(October 1, 2012 at 2:17 pm)whateverist Wrote: Do the jews get a pass? If I were a young man in her neighborhood I'd sure give Summer one. (You and Shell should take all that food porn talk to area 69.)
When you think about where people come from and their history I really have to wonder if there is any group of people that have always lived where they are now. For millenia people have pushed their neighbors off their land if they could.
The one exception may be the Inuit. Eskimos seem to inhabit the least desirable land on earth. Perhaps they are just the losingest, hard luck humans on the planet? But every other group is probably descended from people who were at various times victims or conquerors.
Respecting each others property rights is a modern notion, but kicking your weaker neighbor's ass if you can is in the blood .. all our blood.
Perhaps it isn't too late, if the US really wants to help peace in the middle east, to give the Israelis one of our states. Hell, we have 50 of them. Surely we can afford to lose one or two, preferably red states (offense intended).
Of course people push others of land they inhabit. So did the did the Native Americans try and no sane person should think what was done was right. But no person today would give the land back/
But there is a shelf life to that victim status. When we live in a global culture that is media driven there is no way anyone connected to it can deny that we are not the same species.
What drives this needless conflict isnt "I was here first" which is nothing more than an arbitrary starting point. In 1946 arabs could claim that. 3,000 years ago Jews could claim that. It is as fucking absurd as Columus day when America celibrates the "discovery" of America. Who were the people he met? Oviously someone beat him to the land.
BOTH Muslims and Jews are claiming victim status and both dig in on claims of autonomy and tradition, and in this wake is the fact that our tribalism wont be put on a leash until we see ourselves as the same species rather than comic book rival clubs.
But when you look at all human conflicts in our evolution the easiest scapegoat is being the victim. The hard thing that seems to be for our species is learning from our past so we dont repeat it.
