know anyone who is named Jesus or anything like that. But I do have many friends who are named after religious people from the bible, like Mary. I also have friends whose middle names are inspirational words (like Hope, Faith, and Joy). I think that many time parents in the United States just name their children based on names they like or other family members. My mom named me after Candice Bergen, the actress. And the only reason she picked that name was because she liked the actress and that name.
It was also interesting to see pictures and videos of what is going on in Iraq. I have to admit, I am not really interested in the war because I don’t know enough about it to be concerned. The experiment where we had to pretend to be an Arab Muslim was really interesting and a little hard to do. These people wanted see the soldiers as helpful and nice, but Arab Muslims are angry and upset because America is trying to steal their oil and resources. Arab Muslims are no different from Americans in wanting to defend their resources. How would America feel if some other country started a war because they wanted to get access to a resource that we have. It would be the same situation. I would be angry and upset to. And if more people understood the concept of cultural relativism than they could better understand why the Arab Muslims feel the way that they do.
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xforeveryoung Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:58 am
I agree with what you are saying about cultural relativism. I don't think that it is actually that hard to understand what another culture does. People need to put their emotions and feelings aside and understand their culture. If this happens then maybe people wouldn't be so appalled by the stonings in the Middle East. I'm not saying that the couple should of been stoned; however adultery is considered a high crime equivalent to murder in our culture and we give our murders the electric chair. I also found it hard to pretend to be an Arab Muslim. I have loved ones who are in the military and deployed to the Middle East and thats what made pretending so hard for me.
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I wholeheartedly agree with all the points in the lesson. [We] have to take a step back and put ourselves in the driver's seat of someone else life. I watched a film similar to the film in a class for terrorism about 4 years ago and I was horrified at the responses of my colleagues. Many Americans believe the War in Iraq and Afghanistan is OK because of 9/11. The problem is many people living in America are not willing to take and find out what is really going on in the world. Most rely on the media to give them the answers and that information is filtered. [We] are only interested after something happens which goes to show most Americans are reactive instead of proactive. My response to the War on Iraq is simple. I have always said, it depends on who side you are on. Americans have deemed other Americans Terrorist. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the KKK to name a few were or are terrorist to many but Freedom Fighters to others. The people fighting are fighting for a cause and most people fight when you step into their personal space whatever that may be. When our the forefathers of this country said all men were equal I guess they meant just here because they dont treat other nations the same. Although that was not entirely true for the people here. For years, the US has stuck its nose in other countries issues and killed many people, but the minute it is done on US soil. OMG They cant do that we are the United States!!! I in no way condone ANYONE being killed, I had friends, and families in the World Trade Center, but as innocent were the souls in the Trade Center are as innocent as the families in the Middle East. I dont agree with all the customs of other countries but it seems to me that it is Americans who make the decisions to say what is right or wrong in the world. The proof is the multitude of documentaries on Third World Countries. I will just use stoning. I have many Pakistani friends, and they talk about torture in their country and most dont agree with it either. However, many of them say, you know Russell the crime in America would decrease if people feared they would die or get the punishment of [my] country. I was in disagreement with them until my next radio call. I remember pulling up and seeing a 95 year old woman lying on her side bleeding because some F***** low life decided he needed a fix so he punched her in the face, snatched her purse and drug her to the ground. My partner and I caught him three blocks away and he started to fight. Naturally, the people that saw the many officers trying to handcuff him DID NOT know he had just snatched Grandmom's pocketbook, so of course it looked like Police Brutality. Why? Because they didnt know the story and it was not THEIR Grandmother. I thought about the conversation I had just had with my Pakistani friends and I finally got it! It may sound brutal but I wanted him stoned! Isnt it amazing the ONE person can decide the fate of millions of people? Furthermore, isnt it amazing that because a friendship ended (Osama Bin Laden and the Bushes) our men and women are dying? Is in not more amazing that the person responsible for the World Trade Center was not the target but Hussein was because he tried to Kill Bush Sr. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL6OGwsp9_o&fe... America has a serious problem with Ethnocentrism &They love to look into other peoples backyard to look at the dirt from them breaking a flower pot, but fail to look at the mound of dirt in our own, and dump truck keeps dropping it! This seems like a play that will never end. Europeans exploit the Indians for their land and resources and now the descendants of the exploiters are more powerful, divine destiny has been passed down and now they are laying claim to other country resources. In the mean time this country has went from sugar (literally) to sh+*.
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Wednesday 4:12 pm!
This memorial day I was at my friends house, Allegra. Her dad loves to hunt and fish, the whole shebang and in their living room they have deer fur blankets, deer heads, fish on the wall. We were talking about his hunting and in my head I’m thinking “how can he do this? Her dad is the best!” But they do eat the meat, so it’s put to good use. I never stopped to remember how people kill the meat I eat. And trust me I know, I watched the movie Earthlings, my brother is a big environmental humanitarian and forced me to watch it. It took me one day to start eating meat/animal products again. I was so disgusted by the movie, the horror of what they do to these animals in the slaughter house is messed up! I can’t believe I was judging Allegra’s dad when I had seen Earthlings, yet continued to eat the animal products.
Earthlings showed the brutality, and the long drawn out deaths of these animals—similar to what you mentioned about stoning or the electrical chair. I think both stoning and electrical chair are okay honestly. I think people should have more terrible deaths if they do something like rape 35 toddlers and keep them locked in their basement for years. Call me heartless, but the bigger the punishment, the scarier, the less crimes will be committed. I mean sheesh, the electric chair doesn’t sound too bad to me, despite that one incident of 34 minutes—its one and done—you don’t have to deal with the crappiness of jail—and since America is a “Christian” country, most people believe their going to heaven, they are fine dying! I know my grandpa looks forward to dying so he can see his wife.
