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Post by TutanKa on Apr 8, 2004 14:48:17 GMT -5
People who have nothing else to show often become obsessed with their (often worthless) ethnicity. I agree too. That's a very powerful statement.
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Post by AWAR on Apr 8, 2004 17:25:07 GMT -5
I am not sure about that. Of course, race and ethnicity are vastly different things and I don’t know whether you meant race or you meant what you’ve actually just said – ethnicity. Generally speaking ethnic purity has been the monopoly feature of the lower classes and of peasantry in central and eastern Europe. Educated classes and nobility had intermarried deliberately with people of other ethnic groups for hundreds of years. On my Russian side I have relatives who are as more or less Germans (I know it sounds complicated) can trace their ancestry to 1200s and are related to people literally from Norway down to Basque country with everybody else in between. Peasants and lower class urban dwellers who rarely can trace their ancestry back to more than a few generations often think that they are pure, sometimes mistakenly, and they also happen to be the fans of ethnic purity stuff. It’s quite remarkable that the most virulent ethnic conflicts in Europe and most vicious ethnic oppression occurred and occurs in “countries” which have only recently appeared on the map out of nowhere and are “liberated” peasant societies. People who have nothing else to show often become obsessed with their (often worthless) ethnicity. Sure, but I'm not a member of any nobility, neither do I have any desires to act like one. On the other hand, yes, I agree with you, and I simply can't believe the lengths of idiocy my fellow Serbs, Montenegrins, Croatians, Albanians etc. are prepared to go ( usually without realizing that their ethno-spite-rage is only doing good to USA and other mega-powers ). Actually, you are 100% right about everything in that post, but, sometimes, there are certain personal preferences and idea(l)s for which we strive.
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Post by berschneider on Apr 8, 2004 18:15:01 GMT -5
Sure, but I'm not a member of any nobility, neither do I have any desires to act like one. On the other hand, yes, I agree with you, and I simply can't believe the lengths of idiocy my fellow Serbs, Montenegrins, Croatians, Albanians etc. are prepared to go ( usually without realizing that their ethno-spite-rage is only doing good to USA and other mega-powers ). Actually, you are 100% right about everything in that post, but, sometimes, there are certain personal preferences and idea(l)s for which we strive. Since divide and rule has been empires operational principle for centuries there is nothing strange that the ultimate Evil Empire is using the same approach. Yugoslavia with its ethnic squabbling that is totally incomprehensible to outsider like myself, remains a special case and it was a godsend to the United States. America could have only attacked and enslaved Iraq because Arabs could not and cannot figure out among themselves who is of them most important or who is the best (or perhaps the whitest), so the Evil Empire, which shares no border with Iraq, invaded and subjugated that wretched nation through subservient Arab satrapies like Kuwait or Jordan. Expansion of NATO is a development of the same nature. Europeans can only build a peaceful, free and truly independent Europe when they get united. Pro-American states in the EU should be isolated, ostracized and if need be excluded. Same is with Arabs, although I don't hold too much sympathy for them as a group, they would only be able to break free and get rid of their tormentors if they manage to unite, hopefully in some democratic fashion, and work out some joint foreign and defense policy. Until they grow up they are doomed to be humiliated and slaughtered like sheep by people who deeply despise them. As of inter-ethnic marriage. Well, I don’t know where you are coming from but I think the idea of interethnic marriage is excellent, especially if the child or children become involved with two (or more!) disparate cultural traditions and grow up speaking two different languages in the process. I mean to me ethnic differences between tribes of Yugoslavia are so minute (I know what is insignificant or invisible to the outside is very obvious and major to the natives) that I can’t see how this could be a trouble. On the other I am against Christians marring Muslims and vice-versa on cultural not ethnic grounds of course, though this kind of abomination is relatively rare.
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Post by AWAR on Apr 8, 2004 19:52:00 GMT -5
Since divide and rule has been empires operational principle for centuries there is nothing strange that the ultimate Evil Empire is using the same approach. Yugoslavia with its ethnic squabbling that is totally incomprehensible to outsider like myself, remains a special case and it was a godsend to the United States. Actually, only the most bitter chauvinists think they know what that war really was about. All evidence suggests that the war was started not because of inter-ethnic tension ( if this was really true then the next potential wars in Europe will be fought between fans of Roma vs. Lazio, or Manchester UTD vs. Manchester City using a-bombs on eachother ). The truth is that some grey-haired people calculated and decided to start a war in ex-Yugoslavia, fight it for a very long time, with lots of attrocities and hatred, and collect lots of money. Kosovo had a bit different symptoms, but all in all, again, it's the superpowers' doing. Same in the Balkans. We had all the potential to become a strong economic state, without the communism and stuff like that. Of course, then the wars started, and our neighbours also suffered enormous damages to their economy due to Yugoslavia being under sanctions. The only economic and military profiteur was USA. Again, a great potential for wealth, yet, it's only distributed among the very few rulers and co. Imagine what would the Arabs and Iran have been without the intrusions and fanatism. ( made in USA ) I agree.
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Post by nobody you know on Apr 17, 2004 3:26:49 GMT -5
I'm not American either, although I know enough about white and black races (because I am a mix of both) to know that a persons skin colour does not determine their intellect. Their attitude and how they approach life yes, but their intellect no. To say that a person who is black will have a smaller vocabulary and speak with a slang, and apply that to all blacks (American or not) is a flawed statement. There are many successful, academically talented blacks in America and beyond. There is also the "rap culture" but that doesn't define a whole section of people. Even if in your mind it does. Why is it, that people such as yourself will always put people into a category? They are either black and dumb or white and intelligent. I'm afraid that is not so. Each ethnicity has it's intellects and it's intellectually-challenged. Each ethnicity has people that will branch out into their own unique "stereotypical" culture. And then there are people who are inbetween. Don't presume yourself to be better than someone else simply because of where and to whom you were born. Everyone has faults. Black people tend to be identity-protective. Some are aggressively that way and will turn to anything that is majority black-orientated, such as the rap culture, to get a certain sense of culture. Sadly, the rap culture doesn't teach morals and self-respect. There are white youths who for varying reasons choose also to divulge in the rap culture. Then there are strongly religious church-going blacks who seek strength and solice in a more morally-defining way and like to keep within the black community whilst doing so as a means of comfort and also self-protection. There are white-church goers who are the same. Things are not as clear-cut Nordhammer as you would believe they are. Nothing is simply black and white, but different shades of gray inbetween. No one can speak for the many millions of blacks out there, the same way no one can speak for the millions of whites out there. There is difference of opinion, mind and "culture" right across the board. The beauty of humanity is the rainbow of something called personality...which each human being on this earth is entitled to keep unique, and not be self-defined by the physical every time, just because people will label them with stereotypes. Stereotyping people is one of the most boring things people can do these days. Agreed 100%
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Post by AWAR on Apr 17, 2004 10:49:32 GMT -5
Btw... what happened to TutanKa???
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