Comments on: When There is No Common Ground http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:03:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: BrianOfAtlanta http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-10075 BrianOfAtlanta Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:44:14 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/#comment-10075 About 500 years ago Christianity was in a not too different situation. Burn the heretics and all that. We outgrew it back then, thanks in part to Martin Luther and company. Hopefully, Islam can do likewise. About 500 years ago Christianity was in a not too different situation. Burn the heretics and all that. We outgrew it back then, thanks in part to Martin Luther and company. Hopefully, Islam can do likewise.

]]> By: GN http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-10004 GN Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:42:35 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/#comment-10004 This could be an over-simplification, but in my view the Muslim movement across the world can be boiled down to this. It is a "gang" mentality. Many have kept silent out of fear and it is up to them to take their religion into the twenty-first century. In the same way that gangs set the bar for acceptable behavior .... If you are a member of the Crips and you throw your colors down and take up the colors of the Bloods ...Crips will do their best to kill you. If you are Mafioso and you leave the life, they will do their best to kill you. Maybe instead of war we should go after Muslim terrorists with RICO laws. This could be an over-simplification, but in my view the Muslim movement across the world can be boiled down to this. It is a “gang” mentality. Many have kept silent out of fear and it is up to them to take their religion into the twenty-first century.

In the same way that gangs set the bar for acceptable behavior …. If you are a member of the Crips and you throw your colors down and take up the colors of the Bloods …Crips will do their best to kill you.

If you are Mafioso and you leave the life, they will do their best to kill you.

Maybe instead of war we should go after Muslim terrorists with RICO laws.

]]> By: Seb http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-9996 Seb Wed, 29 Mar 2006 01:01:12 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/#comment-9996 Of course, "You're wrong, we're right" is what you say just before you have to decide if you're willing to use violence to enforce your point of view. The other side is, and the citizens of the US probably aren't. Not for religious freedom in societies that probably don't want it, anyway. That's my opinion, anyway (I'm ambivalent, since I could be one of the people doing the killing (hopefully) should my fellow citizens surprise me in this). Of course, “You’re wrong, we’re right” is what you say just before you have to decide if you’re willing to use violence to enforce your point of view. The other side is, and the citizens of the US probably aren’t. Not for religious freedom in societies that probably don’t want it, anyway.

That’s my opinion, anyway (I’m ambivalent, since I could be one of the people doing the killing (hopefully) should my fellow citizens surprise me in this).

]]> By: Callimachus http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-9975 Callimachus Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:48:14 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/03/28/when-there-is-no-common-ground/#comment-9975 These moments have come along periodically since the biggest of them all -- 9/11/01. They make those of us in the West generally, in America in particular, in the vocally politically concerned minority specifically, sit up and say, "woah" (or "yow," or "insert exclamation of surprise of your choice"). We bicker with one another, each side insists that the other is in league with/as bad as the people we claim to be at war with. We slip into moral relativism in a myriad ways. Then comes the woah moment -- a woman aid worker beheaded. A burst of murderous fury over a cartoon. Now this. And we realize ... what? For the moment we recognize that the differences within us -- West/America/debaters -- are comparatively minor and we essentially believe in the same things and follow the same code of ethics and morality. And, by contrast, we realize there are vast numbers of people living and choosing to live with a very different set of ethics and morality. But then we fall to bickering again and quickly we forget. And maybe I've overstated the thing we -- temporarily -- all see and recognize. Maybe it's no more than the shock of the "woah." These moments have come along periodically since the biggest of them all — 9/11/01. They make those of us in the West generally, in America in particular, in the vocally politically concerned minority specifically, sit up and say, “woah” (or “yow,” or “insert exclamation of surprise of your choice”).

We bicker with one another, each side insists that the other is in league with/as bad as the people we claim to be at war with. We slip into moral relativism in a myriad ways.

Then comes the woah moment — a woman aid worker beheaded. A burst of murderous fury over a cartoon. Now this. And we realize … what? For the moment we recognize that the differences within us — West/America/debaters — are comparatively minor and we essentially believe in the same things and follow the same code of ethics and morality.

And, by contrast, we realize there are vast numbers of people living and choosing to live with a very different set of ethics and morality.

But then we fall to bickering again and quickly we forget. And maybe I’ve overstated the thing we — temporarily — all see and recognize. Maybe it’s no more than the shock of the “woah.”

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