Ahmed Zaoui speaks
Ahmed Zaoui has given a lecture titled Clash of Civilisations: Myth or Reality? through Professor Andrew Sharp of Auckland University. Check it out. It's pretty long, but it fits nicely with a revelation I had as I walked from my new home to my ex-neighbour's last night, which went something like this:
Human conflict on a grand scale:
Interpersonal relations at their most irreducible level - person to person - are fraught with misunderstandings and miscommunications. Increase the scale to groups of people contained within geographical constraints, and factor in racial, societal and cultural differences and the scope for conflict is increased massively.The irritation I feel at some petty and possibly imagined slight translates to the enormous emotional reaction created by something as huge as aeroplanes colliding with large buildings. The conflict within myself at the most minor of decisions is evidence enough - human nature is such that we are always going to argue with our fellow wo/man. Therefore, as Kurt Vonnegut seems to be saying in 'Slaughterhouse-Five' which I have just started reading, wars will always happen.
If that isn't bad enough, what's truly terrible is that our ability to inflict ever-worsening pain and destruction on our 'enemies' is becoming more and more efficient.
This has been a rare political comment. It's sad, but current events and an awareness of them has been a casualty of my current lifestyle.
Still no phone line, in case you were wondering.
Human conflict on a grand scale:
Interpersonal relations at their most irreducible level - person to person - are fraught with misunderstandings and miscommunications. Increase the scale to groups of people contained within geographical constraints, and factor in racial, societal and cultural differences and the scope for conflict is increased massively.The irritation I feel at some petty and possibly imagined slight translates to the enormous emotional reaction created by something as huge as aeroplanes colliding with large buildings. The conflict within myself at the most minor of decisions is evidence enough - human nature is such that we are always going to argue with our fellow wo/man. Therefore, as Kurt Vonnegut seems to be saying in 'Slaughterhouse-Five' which I have just started reading, wars will always happen.
If that isn't bad enough, what's truly terrible is that our ability to inflict ever-worsening pain and destruction on our 'enemies' is becoming more and more efficient.
This has been a rare political comment. It's sad, but current events and an awareness of them has been a casualty of my current lifestyle.
Still no phone line, in case you were wondering.
posted by Jessie at 01:17
3 comments
3 Comments:
Me too. i like also.
The more i've looked at the human race, the more i've felt that we are doomed to commit the same mistakes again and again. Until someone decides to use a nuke. Or we kill ourselves with pollution. i'm really really hoping that there isn't anything like reincarnation. I'd hate to be around in a hundred years. Or even fifty.
I posted on Salam (The Baghdad Blogger)Pax's new blog recently. I asked why such a generous, charming and often brave people, seem to live in such a seemingly insane and paranoid country as America. After reading the first reply back, i haven't dared go back to read any more for fear of being depressed by it all. I was utterly slagged off and called several names. I guess someone got out of the bed on the wrong side that day.
=S.
"if you look at your own relations and see how fucked and out of joint they often are, then magnify them it isn't dissimilar to how the world seems to work"
We are, quite simply, screwed.
Ah sorry Supergood, i meant ANOTHER nuke... one of those REALLY BIIIIG ones that don't just take out a city, but half a country. For instance, if one o' those buggers was dropped on Manchester (UK) which is about 40-50 miles away from my home, then i'd be dead, too...
Aren't we the bunch of pessimists, today, eh?
I'm an optimistic pessimist, me. I always hope for the best, but expect the worst...
Ya, know, S'good. it's high time that i dropped in on yr blog. I'm sure i haven't done so yet... been meaning to as well.
(ah, the shame!)
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