I’ve spoken way too much about that because the main part of your lecture, which you did an amazing job at communicating was the prevalence of ethnocentrism. But just like Americans are close minded and see the middle east as the enemy, the middle east sees us that way as well so everyone is being ethnocentric! But in reality it’s the government’s fault, for filtering what the public sees. I would imagine most people don’t go on websites like wikileak.com that show the mess-ups, and the faults of our government point blank.
Something the media doesn’t censor is idiotic politicians like Miss. Sarah Palin. AHHH!! She boils my blood! Perhaps I my hatred for her has to do with the lack of cultural relativism I have for radical republicans, Christians, or “hockey moms” who use that as a platform to become the Vice President of The United States. I don’t get it. I really don’t. I don’t understand how someone like her could even come close to becoming the vice president, and that someone with such low intelligence as her is standing up representing our country saying things like “God’s plan is to take Iraq’s oil.” Really Sarah? Really? Or really the Republican Party for thinking it was a good idea to choose an inadequate vice presidential candidate just because she was a woman and assuming that would get some of the women’s votes. It’s actually an insult to women’s intelligence to think that just because she is a woman means that we would think she is fit to be the Vice President.
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rmb5202 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:42 am
I also have a best friend who has family that hunt. I never stopped to think how the meat i eat was killed yet I find it disturbing to hear them talk about it. I never saw Earthlings but you definitely convinced me to watch it even though I think I might cry and have to turn it off half way through. I agree with you completely and don’t think you are being heartless in stating “I think both stoning and electrical chair are okay honestly” because I feel the same way. For someone to cause such harm to others and get pleasure out of it deserves to suffer especially if it is dealing with toddlers. Now although I don’t think it is meant for everyone, I do think there are cases they are called to use the electric chair.
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While at work the other day I had to get information from a purchaser's driver's license. He handed me the ID and his credit card. I had to call him on it because I didn't take my time to check the full name. On his driver's license his name read Jesus and on his credit card the first name was Emmanuel. When I asked about it he told me to look again and see that on his license his middle name was Emmanuel. He said that he went by his middle name and the lecture came to me straight away. I mentioned it to him and he started laughing at how common that name is and how many people who have it actually do not go by it. But just as the student in class he said it was a family name and his father and so on had it. Such tradition in the family but he doesn't go by that name. I know that Anglos don't use God's name for our first names but we do name our sons after our fathers and so on and for the most part we use that name for the person. Using the name Jesus, according to Emmanuel, makes others uncomfortable and uneasy at times. In his culture it really does not but outside of his culture he says that it causes more questions and judging than anything. He also said that whites have called him Jesus, pronounced Gee-zus. He thought that it was very interesting that the issue was brought up in a class.
As far as doing the role playing as an Arab Muslim I don't want to say that I condone violence but I can see how a giant gathering and certain leadership could lead to it. Something that they have is being snatched up from them and only a few of the elitists are the ones to reap the benefit. When certain people are getting rewards for something it is once again easy to see how lower groups are quick to join up and develop violent groups. We sit back here and play the victim because we are misinformed. I won't lie when I was watching the video I was a bit shaken up. It seems that during a war we only see what we want to see and we have immediately taken a side and our side it right according to us. We see gruesome photos and videos that influence us to feel angry. Obviously the media plays a massive role in this on both sides and we are all easily influenced. We should definitely try harder to put ourselves in other's shoes so maybe to understand and have a bit of compassion.
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The first topic of this lesson was ethnocentrism, judging other cultures using your own culture as a basis for comparison. I feel like ethnocentrism is very common throughout all people all over the world, not just Americans. People are naturally going to favor one thing over another, in this case cultures. Also, it is human nature for people to favor something that is their own or that they are used to over something that is foreign or unfamiliar. Despite the fact that people can learn to understand the practices of another culture, I think it is impossible for people to keep themselves from comparing it to their own culture. Since their own culture is the best in their eyes, obviously people cannot help but to think that other cultures are inferior. Though this may be unfounded and may stand in the way of the elimination of racism, this is a part of what makes us human. Perhaps only God can judge people without the lens of ethnocentrism.
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The second part of the lesson focused on our conflict with the Middle East. At first when Prof. Richards tried to get us to understand how the Arabs felt about us taking their oil, I found it hard to think from their point of view. However, when he explained it in hypothetical terms of the Chinese taking our coal, it was much easier to sympathize with the Arab Muslims. There was one thing I disagreed with. He compared the Middle East’s oil reserves to someone’s homegrown tomato plants. A person growing their own tomatoes must put time and effort into making sure his plants grow. However, the Arabs had nothing to do with the fact that their land has oil; they put no such time or effort into this find. Though I still consider it to be their oil, I do not think they should have as high a claim on it other than for the reason that it is their land.
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Also, now that I can see things from their point of view, I still do not condone insurgents fighting against and killing our troops. But, if the “invading Westerners” are they only thing the insurgents are fighting against, why then do people think that if we evacuate all our troops from Iraq, then the insurgents will destroy their newly formed government? Is this even a possibility? Haven’t we just learned about how most Muslims wish to have a form of democratic government? Or do they see this as more forced Westernization, which is what many of them fear most? For this reason, Arab Muslims and Muslims in general are just as guilty of ethnocentrism as we are. Hopefully this doesn’t prevent everyone from coming to a peaceful solution.
