angrysoba
Philosophile
Yeah, hur hur! How old do you think Watanabe is?
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My letter to Prof. Chomsky
- Thread starter Watanabe
- Start date
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- noam chomsky
Yeah, hur hur! How old do you think Watanabe is?
Courier
Banned
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I'm confident that if he wanted to he could participate in anti-war and human rights marches once a month.
Elizabeth I
Philosopher
Here's something else: when a disaster happens, people are shown specific things they can do right now to help - donate money, donate blood, send food, clothing and water.
That's a much easier thing to grasp than "change U.S. (or British or Japanese or Albanian) foreign policy."
And, Watanabe, I notice you completely ignored the part of my post about the Vietnam protests.
That's a much easier thing to grasp than "change U.S. (or British or Japanese or Albanian) foreign policy."
And, Watanabe, I notice you completely ignored the part of my post about the Vietnam protests.
Piscivore
Smelling fishy
Why is that wrong?
You complain about the plight of the Palestinians, as far as I'm concerned that's none of my business. If two groups want to hate each other and fight for generations over the same crappy chunk of land, I'm not going to get in the middle of that. I feel sorry them in an abstract way, but it is up to them to do what it right (like leaving, maybe?) instead of suicide bombing their enemy because granddad got his ass handed to him 50 years ago. (and I'm not taking sides; the kids huddling in the Isreali bomb shelters should be blaming their parents and grandparents for the crappy way they've treated another people such that they think lobbing missles at them is a good idea).
The world is a big place; I don't think you realise how big. There are seven billion humans on this planet. I did the math once and if you filled up an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with semicolons in 8pt font and 1" margins, each page holds 29,400 dots. That's appoximately the population of East Saint Louis, MO (Closer to you, that would be similar to Shimamoto, Osaka). In order to represent each of the 7 billion people alive today with a dot, it would take 238,095 sheets of paper to do it. That stack of dots would be 87 feet high. Then you bring up ancient history like WWII and Vietnam; if I'm going to care about everyone who ever suffered that's 100,000,000,000 people. That makes the stack of dots 1,243 feet high--3,401,360 sheets of paper. If Robin Dunbar is correct, people (including you) have the capacity to care about 150-200 people at a time; that wouldn't fill up one line of dots on the first page. If something bad happens to people in say, Mongolia, that's a world away from me and I'm likely never going to meet them. I will feel bad when I hear of some tragedy befalling them, I may even be compelled to aid them in some small way, like donating money, but it will be momentary and the concern for my own little sphere will eventually assert itself. This is how humanity works.
If you feel compelled to include crying Palestinian babies as part of your 200, that's great; more power to you, and good luck making their life better. But don't get all snooty and prideful and insulting because other people care about different people than you do.
Like Chomsky, I'm sorry you are discovering that people aren't "good" and noble like you thought they were, or think they should be.
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Great points. Just taking this one example - I'm an American. My government gives around $2.5 billion per year to both sides in this conflict. My government is still paying off Egypt with another $1.5 billion per year from the Camp David accords. Go ahead - amortize the cost of Jimmy Carter's Nobel prize and tell me why that money wouldn't be better spent on scientific research on AIDS or something.
That's why I asked Watanabe for a list of priorities. That's how the real world works. You make priorities and you work against them. If he'd rather play drama queen about my wonderful menudo/pozole hybrid recipe, then he's really not interested in serious discussion, or actually solving problems.
QFT. Thankyou I agree 100%
Darth Rotor
Salted Sith Cynic
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The first post in this thread is a fine example of Word Salad.
As others have pointed out, this is a rare opportunity for me to agree with Dr Chomsky.
Watanabe, I don't think you understand what the words mean that you are using. Simply throwing a bunch of them together does not a point make.
As others have pointed out, this is a rare opportunity for me to agree with Dr Chomsky.
Watanabe, I don't think you understand what the words mean that you are using. Simply throwing a bunch of them together does not a point make.
I did not understand much of what you have written or its relevance.
But I understood this last sentence very well, and I fear I agree with you
Darth Rotor
Salted Sith Cynic
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Ben, you may be insane, but we still love you just the way you are.
Oversharing ...
He shoots, he scores.
I guess he hasn't seen your best work.
You should have stopped right there if you wanted to improve you truth coefficient.
Is protesting against an injust war something difficult to do?
Elizabeth I said:
As I think you were defeated in that pointless bloody war?
You mean, how many % of the people took part in serious activism against the Vietnam war?
5% of the US population?
1%?
And of this 1%, how many were only interested in protesting their own people from going to war?
How many of this 1% were instead interested in the right of Vietnamese people not to be killed?
And How many US citizens called (this is the main point) to prosecute your own leaders and soldiers when they commit war crimes?
0.1% of the population?
0.01% of the population?
0.001% of the population?
I think maybe answer number c)
Same in Japan for the number of people who tried to do something to prosecute Japanese war criminals
This is where the knack of the problem is: we are good people, maybe, but only torwards our families, friends and fellow citizens.
We do not care much about the suffering of people of other communities countries or religious
Even less if they are part of a group perceived somehow as an "enemy"
Your government got in the middle of that for the last 60 years, trying to block a peaceful solution in anyway possible.
Today, we do not have a Palestinian member state at the UN mainly as they US have veto power
Darth Rotor
Salted Sith Cynic
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It is an option in a free society, not a requirement.
Make sure you read that sentence more than once, on the off chance that you may understand it.
angrysoba
Philosophile
There was a sitcom in the UK in which a character who served in the merchant navy during World War II told his two ungrateful nephews, "We fought a war for your freedom and what do you do with it? You do whatever you bloody well like, don't you?"
Freedom should be a chance for people to help each other, not an excuse for ignoring each other
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Holy crap I can't believe I'm agreeing with this.
Congratulations, Watanabe: You've managed to find someone I think is more of an ass than Noam Chomsky.
Elizabeth I
Philosopher
This simply isn't true and you have been given examples to show that it's not. If people don't demonstrate their concern for the rest of humanity the way you think they should, it doesn't mean they don't care. It means they don't do things the way you would. Why should they? Who died and made you God?
Then please explain me.
How do US people express their grieve and horror for the victims of Fallujah, Iraqi civilians killed by US troops?
How do Japanese people express their grieve and horror for the victims of the Nanking Massacre?
Maybe I am missing something
Please let me know
Please let me know how US citizens show their "concern" for the children shown in the below pictures
http://respect-discussion.blogspot.jp/2010/10/us-war-crimes-in-fallujah.html
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Kid Eager
Philosopher
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(my bolding) A sense of proportion, perhaps?
Piscivore
Smelling fishy
I am not "my government". In this case, "my government" is not representing me or my interests, but those of religiously and economically motivated individuals with more money to spend on lobbying.