Posted by Bill (other posts) on February 09, 2014 at 14:18:27 Previous Next
In Reply to: Re: Hair History questions. posted by Gene W on February 09, 2014 at 07:10:30:
: I think the existence of the Internet both helps purvey political extremism and helps moderate it. The Internet has for the first time allowed people to form strong community bonds across all national borders. While there's a lot of both good and bad going on, it's not so easy for a people in a single country to feel isolated anymore.
The Internet is the despot's greatest nightmare. The reason many of us today speak the languages we speak and practice the religions we have, is that way back, despots pushed our ancestors into using a certain language and practicing a certain religion to keep us from getting to know people on the other side of the border. Heaven forbid, if we all started talking to each other, we might become friends with one another.
In the 1940s, our nation was bombing cities in Germany. Today, like many Americans, I have a close friend in Germany. I would really be pissed if Obama were to bomb his house.
You're right - extremism has also been made easier by the Internet as well as has the making of more moderate bonds. This has particularly been a problem in Islamic lands, because those lands have until recently been the most isolated. As we get to know more Islamic people and they get to know more people who aren't, though, I feel the extremism will fade along with the isolation they've felt. Adjusting to being "citizens of the world" has been tough on us all, but it has been toughest for the most isolated.
The world has become too populated for anyone to be able to run off to an uninhabited place so they can be with people who are "just like us". We have to learn to live with one another, and that means accepting that others may be different from us. Acceptance means you can't foist your beliefs on them, but it also means they can't foist their beliefs on you.
This does work. Here in San Francisco, about a million of the most diverse people on the planet live in a city that is just seven miles square. Sure, there are occasional problems of intolerance, but it isn't pervasive. You can be whatever color you are, speak whatever language you want, marry whoever you want, go to any church that you want, and grow your hair as long as you want, and just about everyone will be cool with that. What's uncool is hating others for any of those reasons.
Is all of America like that? Not so much, but it's better than a lot of other places. There was a story a few years ago about several Iranian young people who came to America for a vacation and planned to go home to write about all the hatred they would encounter in America. Much to their initial disappointment and later delight, they encountered none. Everyone they met was extremely friendly, and they had a great time!
America, though, has been a very mobile and communicative place for a few centuries. Adjusting to the world having become like that is understandably tougher for societies without that much time to adjust. There was no Internet at all until about twenty years ago. Now 1/7 of the world's population has a Facebook account. Through more isolated societies, this has sent shock waves. The bigger the waves, the more "extremism" will be found among them. As time passes and the waves die down, we should expect extremism to subside. We can all do our part to help that by getting to know as many people who are not "just like us" that we can.
Bill