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I believe 100% that hunting is more ethical AND humane when it comes to eating meat. Factory farming is cruel and unusual punishment. Not to mention it is horrible for your health. It is much safer and much more healthy to eat freshly killed meat. There are no toxins or whatever else factory farms put into their meat or feed their cows. This is 100% lean meat with nothing else but all natural ingredients. Factory farms are putting so many bad things into their animals and they basically just breed them to die. To go out and to hunt for sport is one thing, but even then, those hunters more often than not, eat the meat as well as visit the taxidermist. It is much more ethical to kill an animal in the wild and eat it than to just stand by and allow factory farms to continue and slaughter animals. That’s another thing. You think killing a deer to eat it is bad? How about you go visit a “slaughter house” and tell me that that’s more humane. You will never eat meat again if you see how the animals are treated and eventually slaughtered.
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Jsiminitus Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 am
I wholeheartedly agree with you on this one. I am an avid hunter and fisherman. The meat that I take from ll of my kill is washed and put in the freezer. I don't pump preservatives, or hormones, or steroids into any of my meat. There is far less grease and fat in the meat as well. The fact of the matter is I have had people tell me hunting is horrible and cruel. I have never shot an animal that took one step after being shot. They all drop and were instantly, and humanly killed. If someone who opposed hunting learned about factory farms, they would become hunters themselves.
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BellaBoo54 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:21 am
I am one of those people who always had a stigma against hunting. But after this lecture especially I too believe that hunting is ethical. I have tried not to think about where my meat came from, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. I watched a few videos on Youtube about factory farmed meat and it disturbed me! It is awful and not to mention actually gross. I probably would never eat meat again if I visited a slaughter house. I still do not care for hunting for sport and show pieces, but I do agree that hunting for meat to eat is ethical and much more humane than the nasty factory farmed meat.
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liz_11o Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:26 am
I agree 100% with you on this issue. Although hunting may seem gruesome to some people, it is not only humane but it is necessary. Being a prevet major I had to take a meat production course at PSU and throughout the semester we learned all about the slaughter, grading, and selling processes. To say the very least, this is a horrible experience for the animals. Not only is it an inhumane way to die, these factory farm animals live in horrible, horrible conditions for most of their short lives. Honestly, if people actually begin to research this issue, I think so many people will be astonished and appalled at the severity and truth behind the issue. It all boils down to the lack of education most members of society have. And of course, I am very uneducated on many issues but I do happen to know quite a bit on this and most issues in the animal world. Factory farming by far is horrible for the animals and the consumers. I agree completely with your post.
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psurevelry Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:40 am
As I read this comment I was just thinking about how I was on the same thinking as this yesterday. My roommate recently decided to stop eating meat because of what we call in this lecture "factory farming". We were just discussing how inhumane animals are treated today and I was saying that I could not stop eating meat but I believe people should buy from local farmers who treat there animals humanely. Many people from my town hunt though I do not know if I could ever kill an animal I believe hunting is a better way of life for all of us who eat meat. When I have eaten meat was hunted from someone I know it always tastes less greasy and better than store bought meats. If a majority of people really knew where there meat came from they would never eat meat or only eat meat that they hunted themselves.
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I myself am a hunter and I hunt for the excitement, the thrill of the chase, and for the meat of the deer. There is a sense of self accomplishment when you yourself put meat on the dinner table that you worked so hard for and you went out and got yourself. That may sound awful to some of you but ill have you know that I have the utmost respect for the animal I kill. I literally thank it for supplying my family and I with food. There is a sense of respect for the animal, as much as you may not think so, there is a great deal of it.
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And for instance, take hunting deer. Deer have no natural enemy. If hunting were not allowed to take part or no one hunted at all, there would be an overpopulation of deer running wild in the country. You may think this is a good thing but what you don’t realize is that the more deer there are, the more accidents will occur on highways, backstreets, and anywhere else one may drive. Deer will be killed (and for no purpose of eating meat so their bodies will go to waste), people could be injured, and property damaged. And as well as that, deer eat crops that our farmers plant. I know I may have gotten off track with this but I am just trying to prove a point that hunting, while you may think it’s inhumane and cruel, is in fact the better way to eat. I agree with Sam when he talked about this.
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June 2, 2010
These two lessons absolutely stunned me. To start, I want to comment on an example Dr. Richards gave for ethnocentrism. The example was of someone saying, “I am not going to Mexico because those people are strange.” I was thinking about how many times I have said something like that to myself and how often I have heard others make similar comments. These thoughts and comments do not even have to be about people outside of the United States; in fact, I have heard many people comment on my state (New Jersey) saying they do not want to come here because the people are “too Guido” and “are strange because they are too fast-paced.” Moreover, as for the hunting example, I kept saying to myself, “Eww, I would NOT kill an animal under any circumstances.” However, when I thought about how the factory farmed animals are treated, it really does make sense to hunt one’s own food. If individuals would get to understand perhaps why people in New Jersey act the way we do (or understand the culture of the “Jersey Shore”), maybe they would not have as many reservations about coming to visit this state.
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June 2, 2010
As Dr. Richards said, everyone draws a line somewhere. I could not agree with him more, especially about the practices of female genital mutilation and stoning. Concerning female genital mutilation, I recall a class discussion I once had in a Criminal Justice class; my professor was trying to get us students to understand female genital mutilation from the point of view of people from the cultures that carry out this act. This is the idea of cultural relativism brought up in lecture. Once we discussed this issue from a different point of view, the class was finally able to understand the reasons as to why young females were made to submit to this practice. Yet, everyone still agreed that it was unethical and gruesome. By the end of lecture though, we were at least able to say, “Yes, we understand why a culture may engage in female genital mutilation, however we simply cannot accept it.”
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June 2, 2010
I believe the reason why ethnocentrism is so prominent (especially among Americans) is because we are not sufficiently educated about other cultures and cultural practices. We have every right to disagree with another culture’s practices, but we should disagree having an understanding of those practices instead of simply dismissing them without knowing anything about them (which we mostly do now).
