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For months, I’ve been reading every non-fiction book the library has about neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, and the Ku Klux Klan.Damn! You must be about ready to join-up.
Sure, who wouldn’t be? I mean isn’t it obvious it that the Jews were the sole orchestrators and the sole beneficiaries of both world wars; that Satan had sex with Eve who gave birth to the father of the black race; that the scummiest white criminal is superior to the best person of color; that practically every problem that any white person has is the fault of “the Jewish conspiracy;” and that, despite the fact that the Jews are able to run nearly the entire world from behind the scenes for their own profit, they are nonetheless rather dim-witted?
So why do you read this stuff?
I don’t self-analyze about what I read. It’s not that I’m uninterested; it’s just that I wouldn’t know where to begin. Once I learn about some things, they leave my system forever, whereas I cycle back through other things again and again—for example, botany, geology, knot tying, and the Hardy Boys series. If I were to tell you what it is that I learn from reading about hate groups, it’s an understanding of why people think that way.
Okay, why?
It gives them someone to blame for their failures. It also gives them a tight-knit community which values them and tells them that they’re better than everyone who belongs to an inferior group or has fallen for the “Jewish lie.” It even offers them a vision of how wonderful the world could be if those who think like they do were in charge. You don’t have to have an IQ of 85 to believe this stuff, you just have to regard yourself as an outsider and a failure who wants to be an insider and a success, but you can’t figure out how to make that happen in the current scheme of things. It also helps if you’re a minority white kid who is surrounded by black kids in a ghetto—or if you’re a nerdy white kid who is bullied by jocks and preppies in a suburb—and it’s the skinheads who protect you. People are just naturally attracted to groups that promote their survival, and this makes them more susceptible to beliefs that would otherwise seem ridiculous.
I would say that my study of these groups has done two things for me. One is that it has made me hate what these people believe—and what they do—even more than I already did, and it has given me a measure of sympathy for them. They’re not all irredeemable, and, when they are redeemed, they are in a far better position to work with their former supporters and, at times, their former victim groups, than you or I. For us, it’s a mindset that we can only imagine, but, for them, it’s something they’ve lived, and every time I’ve read about one who was redeemed, that redemption was made possible by people who kept their hearts open. In many cases, those people were black or Jewish. If that doesn’t make you shed a tear, I don’t know what will.
15 comments:
I must say my dear Snow, that was an excellent post!
I am one of those people who doesn't tolerate that sort of thing well. It wasn't my upbringing and I'm not a zealously religious either. I've just always felt if I truly believe in what Christianity teaches, I'm supposed to love my fellow man. I'm not perfect -- there are many who I dislike and right now most of them have 'Republican' next to their name. I just don't automatically decide that a person's color or religion defines them. The tales of man's inhumanity toward his fellow man are legion in number and it makes me sad.
I think ppl should read about others views to open their mind and have awareness of what is going on around them. I totally agree with everything you said. I love psychology and how the mind works in everyone differently. Have read and watched a few documentaries on that topic and I feel like you. I also take pity also on them and that is what makes a difference in a hate that is destructive and hate for something so sad.
xoxox Love ya Snow
I not only agree with the Diva about this being an excellent post Snow, but that's it's also one of your very best.
Hardy Boys fan, that there is suhmin to talk there on. There is a catalogue of Young Readers Series Literature that a book collector can get his hands on, and of course as any collector knows, the many and the lot of them we written by a few. A kind of nod the publishing industry gave to plagiurism in its heydey. It was moreso looked at as a kind of repackaging of sorts you would say of the main set of words and main say so of the day. From thsi spin you could read Jules Verne and find another authors name on Journey to the Center of the Earth. Probably one of the most historic cases. In the early days, many American Authors were afraid to publish in Europe for these very reasons. My most historic case of discovery is A Christmas Story actually in plot sits inside a French Academy Award for Literature book. Ahhh but no one cares for plagiurism stories as I tracked down a College professor many years back and he told me its a story thats been told again and again. Looking back I wonder what he meant by that?
I hope you found the sarcasm in my tome.
Kay,
The tales of man's inhumanity toward his fellow man are a legion in number and makes me sad.
..and so it goes. God clearly isn't responsible for this, for the teachings WE CHOOSE to follow as christians dictate so. I wonder if you have read the latter portions of The Story of Burnt Njal.
Its a Nordic tale of mostly way of life, bt when the christian in legion crusade appear they are dealt with first as mercenary in their and then as more zealous they rise, They are smitten and dealt with by heavy blows.
