On 2009-Jan-01, at 15:58, Ryan Waldon wrote: > As a Native American, I can very much identify the plight and > situation of the Palestineans. It's like saying that, if the Native > Americans would have just gone quietly along with the "agenda" then > far fewer would have been killed. A ridiculous assertion, especially > when it becomes painfully obvious that the invader has no intention > whatsoever of tolerating your mere prescence, that they means to > eradicate any trace of your existence. When it comes to that, you're > going down, it's just a question of how you go and who you manage to > take down with you. You can slowly die of pitiful sadness, banished > far away from all that you love and hold sacred, like Geronimo. Or you > go out full of the Good Fight, bathed in the blood of your enemy as > did Looking Glass. These are the choices as many Palestineans see it. > The Israelis would, no doubt, love to clap their hand and make all the > Palestineans disappear; but one wonders, would that be enough for > them? Who would be next? > > It is appalling to me to see how very much the past of 70 years ago is > reflected, refracted and repeated in the actions of today. But today, > it would seem, the victim of the past has become the oppressor of the > present, having paid studious attention to history...
I think we can identify with and feel for any people who, whilst living their lives, with their cultural identity and customs, and their own social structures, one day find their way of life being disrupted and changed by foreign migrants. Old ladies in the UK today are aghast at what has happened to Britain... to the British way of life. However, whilst here the migrants arrive with lower socio- economic status, in Palestine, the invaders were more powerful, and took over. Whilst the powerful oppress the weak, and make us feel for the injustices that brings, the powerful are often more powerful because they are more advanced in some way, or a number of ways. So from an evolutionary perspective (broadly speaking) oppression is part of the chaotic and violent progress of humanity. Different peoples come together, and compete, and kick the s*** out of each other. And may the best man win. You ask who would be next? Well the entire Middle East can fear who would be next. The Jews turned up, in their thousands but to be sure a minority, and built a modern nation state. Just like that. OK, so they had connections. But that's part of their skill in the modern world. Meanwhile the Arab world is still struggling with the concept of anything bigger than a clan. Well if the Arabs don't build their own nation states, they may find that one day someone else will. It may come about purely accidentally, as the world gets smaller, and more migration and travel and multinational companies mix up the local identity. But that's the direction, the arrow of time goes forward. Yes many Palestinians die bathed in the blood of their enemies. Or maybe their enemies are flying a drone and drop a bomb from great heights, as I saw on the news yesterday. Five guys getting ready to fire rockets, their silhouettes imaged on the TV screen through the infra-red eye of the drone. Then a white flash. The Palestinians are trying to protect their land and their identity. But they are also resisting the modern world. And that's a fight they will never win. It is tragic beyond words. _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