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June 2, 2010
Another problem in society that may encourage ethnocentrism concerns the media. There are many videos available on the Internet that are easily accessible. These videos may cloud people’s judgment of other cultures or may lead to the misunderstanding of a culture’s practices. This was clearly represented in the thought exercise of the Christian Invaders lecture. Honestly, I am not one to keep up-to-date with the war in the Middle East, but I knew it had something to do with oil. It surprised me, looking at this as someone from the Middle East, how much the U.S. and other Western countries take advantage of another country’s resources. Furthermore, if I were an Arab Muslim, the videos of President Bush, the Christian General, Sarah Palin, etc. would certainly have angered me. Like Dr. Richards said, we as Americans may know these people are being “knuckleheads,” but others overseas do not see these videos in the same light.
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bsa5057 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:48 am
You are absolutely right my friend. The Media always pours fuel on the fire. I watch the O'Reilly Factor and the Glenn Beck show almost daily, and boy do they distort small things, and sometimes make up facts and add it to a certain story to make Arabs sound like they are cartoonishly evil. The same thing happens back home, but instead of the news show hosts, it's the clerics and religious leaders. You can read my reply to this article and read for yourself. They say too many ridiculous fables that some actually believe. But what can we really do, it sells, so it'll be here for a long time
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June 2, 2010
It also makes sense as to why Iraqis may focus on the torture imposed by American troops. It is much easier to remember bad things than it is to remember good things. Thus, I can understand why the insurgency against Americans takes place, though I do not agree with it.
Last, I would like to bring up the part of lecture where Dr. Richards talked about dropping a bomb to kill one bad person. He stated that it would take thirty Arab Muslim civilians for the U.S. to say, “Okay, we will not bomb you now.” So, if twenty-nine people were in a building with the one bad person, it would be okay to bomb that building. This just shocked me because it shows how little value we put to others’ lives. In addition, it was quite the rude awakening because I am sure that we are not the only country to put a number on the acceptable amount of civilians to kill.
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My best friend Tori’s father and uncle go on a hunting trip once every year for what they call there “manly bonding time.” Every time they come home with all their hunting/ killing stories my stomach turns and I have to leave the room. Now although they do eat the meat they hunt, it would always sadden me as to how they could be so nonchalant about the situation. It never occurred to me until this lecture that just because I am not hunting the meat I eat does not mean anything is different than if I were hunting the meat myself. I never thought about how horrible it must be for the chickens or cows I eat day after day. After thinking about it, it kind of makes me want to be a vegetarian (if though I know I would never last without meat sadly.) Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism has a lot to do with this concept because I look badly upon Tori’s family for hunting when honestly I don’t have the right too. I think because I do not hunt my meat myself, my belief is better than theirs when in reality I guess it’s better to hunt your own food but instead I let others do it for me.
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mcardillo55 Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 am
My mom’s fiancé goes hunting as well. I think hunting gets such a bad rap because of the stereotype of people who go hunting. Most people just think they’re crazed rednecks. While I would never go hunting, I know my mom’s fiancé and his friends enjoy it a lot when the season comes around and they also take the meat to the butcher and use almost all of the deer meat. I don’t think it’s wrong to kill animals for food, I just think it’s pretty gross and would rather pay someone else to do it. If I was stranded alone in the wilderness and starving to death however, sorry Bambi, you have to go.
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Now although I could talk about this topic of Ethnocentrism forever I feel like the second part of the lecture is what really shocked yet interested me the most. To be honest (and I know this sounds terrible) I sometimes dislike the Afghanistan people at times. My cousin is in the Marines and I write him letters as much as I possibly can while he writes and sends photos of his journey back to me. When I view some of these graphic photos I sometimes feel hatred toward the Afghanistan people. My attitude changed after the second part of the lecture “Christian Invaders.” I never took time to think why these people hate Americans so much. Granted at the beginning of the lecture I was very negative as to what Mr. Richards was saying about Americans until I realized everything that was stated seemed to be reasonable.
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(con't) Shockingly, I can completely understand where the Iraq people are coming from with their hatred because I would hate us too if I were in there situation. It all started to make sense when Mr. Richards explained the situation with China and Pennsylvania. I would not like if China took our coal and was making money off of it while Pennsylvania gain nothing in return, that to me is completely unfair. It is wrong for the Americans to take the Iranians oil and then use it while fighting against them. I can’t say that I am on their side because I am clearly not being an American and all but I can now see where they are coming from and have less hatred for them before watching the lecture.
