2006-09-15
Two Brothers
The tale of two brothers from Australia. The eldest brother is named Ben, and is currently in Iraq, helping bring freedom to the Iraqi people. Here is what he had to say:
"Support your Australian soldiers and their deployment to Iraq - don't buy the populist crap Beazley spews into the media."
Note that Kim Beazley is the head of the left-wing/anti-war Labor Party, which is fortunately currently in opposition, as usual by a razor-thin margin (1% or whatever).
And here is his brother Joel, who has this to say:
"My older brother Ben has been sent to Iraq to help clean up George Bush's mess. ... You'll quickly see that Ben and I have very different points of view, politically and socially."
Basically this war has people split right down the middle, even family members with the same upbringing in the same country have fallen into diametrically opposite camps.
Why do we have this stunning split? I believe the reason is that we are not teaching people to "fight subjugation" directly. People only pick it up by osmosis. Some people live in freedom, but simply don't have the concept of giving that same freedom to others. As "thinker" told me, for someone to be an anti-subjugator, they need to understand both what it's like to be subjugated, and what it's like to not be subjugated. The West only knows the latter, the Middle East only knows the former. I was brought up under authoritarian parents, so know what it's like to be (attempted anyway) subjugated. I watched my watch as I turned 18 and jumped for joy as I suddenly gained my human rights. I incorrectly assumed that the Iraqis would all jump for joy when they suddenly acquired their human rights too. I still believe that to end this war we urgently need to spread the simple message:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species - do you?
I have already tried asking Joel his reaction to this question, to see if it is enough to get him to change his mind, but he didn't reply to me.
Another thing we need to do is impart critical thinking skills to the Iraqis. They have basically missed out on the benefits of the Enlightenment.
The solutions are all there. It's just a matter of spreading them. Before the Republicans lose office!
|
"Support your Australian soldiers and their deployment to Iraq - don't buy the populist crap Beazley spews into the media."
Note that Kim Beazley is the head of the left-wing/anti-war Labor Party, which is fortunately currently in opposition, as usual by a razor-thin margin (1% or whatever).
And here is his brother Joel, who has this to say:
"My older brother Ben has been sent to Iraq to help clean up George Bush's mess. ... You'll quickly see that Ben and I have very different points of view, politically and socially."
Basically this war has people split right down the middle, even family members with the same upbringing in the same country have fallen into diametrically opposite camps.
Why do we have this stunning split? I believe the reason is that we are not teaching people to "fight subjugation" directly. People only pick it up by osmosis. Some people live in freedom, but simply don't have the concept of giving that same freedom to others. As "thinker" told me, for someone to be an anti-subjugator, they need to understand both what it's like to be subjugated, and what it's like to not be subjugated. The West only knows the latter, the Middle East only knows the former. I was brought up under authoritarian parents, so know what it's like to be (attempted anyway) subjugated. I watched my watch as I turned 18 and jumped for joy as I suddenly gained my human rights. I incorrectly assumed that the Iraqis would all jump for joy when they suddenly acquired their human rights too. I still believe that to end this war we urgently need to spread the simple message:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species - do you?
I have already tried asking Joel his reaction to this question, to see if it is enough to get him to change his mind, but he didn't reply to me.
Another thing we need to do is impart critical thinking skills to the Iraqis. They have basically missed out on the benefits of the Enlightenment.
The solutions are all there. It's just a matter of spreading them. Before the Republicans lose office!
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 16:02 
