I don’t think we have a clue if it’s better or worse than it used to be. It’s reported more but this isn’t an indication of how often it’s truly happening but we know it’s prevalent and underreported. It’s happening to a majority group thus it could raise or fall in practice based on the acceptability of other forms of relief. If the causes of thee various practices are societal then is it really that easy? I’m not so sure.
While my opposition to Boko Haram may not have a thing to do with my OP, I was answering your question. What that tangent had to do with my OP. I don’t know either but I went with it anyway.
I’m saying there’s murder for understandable but unacceptable reasons such as jealousy, greed etc and I am not talking about them. I’m saying people take their hatred for people not being like them to such extremes. Do you believe all murders are equal?
See, it may be possible to stop people from hurting others simply for existing. Lotsa luck getting them to stop murdering for jealousy, passion or greed.
I referred to murders thjat actually happened such as James Byrd, Matthew SHeppard, steven Sotloff etc. Murders for the pettiest and stupidest reasons that are driven by a basic need to hurt a group simply for existing.
I’ll agree that it’s hard for me to talk about what I mean precisely because we are sharing words between different things and we need to define all these terms. There is a murder component to the extremes that I am talking about but I’m not talking about simple murder. Sure, I am talking about discrimination but not every single form of discrimination. My attempts to communicate what I’m saying isn’t easy precisely because we don’t have a defined vocabulary for the concept.
This was one of the things I was asking about. If we give the underlying cause a precise name and not keep naming the symptoms. Mijin’s reply addressed the cause pretty well I think. Do we have a name for that and can that be what our fight …
Heck I can’t even define the fight now without having to explain what I don’t mean by the words I’ve chosen.
That’s why we need a new word. THe concept isn’t alien but it’s not really ever addressed. I’m not saying we need to redouble our efforts or anything. Just fight the right enemy.
Let my try an analogy. A guy goes to the doctor. He has bad eyesight. The doctor fits the man with glasses. Problem solved?
The man has out of control diabetes. Still problem solved?
We are currently fighting all the symptoms of the racism, sexism etc just like we did with bad eyesight. We need to treat it like the diabetes it is and how can we best do that?
You’re looking for a spiritual solution to the question of evil. There is a virtually infinite amount of discussion about this question, is the good news and the bad news. Have you ever read the stuff Jesus said, or Martin Luther King, or Gandhi, or the Tao Te Ching, books on Buddhism? Listen to the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley? It’s all about this.
Love is the answer. I’m not being flippant; you seem to want a universally applicable rule. It’s the golden rule.
Are you saying that we don’t have a clue if things are better off for a black man in Mississippi in 2014 versus 1950? That career prospects for women are not better today than in 1950?
I don’t think that’s what you mean because it’s just absurd on its face.
I have no idea if increased liberalization in Africa led to Islamic extremism or what led to what. The end result is what matters not the justifications we use to justify the results.
I can see now maybe you were saying that Boko Haram actually has a reason besides the reasons I am talking about above and I still don’t know enough about them to say. If their reasons boil down to something less base than it appears then they’re not part of what I’m talking about and I’d withdraw them from what I’m discussing.
No, I know the religious answers and on the touchy feely level they work but I’m saying in reality they don’t seem to be efficiently working by us humans. For the relgious God helps those who help themselves after all. For the atheists, this is just a delusion after all.
Either way, the problem still exists and I’m not even talking about beating it at this point. Just fighting it effectively. I would think everyone, not just the religious, would be concerned with this.
Are things better for a typical Iraqi citizen? Maybe a Somali? A West banker? Bad stuff doesn’t just go away, it moves to other people. For every group that has it better others have it worse.
This is my point though this may also be absurd considering how well it’s going over in this thread.
If we have a more efficient strategy which has a more full frontal attack on the disease not the symptoms things may improve.
Giving a diabetic insulin would solve more than getting him glasses and a foot prosthetic will. Give him the latter and his disease still kills him. Doctors know this about that disease. I’m suggesting we treat the underlying causes not the symptoms. Help everybody not some groups.
If I’m just thinking about it like a philosophy maybe I’m talking about Karma except I don’t believe it’s exactly a zero sum game either. Maybe I’m just being anthromorphic when I call what’s happening a monster we must fight. I have considered I may be doing this but if the concept exists it matters not if it’s randomly driven vs whether it has a purpose. It can be fought if not beaten and if it can be fought it can be fought more efficiently.