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Ethnocentrism 6/2/10
When beginning the lesson on ethnocentrism I didn’t think it was going to be very enlightening. I have heard the speeches and rants of people elaborating how we cannot criticize other people’s cultural practices because we just don’t understand their history or culture fully. What I wasn’t expecting was to hear Sam elaborate on the fact that just because they do something, doesn’t mean you have to agree with it or that it is right. This made me think. It just made a lot of sense once I sat back and thought a little more. There are extremists and radicals all over the world. The reference to bull fighting could be one that shows the point I think I am trying to make. I am sure that there are people in Spain who don’t like bull fighting either. There are people who probably do think it is cruel, but they grew up with that in their presents and just got used to it. The same thing is in America. Where I live EVERYONE, women and children included, hunt and fish, but when I bring that up around Penn State often people think it is cruel and horrible. I fully agree with Sam on the issue. I think it is more human for me to go out myself and kill the meat I consume myself. I know that the method I used to kill them was quick, human, and saved as much meat as possible. Venison, turkey, and fish are huge parts of my diet, and I know there are no preservatives, or additives to the meat I am consuming. I have played a trick on people by giving them venison burger and not telling them. They were mad, but overall enjoyed the flavor. To me personally even if I don’t fully agree with an idea, concept, or act of somewhere new, I tend to look into it rather than saying its wrong or dumb. It seems to me that most people judge things before they even know what is happening, and Sam did a good job of explaining that as well. In the second part of lecture when he explained that people wanted to give their photo as a gift to families in the United States, just out of hospitality, it surprised me. Truth be told I would be very nasty to the people of a country that was about to invade mine. It comes back to the previous point I was trying to make. There are radicals and extremists all over the world, but that doesn’t mean all people of that faith or belief are as extreme. Christianity has a few nut jobs too! Look at the preacher man out front of Willard building! I myself am Christian but do I act like that no. Even though some Christians believe it is important to “convert” others, I think its just silly. Almost all Christians I know feel the same way. I actually become quite aggravated when I hear people trying to make people believe what them. It’s the hardcore people of certain things that give it a bad name, and that isn’t fair to all the people of that group. People don’t understand or know what the actually people of a foreign place are generally like. The only thing they see or hear is on the news, but most people don’t realize this. Sam really brought to light how not all people are bad just because they belong to a certain group. It’s a breath of fresh air to me. Most people where I come from are narrow-minded and it’s great to hear someone acknowledge some truths. The thoughts and acts of world leaders don’t always represent those of its common people.
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6-2-2010
From this lesson, I only now realized how much ethnocentrism there is in the world and how many people are narrow-minded to different cultures, especially Americans to other cultures. I don’t think that any one culture is better than another but certain people from what they experience in their own lives believe it is. By doing so, I feel that it causes a greater separation between people and can be a major factor of racism or can be a cause of terrorism. With the issues of stoning, the electrical chair, or lethal injections, I think they are all wrong. I feel that people should not be subjected to excruciating pain before they die. Who are we to say who lives and who dies? What also hit me about stoning people to death is that the person who is closest to the action done by the victim is the first one to throw the stone. I don’t understand how these people have the heart to throw stones at people to death and watch them in pain. I feel that with the meat issue, I only buy packaged meat because it has been something I have grown up with and learned. I always lived in the city and I was never surrounded by hunting. In a fast paced environment, I always bought things I needed. It was convenient for me to run to the corner supermarket to buy what I needed and not have to worry about hunting an animal for food. If I did have to hunt food, I would totally have a different perspective for meat. You see all these videos about packaged meat and how unhealthy food can be, but they barely show an alternative. Even though we do have a choice, I believe that it is all about the convenience of a person. This lecture also gave me a different perspective on Arab Muslims in the Middle East. The video and the photos were disturbing especially since these issues are very controversial. It is very interesting to think about the views of Arab Muslims toward Americans. It makes America seem selfish and is only in the Middle East because of their natural resource, oil. The war in Afghanistan makes it seem that American soldiers are losing their lives for the benefit of the economy, for money, for oil. I had never thought about how people in the Middle East thought about Americans till now. This lecture also taught me how other cultures think about Americans. I feel that Americans are very narrow-minded and very ethnocentric to American culture that we become oblivious to how we are perceived by other people of different countries and cultures. Americans do not really see the negative impact we have on other people especially how much we can affect people’s lives.
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Once again, this class has yet to bore me in the least. And on the contrary, it has proved even more engaging this week. First thing this week that really sparked some interest in me was the discussion of hunting and meat. As I am an Animal Science major here at PSU, I was forced (I say forced because required just isn’t a strong enough word in this matter) to take a meat production lecture and lab course. Now the lab course was in Penn State’s slaughter house (yes, we have one – it’s all the way behind Beaver Stadium). In this class, mainly in the lab portion, I learned alotttt about the meat production business (i.e. the slaughter process, grading, and selling of the meat). Needless to say, I still cringe when I think about that class. However, it is odd that even after that – I still have not stopped purchasing and costuming meat products. And to further prove your point I don’t think I could ever actually hunt or kill an animal (probably because I am going to be a veterinarian and well they don’t exactly go hand in hand). But it really is a funny thing to think about how people (including myself – even after being exposed to the horrific truth of the meat slaughter process) could eat meat yet be so opposed to hunting. The mystery of our minds and how we rationalize continues on.
The other thing that really made me question myself was the comparison of actions between cultures – especially that of the criminal punishment. When I originally flipped through some slides early and came across the slide about public stoning, I was appalled. I am pretty much a wimp in the sense that I cannot seem to stomach any kind of human torture – even in movies. For example, during any kind of war movie or holocaust reenactment I either fast forward or shut my eyes. I sort of did the same thing with the slide of the stoned man and women, flipping quickly to the next slide. I tried to push it out of my mind until it came to that point in the lecture. It was when Sam compared it to the electric chair that I actually realized things like this happen in our country every day. How could stoning me any different? Yet still, for whatever reason, I think I could stomach watching an electrocution before I could watch individuals wailing a man and woman with rocks until death. Why? I really have no idea. I guess it just proves that the more accustomed to something you are, no matter how truly terrible it is, the easier to rationalize and accept that behavior.
