Quote of the Day: "I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management." -- E.B. White
I've been following the "Axis of Evil" discussion on BurningBird's Blog. While Shelley is on the road somewhere (safely, I hope) between St. Louis and San Francisco, the discussion has gone on without her.
Tom Graves, an Australian, seems (from his comments) to be seriously concerned about where the world is heading with all this rhetoric. Dave (no web site), a staunch America-supporter, took exception to Tom's comments, as did Karl Martino. Meryl Yourish also disagreed with Tom's remarks, namely this one - "In Islamic law, usury is not just a crime: it's considered evil, a destroyer of the soul. The 'Western' economic model, of which, as Dave says, the US is the primary promoter and (for those higher up in the pecking-order) the primary benefactor, is founded on usury."
Starting here, I'm going to ramble on a bit, since I have more to say than would fit in a blog comment.
Tom's reference to usury and the Islamic beliefs on the subject made me think (thinking is a good thing). I seem to recall reading sometime over the last few months something along those lines - that Islamic law prohibits usury. In my mind, usury is practiced primarily by loan sharks, but I looked it up in my trusty Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary (the best IMO) and the first definition says that usury is "the lending of money with an interest charge for its use." The second definition gets into the exorbitant interest charge issue.
So following Tom's reasoning, I can see why a devoted Muslim (if my recollections on Islamic law are correct) would not look favorably (to say the least) on a nation whose economic model is based on usury. BUT (big but) ... as I understand it - and I'm not an economist by any means - our American economic model is based primarily on supply and demand. Usury may enter into the equation, but that's not the primary focus.
I have a product or service. You need or want that product or service. How badly I think you need or want the service/product determines the price I set for it. Supply and demand - a simplification, if you will. And yes I know it's more complex than that <g>
You should also know that I don't wholly endorse the system, because it allows for price gouging. Honorable people/companies will set a fair price in spite of the demand, while greedy and dishonorable ones (especially in a short supply situation) will set as high a price as the traffic will bear regardless of that price's relationship to the cost.
Short of finding a way to mandate honor, I don't have a real solution to this problem. Oh, yes, I know there are laws, but I also know that too often they are ineffective.
So what I'm saying is that while Tom's allegation has merit because it made me consider another point of view, I don't think it's accurate.
Tom said another thing, however - "Getting outside of our own 'obvious' mindset and worldview can be damn hard work: but often it's the only way to understand why people suddenly seem angry with us for no apparent reason" - that I happen to think is not only valid, but worth serious consideration.
I really do believe from the bottom of my heart that we all - every citizen of every country in the world - has to do this if we ever want to achieve a lasting peace. We need to do whatever we can to look at the world situation from as many different angles as we can.
We can not just dismiss even the most radical idea until we have examined the issues that gave birth to that idea. If we just dismiss ideas that are extreme (at one end of the spectrum), or simply don't mesh with our own (at the other end), we will continuously butt our heads against a wall. We will never understand, never get to the root of the problem, and therefore never find a resolution to our differences of thought.
I know there are mad men, psychopaths and sociopaths in the world - probably far too many. One is actually far too many. But they often take the lead, and others too often follow. I don't believe the followers are insane or psychopathic or sociopaths. They are people with problems and they see this particular leader as a solution to those problems. What we need to examine are these problems and their sources.
Blaise Pascal wrote, "We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others." Unless we examine the path that led other people to their current state of mind, we can never get them to see that perhaps they have been following the wrong path. Unless we understand (not accept, simply understand) their point of view, we can never hope to get them to understand ours.
The risk in undertaking such an examination, is that one may suddenly comprehend that one's deeply held beliefs are no longer valid. We all - each and every one of us - cling to our beliefs with ferocious tenacity. They are our rock, our foundation. When you learn, through whatever means, that your belief is not valid, you are set adrift on an unknown sea. You no longer have a safety net, or a life preserver. Such a journey is very perilous and rather formidable. It is understandable why most of us do not wish to take such a risk. But take it, we must.
I often think about Third World Nations and the countries that seem locked in past centuries, and I wonder why they have not made the advances that Europe or the US, Canada, Japan, etc. have made. Why do they always seem vulnerable to dictatorial and authoritarian governments? Why do their governments fall from one coup to the next? Why do the people seem to simply accept what happens?
While I'm still seeking the answers, I have found some common links. Mostly the population of these nations are poor - poorer than we in the US can even imagine. They are also mostly uneducated.
If you take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs you will see that these people haven't gotten past the first two levels. How can you think about educating yourself and your children to the level of caring, let alone doing something about your system of government when you don't have a decent supply of food and drinkable water? How can you begin to move beyond these basic needs if you barely have shelter from the elements? The answer is, you can't.
Those of us fortunate enough to not only have; food, water, shelter and education, but to also have computers and access to the internet, have an obligation, IMO, to keep open minds. To talk to each other. To (stealing a line from Tom Graves) get outside of our own mindset and world view. Find out what others are thinking. Not their governments. Not their media. But the people themselves. Keep an open mind and listen - really listen to what they are saying. You don't have to embrace their ideas. You don't even have to agree with them, but it is imperative that we understand, or at least attempt to understand where they are coming from.
As I've said before, I'm neither a liberal nor a conservative - neither left nor right. I'm somewhere in the middle looking at both sides from a seat on the fence, or more often up in a tree looking for the path to wisdom. Down on the forest floor you can only see trees, and they won't tell you where the path lies. You have to climb to the top of the tallest one and look out over the forest from that lofty position. Then and only then can you find the path and the place where it leads. Of course, then you have to climb down from the tree and follow it. That's the hard part.
I'll close here with one other thought. There is a song, I first heard many years ago, by Sy Miller and Bill Jackson. I think it is called simply "The Peace Song." The last line is, "Let there be peace on earth. And let it begin with me."
A great ocean starts with one tiny drop of water. In Alice's restaurant, Arlo Guthrie speculated that if three people do something it's an organization. If fifty people do it, it's a movement. We can do it. Those of us who blog. Anyone with a web site. Anyone with an e-mail account. We can reach out. We can talk to someone who's life experience is different from ours. We can set the first foot on the path to understanding. We can begin the journey.
If you want to do just that. Start here at BurningBird and continue on to Waeguk is not a soup aka Stavros the Wonder Chicken.
If it works, I've added a comments feature. Try it out! Also, I've added some new Blogs to my Blog Roll - check them out. Good stuff to be found there.
Posted by Cyberkat at February 23, 2002 1:32 PM