Racial prejudice is in the news.
I'm not sure racial prejudice is an accurate term - what I think people have is cultural prejudice, and logically, there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm not sure racial prejudice is an accurate term - what I think people have is cultural prejudice, and logically, there's nothing wrong with that.
The colour of a person's skin is not the issue; it's the way in which they live their life, the manner in which they conduct themselves and their cultural values that cause the prejudice, and that's easily understood. The colour of their skin is just an identifier used by the lazy - no more than a pattern having a reasonably high correlation with the cultural values you take issue with, and we as humans are programmed to recognise patterns.
There are always people you dislike for some reason, but imagine an entire culture of them - like the French. Oh God, a hideous thought. The problem with the French is that they look just like we Brits, so it's not till they open their mouths and become all arrogant and, well, typically French, that you can tell they're French.
I would imagine a lot of people would have issues with Yorkshire people if they suddenly started to dress in kaftans, espouse Islamic values, take large amounts of illicit drugs (like Samuel Smith beer) or behave like the French - nothing whatsoever to do with the colour of their skin.
I would imagine a lot of people would have issues with Yorkshire people if they suddenly started to dress in kaftans, espouse Islamic values, take large amounts of illicit drugs (like Samuel Smith beer) or behave like the French - nothing whatsoever to do with the colour of their skin.
Talking of Yorkshire people, saw John Prescott on TV the other evening. Now there was a conviction politician - he didn't give a toss as to what middle England thought; he had a political point of view and pushed it, even if it risked him not getting into parliament. Similarly Tony Benn was a conviction politician. Nothing at all like the wishy-washy, "tell me what I must do to get your vote" lot we have now.
Very few people have an issue with Lenny Henry (except Dawn French - those damned French again) - but then he's a Brummie and some people just don't like Brummies. It's not the colour of his skin that worries them, it's his Brummieness.
Noticed an advert for a Christian dating site on TV last night - Christian Mingle. Excellent idea - keeps the buggers in one location and prevents normal people dating them accidentally. The only problem is that if a mingled Christian couple marry, they're more likely to raise their kids as Christians and perpetuate the mythology of their religion as fact.
Noticed that some pastor (aka fundamentalist) in Northern Ireland has been ranting about Islam being 'spawned by the Devil' and 'satanic'. The words pot, kettle and black come to mind when religions start having a go at each other There's a quote that says; "A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about." Since no religion can agree on the concept of God, that's so true.
Fundamental literalism, and the intolerance it breeds, is a mostly western phenomenon (and then mainly Protestant) - the belief that God is just a bigger version of a human, with a few superpowers thrown in. It has, however, crept into Islam lately, whereas it was totally absent in early and middle Islam (and Juadaism and Christianity), where God was seen as mystical, beyond human comprehension, totally ineffable and not the rationalised, dogmatic, personal God of the Greek philosophers, continually intervening and meddling in human affairs (like an anthropomorphic, larger version of Zeus) where his attributes are open to scrutiny. The Eastern Orthodox still maintain the view that God is ineffable, and in this respect are more closely aligned with Asian views of the divine and the infinite. For the Eastern Orthodox the the muddled theology of the Trinity is a mystical symbol, and not something to be taken literally at face value.
If 'revealed religions' have revealed anything, it is that they are usually wrong and a mere projection of human values and frailties - another famous quote.
Underclocked the rooted mobile's CPU yesterday from 1600MHz to 1400MHz, which has had no appreciable detriment on performance, but has increased the battery life exponentially. Still haven't solved the Sleep of Death issue and suspect that will only be cured by flashing the thing with a new ROM, but I'm reluctant to do that till I know for certain what I have to back up in terms of data. Need an old 2nd hand phone to experiment on - something crappy, like an iPhone.
Very few people have an issue with Lenny Henry (except Dawn French - those damned French again) - but then he's a Brummie and some people just don't like Brummies. It's not the colour of his skin that worries them, it's his Brummieness.
Noticed an advert for a Christian dating site on TV last night - Christian Mingle. Excellent idea - keeps the buggers in one location and prevents normal people dating them accidentally. The only problem is that if a mingled Christian couple marry, they're more likely to raise their kids as Christians and perpetuate the mythology of their religion as fact.
Noticed that some pastor (aka fundamentalist) in Northern Ireland has been ranting about Islam being 'spawned by the Devil' and 'satanic'. The words pot, kettle and black come to mind when religions start having a go at each other There's a quote that says; "A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about." Since no religion can agree on the concept of God, that's so true.
Fundamental literalism, and the intolerance it breeds, is a mostly western phenomenon (and then mainly Protestant) - the belief that God is just a bigger version of a human, with a few superpowers thrown in. It has, however, crept into Islam lately, whereas it was totally absent in early and middle Islam (and Juadaism and Christianity), where God was seen as mystical, beyond human comprehension, totally ineffable and not the rationalised, dogmatic, personal God of the Greek philosophers, continually intervening and meddling in human affairs (like an anthropomorphic, larger version of Zeus) where his attributes are open to scrutiny. The Eastern Orthodox still maintain the view that God is ineffable, and in this respect are more closely aligned with Asian views of the divine and the infinite. For the Eastern Orthodox the the muddled theology of the Trinity is a mystical symbol, and not something to be taken literally at face value.
If 'revealed religions' have revealed anything, it is that they are usually wrong and a mere projection of human values and frailties - another famous quote.
Underclocked the rooted mobile's CPU yesterday from 1600MHz to 1400MHz, which has had no appreciable detriment on performance, but has increased the battery life exponentially. Still haven't solved the Sleep of Death issue and suspect that will only be cured by flashing the thing with a new ROM, but I'm reluctant to do that till I know for certain what I have to back up in terms of data. Need an old 2nd hand phone to experiment on - something crappy, like an iPhone.
2 comments:
That's a Pandora's Box of a post - pity you couldn't squeeze a mention of the rain in there. How can anyone be prejudiced against Yorkshire Folk - it is like looking down on the summit of Mount Everest from another mountain top.
Alan - one can only do that from K2.
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