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I brake for squirrels. I love animals and I could never kill an animal. I probably could kill a human before an animal as bad as that sounds. But I do eat meat, mostly chicken, but on holidays I will have some filet. When I really start thinking about where that meat came from, I do get pretty grossed out. I have seen a few videos on “factory farmed meat” and the horrific life that animals live. It is terrible, but then again I still go to the store and will pick out some chicken. My boyfriend’s frat killed a pig and the way they did it was with a bat. I have yelled at him many many times about how horrible that was and I go on and on. He of course thinks nothing was wrong with it. He made a good point though, that either way whether they got the pig and killed it themselves, you could still go to the store and get pig meat since they were already killed for you. There was no difference really. I agreed with him on that, but I think I just got so upset because I know I could not do it. I could not stand over a pig and look it in the eyes and kill it with a bat. I guess it is more of a guy thing to be cool with it and to want to participate in it. I have recently had a little more tolerance for hunters. I do not like hunting, but if you are hunting for the purpose to eat the meat and for the family then go for it. I still do not like sport hunting for the purpose of putting something up on the wall as a show piece. The other day I was watching this show called wife swap and the one family were big on hunting. They hunted for the meat in order to put warm dinner on the table. This saves them a great deal of money and they don’t have much to begin with. The woman had said that some people can’t afford to go to the store and buy the meat. And that opened my eyes a little bit on maybe hunting is not all that bad. There really is no difference in hunting vs factory meat except the fact that hunting is more ethical and humane. I probably will not be eating much meat anymore, but at least I now have more respect for the the subculture of hunters.
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This week’s two lecture parts were extremely interesting. I can honestly say that I was not surprised to find out that people get stoned to death in the Middle East for adultery. In my Short Stories Literacy Class we read a story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The story explains a small town that has a lottery. In our culture we think of the lottery as winning money. The town uses slips of paper and the head of each household draws one. The one that drew the paper with the black dot had to have their family draw slips of paper again. In the end, the person who “wins” ends up getting stoned to death by everyone present as a sacrifice to ensure a good harvest. The person who got stoned to death was part of a cultural tradition. The people of the town didn’t think of it as murder but something that was normal. Everyone had to throw a stone even if the person getting stone was their mother, father, sister, brother, daughter or son. There was a terrible reaction when this was posted in the newspaper in the 1960s. People may not agree with the stoning to death of the Middle Eastern couple that committed adultery but it is part of their culture. I think that people don’t have to agree with everything that another culture does but we have to be able to understand and possibly even respect what another culture does. People are different and we need to see that these differences in people and cultures are a good thing. The world wouldn’t be a fun place to live if everyone believed and did the same things as I.
The Jihad Video that Professor Richards showed in class scared me. I know he said before the video that it was meant to scare me but still it really scared me. Its scary to know that there are people out there that would kill you just because you are American. Just because I am American does mean that I agree with everything that my government does. I know that we are in Iraq just for oil and we are using the strength of our military to get their oil. However I have loved ones who have fought overseas and are still being deployed so it is hard for me to say that I would be on the front lines fighting against the American’s if I was from Iraq. I think that being able to “easily” overpower an opposition to get what you want is something that has always been going on in history and today. I don’t think that it is right but then again I don’t think it will ever change.
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Ethnocentrism + Christian Invaders
Blog Response 6/2
Are there ever any comparisons drawn between bull fighting and the Roman Gladiators? The cultural context in which people fight or why they fight can often be lost on other people. For instance take the saying “A terrorist to one person is a freedom fighter to another.” Ethnocentrism is just another amazing byproduct of Perception. The way “primitive tribes” will stone people and kill seem heartless to and as you say barbaric makes me wonder about when certain actions are called for, in the Shadowboxing with Race you touched on American ideals and Islam, and beforehand I actually understood how when a religion, or beliefs are being threatened the lengths people will go to make sure their beliefs are intact. You can’t live in a reality you aren’t used to living in. Amazingly enough if there was a country on the other hemisphere that dictated the exact opposite of what Americans believed there would be a concentrated effort to annihilate that movement, and we have had such examples as with the USSR and Communism, how people would be ostracized and judged for having a different political belief system. Don’t dare threaten the democracy that the United States has in play, and the capitalistic nature that has our country has been built upon, and look how many people argue the “Socialist movement” that Obama is bringing to the country. Let people buy their own health care because I don’t want to pay for the lazy bum that’s not working. I just thought that humans were at their best when showing compassion and empathy with one another and not finding new ways to shaft, and hinder other humans. Just its only right to not give someone the same rights you have if they are different, and do not put in as much effort and strain and hard work. Many immigrants who believed hard work is the reward died broke, and tired. It’s a sad catch-22 that really doesn’t have a comprisable answer. Perception of health care again, with other democracies having health care. Japan has no natural resources, but everyone in the country is insured, hospital visits costs around $15 a night with a room with 3 other people in and $90 if you want a room to yourself. Germany, lets the rich people opt out of health care an pay for own private practice, while places like Taiwan have every single person in their country on health care, because they do it for survival, not for profit, and not to make a health care tangent here. The point I’m trying to make is even though they have those positive outlooks they still have negative ones as well. Japan spends to little on health care so the hospitals go broke, England has long wait lists to see an orthopedic surgeon, and Taiwan also makes sure the hospitals go broke instead of the people. With every good thing you CAN find a problem if you look hard enough and the same goes for context of Ethnocentrism. Some people would like nothing more than to wipe all child molestor scum off the earth, but what makes their life more meaningful than yours? What makes you the gate keeper of such things? Logic is an incredibly tricky thing.
The other lecture about Iraq, is another tricky issue, the regime completely disregarded human beings and would commit crimes against their own people. Iraq did have its own economy and things were good in terms of that, but the fact it was completely decimated and in disarray. Culture still has the same relevance no matter where you are because interestingly people still ARE humans and still want to have fun and appreciate other people. Albeit the word about Christian soldiers there is a documentary out called Jesus Camp, that I suggest some of you watch to see how fanatical both sides of the religious spectrum can be. That’s the name of the documentary the BBC was talking about.
