I haven’t been funded for focus, and that has led to a broad reading experience in this area but not mastery of any part. What I have been able to do is distill some themes and and reintroduce some basics and that has led to some terse formulations that others may use to springboard into new journeys and (a phrase I’ve been using lately) _come forward_ of familiar but perhaps stuck historical positions.
An example: Hillel the Elder (35BCE-10CE) | Jesus-Paul-Constantine | Muhammad.
It’s a poem.
Putin-Assad-Khamenei | Putin-Yanukovych | Russia-China
The world knows how they do business. ๐
On the Middle East Conflict —
Soviet Era – Pan-Arab Nationalism | Malignant Narcissist Manipulation – Autocratic Totalitarian Culture
Arab vs Persian Islamism | Fascist Theocratic Kleptocracy
Now you can take a puzzle piece like Bashar al-Assad and see how and where it fits, and the same may be done with Hamas. The language-conveyed expectations and myths expressed by either either may also be codified, bounded, known, and dismissed, evolved, or otherwise put into perspective.
The “Middle East Conflict” has nothing to do with human rights or real estate. It has to do with civilizational self-concept, human behavior, the embrace of ethics and ideals, and allowance or permit or what Assad represents — or Hamas or the iIDF — and then simply choices about a bored child’s question: “What do you want to do now? How do you want to live now”?
I would like to see a global evolving peaceful cultural polyphony smooth along a little bit with planning and tuned toward greater human potential and its realization.
That is a form of believer’s humanism.
Don’t say you didn’t ask.
๐
Someone asked for my opinion on a thread.
Another drop of e-paragraph elixir.
Hamas made a lot of promises on its way into power — everything was going to be okay by their claim — but they are malignantly narcissistic, a familiar profile for dictators, and while glorifying themselves, they have also cheated, intimidated, manipulated, and plundered much of Gaza (and the world, considering the plethora of funding streams involved) and now demand that Israel cease to exist (truly, that was Mashaal’s within the last day or so) to fulfill their own grandiose delusions about themselves. Like a bad daddy (trust me), it’s hard seeing them accurately when they’re close and a little unbelievable seeing them from a distance either in space or time.
. . . how do you feel about the information imparted by Electronicintifada, the International Solidarity Movement, the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Code Pink ๐ , Ma’an News Agency (I actually kind of like them as they seem to report about as much as they can without drawing party thugs into their offices, i.e., they leave information out of their stories, e.g., they’ll report arrests but not causes for the same)?
http://www.meforum.org/522/the-smoking-gun-arab-immigration-into-palestine There are a lot of partisan “hate-peace peace groups” for the middle east conflict on Facebook. Some are barbaric. Some are collegial. A few are open. The true divide if interpreted through the filter of political psychology:
Adhesion to Loyalty vs Promotion of Integrity.
I don’t lie to you or anyone (or deceive people who are somehow different from myself) or spin this material, and if at times I’m . . . then I’m wrong. I apologize about it, make amends or corrections, and move on.
In a mafia state — doesn’t have to be religious — a loyal lie may better than survival than the telling of an uncomfortable truth. It just takes more courage to tell the truth, and it helps to tell the truth in an atmosphere more encouraging of it. Where partisan intimidation is present — and lies are invented, told, and sustained to either pander to listeners or to develop power over the same — things don’t work so well, partially because everything becomes based on lies.
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