FABRICATING MORAL GROUPS

I wrote and posted a blog on this web site in an attempt to try to answer the question of “why Palestinians are lobbing rockets into Israel”. American media always seem egger to start their reports and stories of the situation in the area without answering this fundamental but basic question. They make it sound as if the Palestinians are unprovoked and are trying to kill Israelis without cause; thus, putting the Israelis on a moral pedestal of righteousness in defending themselves. However, the answer to that question is complex and involves a long twisted history of radical religious and ethic strife not only covering multiple continents but multiple centuries; therefore, does not lend itself well to bumper sticker or headline rhetoric.

The blog I mentioned takes on an anti Israeli flavor, which some immediately translate as an anti-Semantic bent on my part, which is certainly not my intention. There is a distinction between being anti Israeli and anti Semantic; there are many Jews, both inside and outside Israel, who do not favor what the current Israeli government under Netanyahu is doing. After pointing out I was strongly in favor of forming Israel as a nation but in hindsight, the formation of that country has proved to be a grave mistake, which was the conclusions of my blog. One of the tragic consequences of it all is that because of the one sided killing of Palestinians over Israelis and the superiority of Israel support in America, anti Semitism may increased in this country and perhaps around the world. A big part of the evil consequences of all of this is that Hamas, a radical religious terrorist organization, has interjected its self into the Palestinian Liberation Organization affairs as the protector of the Islam.

Hamas stands for what everything most Americans stand against. They are a small group of self-appointed religious radicals who believe that God, or in the case of the Hamas, Allah in the supreme leader. In contrast, most Americans believe “government of the people” is firmly grounded in a one-man one-vote system; all men are crated equal. They believe in religious freedom, which means everyone can worship whom, or what they want without interference from the government; this includes God, Allah, or Buddha or whatever but the collective will of the people is the leader. At one time, some form of caliphate or religious leadership governed great swath of the world population. This has been changing since 1776, first to some form of royalty and finally switched to democracy. I am proud that America Constitution led the way in that movement in the Christian world but noted that even in our ranks, some religious radical believe in biblical law over democracy and more recently some are willing to revert to rule by an economic elite, a substitute for royalty. I am proud that our current president has been managing the “Arab Spring” as he has because it is clearly a movement in the Islamic world from Government by Allah to government by the people—Democracy.       

I was shocked at one of the comment on Facebook where I also posted that blog, when I should not have been. I know the individual who posted the comment but from the comment, I would have been able to guess the personality but also the politics of the individual. He wrote vileness and rancor that I should “get my head out of f…ing ass”, and referred to 9/11. He, and his viewpoint, is not unique. The black and white conservative media is filled with anti Arab vitriol expressed in the crudest rhetoric. At one time being a conservative meant you stood for fiscal responsibility meaning as a conservative you were very careful how you spent what you had earned and “conserved” as much of it as you could. Socially it meant preserving or “conserving” established culture or cultural norms. With time, for a small group of people, being a conservative has come to mean keep government out of our lives, unless they control the government; then it is OK. No one but them can tell anyone what to do or how to do it, reducing society to the extremes of a dictatorship or to rubble; the ridiculous notion that if they are not the boss, then every one of the seven billion people on earth should live as individuals or hermits. Even the “poster child” for libertarianism, Rand Paul, concedes that public places cannot restrict access to an individual because of what he is or believes but still feels private businesses can, which makes the Citizens United ruling declaring “corporations with multimillion customers are people” look as ridiculous as it is.

What my detractor was saying with his crude remark is that I should realize is that 19 Muslims caused death and destruction on 9/11; therefore, all 1.2 billion Muslims are bad people; obviously, Palestinian people are Muslims; therefore, all are responsible for that tragedy; therefore objects of hate that we, the good people, can do anything we like to them including killing them. They are no longer in his “moral group” like animals are not in our “moral group”; we can kill them with impunity; their lives have no meaning.

This is what I call the Stalin solution; a man who often said if people are giving you a problem, the best way of getting rid of the problem is get rid of the people causing the problem — kill them all, and let God sort them out. If there are no more Muslims, there is no more problem. My detractor simply wants me to reduced the Palestinian–Israel conflict to bad people verses good people; black and white, which is a concept that he could effortless get his mind around. Like religious leaders, he can define who or what are good and who and what are bad. Once they are in a different “moral group” you can do to them whatever you want with impunity. There is no end to it; Muslims verses Christians, Christians verses Jews, black people verses white people, Catholic verses Protestant, or Republican verses Democrats, Yankees verses Rebels, Allies verses Nazis, even men verses women; or “is that going to far?”

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