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Ethnocentrism. I think a lot of people I have met have some semblance of ethnocentrism. People always want to believe what they grew up with is the best. The think this way probably because it is what they understand it is the only thing they know. The saying goes ignorance is bliss and this is so true in a situation like this. I have said this before people fear what they do not know. I guess even I have fear of the unknown. The unknown in many cases is that of another’s culture. I do not claim to know a vast amount of knowledge about many different cultures. Therefore sometimes I do think others cultures are strange just like I would understand why people would think my culture is strange.
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Iraq. When looking at Iraq before the war it is probably like many other countries we have all seen. The pictures of after the bombings started looks like a war torn country in many pictures we have all seen. The power of war is immense I think wherever war is poverty and destruction will always follow. When I think of war I think of power, the power to kill, the power to destroy, just power. War and oil. The truth is oil seems to perpetuate a never-ending war. Oil is power especially in a society like the US’s. Though I cannot say oil is the only reason for this war because to say only one factor can cause a war is not fathomable in my eyes but to say it has not added fuel to a large fire is a lie.
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The fact is most peoples allegiances will always stay with whatever country or culture they were born and brought up in. It is hard for us as Americans to understand the root of some Muslims disdain for Americans or vise versa. The views of most people are those that they are instilled with from a very young age. I heard the quote once that hate is not born it is taught. Just like war, hate is taught from a young age and this hatred or hatred in general only leads to destruction. The environment of a country also adds to a person’s view of another country. The truth is because media is the way it is today many things can be misconstrued. Everything you see is not true however when people see things about our country or we see things about others country we tend to believe the worst in people. People tend to believe the worst in another country because that is what people are taught. I cannot blame another for what they believe because many people in our country believe things that are probably untrue. There are many sides to the same story and with the case of the view of Americans versus others are probably only manipulations of the truth.
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This lecture seems to have brought to attention how easy it is for the average person to be very narrow-minded in their thinking. Many Americans have little cultural experience. Some, like me, haven’t even travelled outside of the USA and those who did most likely spent the majority of their trip in some sort of tourist area and did not get an actual experience of other cultures. It’s easy to be stubborn in your views when the majority of your knowledge just comes from what you’re told and not what you have experienced.
The example of executions given in class I think was a little off, although I understood what Sam was trying to say. We tend to think that the electric chair and lethal injections are more ethical ways of executing criminals because they actually are. Sure there are cases where things go wrong, but we do the best we can to make it a quick and painless death most of the time.
It was also interesting to see the differences between religions of people naming their children after their gods. As I’ve mentioned in past comments, I’m not too religious but with this topic I tend to think it’s weirder that people do name their children after their gods. If you believe that there is some higher power, I think it would be kind of selfish or rude to assume that your child could compare to that being. Maybe that’s just my internal ethnocentrism coming out though.
I think that the lecture depicting the Iraqi war from the viewpoint of an Iraqi was pretty good. I think I hold a pretty standard American view of the war: it was good that we took Saddam Hussein out of power since he was a brutal dictator who’s committed many war crimes, but the war now seems to be about oil and we should get out. However, the media does depict some pretty nasty scenes and stories depicting these evil terrorists in Iraq and the great American soldiers helping them out.
There’s a lot to this war that we don’t see nearly enough of. Videos like the ones showed in class of soldiers goofing around and running over poor citizens cars with tanks or knocking them off the road make me sick. That is the kind of stuff that even when we do get out of Iraq is going to keep a deep-embedded hatred of America stirring for many years. With that kind of behavior and the fact that Iraqi citizen lives are thought of so lowly, It’s not hard to see the motivation of the many terrorist groups of today. I think more people need to back up a little bit and take some time to think things through from the opposite side of the court.
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I know this is from lesson three, the one that we do not have a quiz on, but I wanted to point this thing out about Michael Jackson:
I think I disagree with what Professor Richards said after he showed the video of Michael Jackson’s transformation. I believe changing his skin color was not a voluntary action, the cosmetic surgeries done on his nose are, but in 1993, he said in the Oprah Winfrey Show he was diagnosed with vitiligo and systemic lupus erythematosus in 1986. A friend of his stated that he wears his signature glove and what is called “skin camouflage” to hide it at its early stages, but then, it was possible that he underwent a de-pigmentation treatment for the unaffected parts of his skin when the disease started to affect more areas of his skin. The autopsy report confirms what he said, and it is also believed that his son inherited the disease.
As for lesson four, so far I’ve never been so thrilled for a lecture in this course as I have been for this one when I read heard the first question. I know you probably know the way it is in the western world, so I will try to tell you how it is in the Middle East. First of all, the west is conspiring against us, they want to separate us from our values and teachings. They want us to learn English instead of Arabic, the language of our forefathers and our holy book. The establishment of the state of Israel and the unyielding aid from the dominant western countries is an extension to the crusades, and we must take Jerusalem and Palestine back. They are trying to trick us into establishing democratic systems so that they can find traitors who are willing to be in charge of our countries and serve them in exchange for money. Mtv, Viacom, and all the mainstream media is made so that they “invade us intellectually” and steer us from thinking about the future of our nation and how we are going to sustain our Arab and Islamic culture by offering us their sleazy women, mind numbing movies, and obscene and satanic songs. This way of thinking was extremely popular in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, and it is now in decline. Thanks to this ignorant ethnocentric propaganda, I just realized I have been living in a cave for the past 15 years. I used to believe that capitalism is some political ideology the evil western world have created to destroy my people. It is ridiculous, and I know in the west there are some who may preach something a little similar to that, but this was among the extremes that was quite popular in the 1990s
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It is interesting how many people learn their sense of ethnocentrism from when they are a child growing up into their adolescent and adulthood years. How many people may look back and see how their ideas and thought processes vary differently than when they were a child? I’ve heard people all the time talk about how going to a large college or university can present many problems especially because there are just too many people to get the a quality education and how you are just a number in a large university. This just does not make any sense to me. What you won’t hear them often talk about is the level of diversity that exists at these large institutions of higher learning and the level of exposure that students have to a variety of cultures and people. This exposure is beneficial in several aspects.
