(February 12, 2019 at 11:26 am)bennyboy Wrote: I don't really think there are any non-racists. Or, if they are, it's just because someone has applied their chimpanzee tribalist instincts along some other axis: for example, expressions of political or group membership.
For me, the PC left extremists (I refer to the most intolerant and belligerent) and the right-wing nutjobs are quite similar-- they've descended into a meme-based tribalism so absolute that they are unlikely even to care about each other, or the fact that they are members of a common society which they are harming with their absolutism.
But I think descriptions of sincere feelings should be to some degree exempt because of their value. Neeson wasn't trying to justify his state of mind at the time of his story-- I think he assumed we'd get the subtext: "I'm a basically decent guy, but even I have seen that darker side of the human psychology where anger or prejudices get dangerous."
Yeah, racism aside, most of us have felt homicidal urges at times. Some of us more than others. I feeling like killing people on a semi regular basis. Sometimes I felt that way strong enough to move into sort of a planning stage. It is a little bit surprising that we don't do the murder thing a little more often than we do, considering how frequently we just want to kill other people. So Neeson spent a week wanting to kill some black guy, any black guy? And then it sunk in how crazy that was? Yeah, OK. Most of us have been there. Maybe not a black guy. Maybe a Muslim, any Muslim. Or a priest, any priest. A bible belt redneck. Or some white guy in a MAGA hat, any white guy in a MAGA hat. Realizing that's crazy and feeling bad about it is what's important.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