It makes me wonder if this in its infancy did not set the tone for they way Christianity would be frowned on and dealt with in the Centuries to come. On both sides of the Diplomacy have we failed to deliver Gods message of Love. At this time a clear rift in how the Papacy and the cardinals and all of Christianity and Catholicism in which we as christians look toward the Vatican for understanding see a gaping emptiness. This is what I believe Snow has experienced. He has missed an Enlightening and taken a track away from the Church and its meanings. He has interpretted his own point of views and feelings toward the church with justifiable eyes.
Our youth ministries in which the youth are carrying forward the message which is the Word, are mostly concentrating their efforts on a Global local effort to rescue by ways of financial support and structure for salvation by administering common textile goods and not conversion of souls.
If the soul needs to be found, it will, if it needs to find salvation it will, and from a wretchedness and finding of grace to have risen above the wretchedness is foreseeable, and it is the reard at the end of the song Snow that makes the song. I thing it is totally realistic. We see it everyday and continually hope to always see people rise above their poor conditions and find happiness from where their was none. Maybe I'm not understanding the Grace of God in the case of lifting ones soul from emptiness and abandon to One of belief and trust and Love in their fellow man and Humankindnes in an all around them.
I hope that wasn't to sappy.
Life on the Surface.
It's a hard fact that most people need to search to find redeeming qualities in themselves that others don't have, and the crowd mentality that accompanies "belonging" to a separatist group always leads to a need to SHOW and PROVE their superiority.
It can even be said of "Brownies" as they strive to become "Girl Scouts".
I know that's a reach...and I'm not comparing Girl Scouts with Skin Heads or Nazis. The same is true for one religion versus another, and don't forget about the NAACP and all its off-shoots.
Maybe that's why I always feel so alone in a group of people. Everyone belongs to something and I don't. So I'm the odd man out everywhere I go.
I truly doubt if I'd feel that I belonged if I attended an all women's support group of athiests!
So I will label myself as someone who doesn't need or want to be a part of something larger than myself. I actually PREFER being a loner.
Individually, there is rarely inhumanity to man performed. But "where two or more are gathered" watch your back!
I dated a woman once whose father was an Aryan Nation member. I recall he phoned her one Thanksgiving to talk to her but he couldn't tell her where he was, somewhere in Idaho. But eventually he ended up someplace where she could find him, the Federal Prison in Washington.
The odd thing is these people think they are "protecting" the nation; as though they feel the responsibility to "step in" and replace our government should it fail somehow. Damn, these are the LAST people we would want in charge of our country for any reason.
But Robert The Skeptic, it would be their country if they were to step in, and all would be right with their nation. It would be their Nation, and I'm sure they would have some form of Diplomacy served on their plates. And they would eat what they want and discard what they felt was garbage.
Left on the sides of the road would be whosever and whatever inhumanity they felt and believed was not of their race, a superior race. I'm sure they would let non believers coexist within their nation. What am I saying, any non-believers would do what they needed to do to survive, they would become ...
survivors... and do what they were told, because they were told they needed to be told what to believe was right.
Whats my point, I'm not sure I'm making a very clear one right now...
I prefer the English/French view of Germany in the early 30's say for instance 3 Men on a Bummel by Jerome Kaplan. An astonishing portrayl of why Germany was Home to the rise of a little man named Adolf without ever mentioning his name, it was clear this was the country that neede to be told the difference between right and Wrong and never to question whether its government and rising leadership was meant to be wrong.
Life on The Run
You totally embrace the learning lifestyle. And I love that about you. I think everyone should strive to learn.
I am currently in a class called Cultural Diversity and I think you may have read about one group my class would have no effect on.
Hate and prejudice is never acceptable.
I think what fascinates me most about these groups is that anyone can be drawn into their web. It doesn't matter how smart, how educated, how wealthy or how religious you are. People of all kinds can fall for this under the right circumstances.
On a more personal note, I sometimes read graphic details or watch videos of this stuff to shock myself back to humanity. The last thing I want to do is lose my ability to have compassion and empathy.
I just read Elie Wiesel's Night. How he survived seems similar to how the guards watching (killing) the people survived: telling themselves that the other people weren't really people. That their own existance was precarious and their actions or inactions were necessary to their survival.
I'm beginning to agree with John Shelby Spong's assesment that the root of human evil is largely insecurity.
People are so disenfranchised or so brainwashed in our world. It's just pathetic.
Wherever did the Golden Rule fade away to?
Hugs Snowy!
Oh yeah, I'll send ya an angel or two next week. ;)
I wholeheartedly agree... figuring out how people's minds work is fascinating.
Unconditional love is the most powerful force in the Universe...and YES! It did move me.xx♥
What an excellent post!!! I, like you, research like crazy when I want to understand the madness and usually, in the end I still don't understand it but I have a clearer understanding of how it happened.
I think too many people are too willing to find a scapegoat to blame for their problems when all they have to do is look in the mirror. Most of us are our own worst enemy. I know that I am.
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