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Being around a diverse setting allows many people to interact and co-exist with many other people that they may have never been around otherwise. Living among other cultures and people give students a chance to be able to consider alternate points of view other than their own views which may be based on ethnocentrism. The critics of higher education have a lot of issues that they themselves are not able to deal with. Instead of trying to downplay the benefits of attending a large university, maybe they need to embrace these universities and colleges. Think of how different things would be if there were no large colleges and universities? Think of how many more people would not have that interaction with other races and ethnicities? Think of how the problems associated with race relations would face an even larger hurdle in an effort to solve the problems of race relations?
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There are many benefits of places like Penn State, but many people fail to see or realize them. The quality level of education is just one of the benefits of a place like Penn State. The quality of diversity is another benefit that many people would not have otherwise. Without places like Penn State, race relations could be a lot worse. I was fortunate when I came to Penn State that I had already gone to a diverse high school and had been individuals of different cultures. I really value diversity and what it can bring. For me, I have been able to learn a lot by being exposed to diverse cultures. I would hope that others who have been around me have been able to learned a lot about Black people other than what if often portrayed in the media and on television. I’ve heard many students at Penn State say how they may be from a small rural place and are in a state of culture shock when they first arrived in Happy Valley. But, then they speak about how they were able to meet people and have friends comprised of different cultural backgrounds and how their thought process that they had in the past was based on ignorance and how they had perceived other cultures.
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I was really compelled with the topic of Iraq and the whole middle east. My girlfriend is from Saudi Arabia and I find it to be completely interesting to talk about Islam as a way of life. My father was in the military and also served as a Marine. It was surprising to me that my father describe some of the same topic discussed in my Sociology class. It also pointed out to me that was extremely interesting to me. America or war itself never takes place in beautiful countries or in a powerful country, it is always in a deserted and destroyed places. It is a country filled with poverty. Some military soldiers told me that the Iraqi people hate the Americans and wanted the soldiers to leave. It interesting to me that when I speak to Arab person in this school that america being in Iraq was such a bad idea. Even though they may not agree with Saddam Hussein and his practices. On the other hand, if you speak to a typical american they believe that they are helping and that they are making the country better. Honestly I have many Muslim friends and I think that they are nice and caring people. I was told by other people that the children in Iraq were so interested and curious about the American military members. Also focuses on the american way of life and culture. Stoning has been around for hundreds of years and it is a form of corporal punishment. When Professor Richard's brought up stoning he made a good point, our death penalty is just a bad. It is just a different way of doing the same thing. People make it seem that stoning is the worst because everyone watched and participates. however honestly some group of people watch men die in the gas chamber or lethal injection. It seems as if the embarrassment from being publically stoned would be enough of a punishment in my opinion. I personally could not sit there and throw stones at a person until they died, it seems inhumane and kind of heartless to me. The part about the extreme Christians got to me. Some of the things these men and women were saying were completely shocking. I went to catholic school for about thirteen years and I was once told that I needed to convert during my religion class in high school. To make things completely obvious I am not Catholic and nor will I ever be. I am just a plain old simple Christian and do not belong to a specific section or part of Christianity. I believe that when it comes to religion people should be able to practice and worship their own God.
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Ethnocentrism is something that is a constant factor in the world today, but we never really notice it. We assume that we’re just avoiding situations where we know that we wouldn’t fit in, but, I guarantee, the real source of this hesitation to participate in the situations is ethnocentrism. Why would we avoid talking to certain people? Why do we just keep quiet when in a group filled with people that are different from us? Why do we hurry past certain tables in the HUB that are filled with people that are different from us? The trick is, ethnocentrism can be stealthy. We have to look into these things that we do without thinking and see where the source for these actions lies. Is it guilt for racism that exists in the world? Is it because we are racist ourselves? Or do we honestly believe that we exist on a separate plane of existence from these people. I’m not saying to run into the HUB tomorrow and plop yourself down next to someone who shares no background with you and become best friends with him. No, what I think we need to do is have a private search for our own feelings and thought processes. If you find that you honestly feel that you are different from them and that you shouldn’t talk to them, then that is your problem. I just think we each need to be aware of the sources behind our actions, whether we can control it or not.
The idea of looking into the Arabic thought processes was fascinating in the Christian Invaders lecture. I absolutely loved this lecture. One of the main rules of warfare is to not empathize with the enemy, but I think that if we want to find peace and find a way to fix the damage we’ve done, then we need to do what we did in class. We need to look through the eyes of our “enemies” and see how we look as the “enemy”. I can easily see both sides of the puzzle, but I still know my place in the argument. My understanding of their position doesn’t stop the war. We need to educate the people in America. I’m amazed at how much we, as America, don’t know about Iraq, or any Middle Eastern country for that matter. We can barely find it on the map, but we still wanted to clear Saddam out of there. Uneducated masses are dangerous, and can easily be aimed at any enemy. Knowing this, I feel horrible for the Arabs in Iraq knowing this. But there is hope. We need to look at our enemy as humans. There is a reason why that’s not allowed in war. And that’s because it would end the war, and war wants to continue until only one side wins. I don’t think we need to force Arabs to be the losers. We just need to talk about it, but its too bad America doesn’t seem interested. Maybe if we made it a reality-TV show. That might work.
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