[lit-ideas] Re: 21. century European anti-Semitism
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 01:37:53 EDT
In a message dated 4/19/2004 1:19:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes:
would speculate rather the opposite. Family ties are
ordinarily the strongest, and they don't normally have
to be enforced by manifestations of violence to
outsiders. In contrast, teenage gangs are rather
loosely tied, and hence require constant violent
manifestations of loyalty.
That's a good point, but do families require the type of defense that
cultures do? It would seem that the smaller the scale, the easier it is to come
to an
understanding.
Example: I had a discussion with a Muslim bookseller in the subway.
Ultimately we agreed to disagree. He gave me a free copy of Abdessalam
Yassine's "The
Muslim Mind on Trial" and we parted on friendly terms. He knew I was not a
threat and our discussion was personal (or familial).
Had I dared to debate someone in a more public forum like a Mosque in Saudi
Arabia (assuming I had been allowed into one), I doubt we would have parted
with goodwill and a gift of a book.
Omar writes: "The World War
II was started by the then relatively recent
nation-states of Germany, Italy, and Japan. These
days, both the Israelis and the Palestinians are
relatively new nations which by no means take their
group identities for granted. (The Israelis having
been scattered all over the world until recently, and
the Palestinians currently being so.) This is very simplistic but, I submit,
less so than the above."
Omar's on to something here, despite his attempt to be insulting. Who started
WW2 is beside the point. However, new cultures do have more at stake in their
defense than settled ones.
But can we say that new cultures (or those who identify with new cultures)
are more violent in their defense of these cultures from perceived Others?
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
