Wednesday Mar 23, 2005

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there was a huge discussion in my "race" class about what bravery is. and the little gi girl piped up "blah blah serving my county, blah a blah...dying for democracy". i wanted to walk over and smack her. not because i'm anti stupid, although i am, but because she weares her uniform once a month and and has never left the comfort of this, her shitty home town. and i guess what it comes down to is, and i say this quietly, as a vetern i find it offensive that someone in uniform whose never left her home town is making claims that only belong to people who have severed activly...(read in the fleet, not active duty, cause reservists often do alot more than active duty do...huh..duty do). with that said, i had to retaliate, umm. i mean reply, i suggested that to me, and this whole conversation is a bite trite anyhow, that real bravery is having everything you know and are be challenged and taken away and have to go on surviving anyway, and have to rebuild your whole world view. then some guy piped in about white superemecy and that view being challenged, and if that made neo hate mongers brave...at any rate, then the teacher started in aginst the jews, for some reason, the only group of people that the whole class feels comfortable discussing prejudice about,
if jerry springer were there, he couldn't have been more proud.

now, the whole point of the class is to discuss racial tension and try to learn why hate is so insistant. but i have to say that after what, like 9 weeks of this shite, very little has been resolved, no one is "growing" we all just end up hating each other, or at least harboring discontent for one another... (see my take on gi pippy above)as a result, i have found a profound sense of admiration for the girl how sits next to me, she never says anything and just sits there eating her cool ranch doritos. she never gets upset by the stupid people, but she also never feels compelled to correct them. i wish i could be that consumed with apathy. thus proving once again that ignorance is bliss. or maybe she just hates everyone in the class too much to speak. i hope its the latter, for her sake.
it could be the weather, but i think i've just become compleatly cynical

i've got a long day ahead, ill be comming home at about 10 tonight, i only hope i make it in time for the simpsons.
dangergirl:
you know...bravery it a lot like truth. It's a matter of what you are taught, how often ot it retaught, and whether or not one is given enough latitude to form their own opinions. it's all in the eye of the beholder and what they be holdin'.

I don't condoan the reich, or the holocaust or anything dealing with racism near or far. (i prefer to hate individuals for their own special reasons,) but the view askew of the axis powers' troops was that the were they were doing the right thing, because they were so overloaded with propaganda, that is what they believed to be true. thus when the allies (bravely facing almost certain death just storming the beach) finally attacked in normandy, i am sure that the german troops felt they were being brave for the fatherland.

i think of it a little bit like george orwell's depiction of the thought police in 1984. They felt they were doing what was necessary to protect the way of life. Most people were so saturated by the threat of BIG BROTHER IS WATHCING YOU, that they didn't realize they had the gift of choice and of free thought. But the ones who did, the thought criminals who tried to expose the war between east eurasia and oceania as a propagandized profiteering venture by their own government felt they were being brave by risking their lives to fight big brother in the name if what was true.

On a smaller scale, bravery can be as simple as stopping an unfair fight to help someone at the risk of getting injured yourself, or.... better yet, a small child braving the darkness of his or her room on the first night without the night light.

tell that one to gi pippi. smile
akasnuggles:
then some guy piped in about white superemecy and that view being challenged, and if that made neo hate mongers brave
lol odd as it sounds, i've never thought of that. i wonder if that's true. one of my universal truths used to be that Knowledge Negates Hate--this was torn to shreds when i began working at the place i work at and heard "intelligent" folk say some pretty fucked-up racist shit.
i've often thought that, you know, what if i'm wrong with all the shit i think. Obviously racists and gay-bashers thing--KNOW--they're right. Religious people KNOW they're right. i mean, maybe i'm wrong, maybe they're right.
as much as i HATE to think that, as much as it sickens me and brings me to tears, i have to consider that. I have to admit that maybe there is a "God" and that evolution is a con, that homosexuality is a sin, and that i might burn in hell for even questioning it all.
does it make make hate-monger's brave to have their views questioned and to stick to their respective guns? hell no, it makes them even fucking stupider (noting like a non-word to screech a good ol rant to a hault) for not looking at shit, at life, LOGICALLY.
Fucking tools, hillbillies et al.
to break the tension, S and i have a thing where we call people by the wrong racial slurs. or just dismiss a race all together:
ME: Dude, that's bullshit. The "Japanese" dont exist, they're a myth. Like unicorns and the cyclops.
S: And the Irish.
ME: Dont get me started on the fucking Irish...
S: Yeah, fucking krauts.
i have no idea where i'm going with this...

(RANDOM THOUGHT:My Chemical Romance sucks live)

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