Friday, 1 August 2014

Trying to see both sides


Girl at scene of blast in Gaza Park 28 July 2014
There are lots of varying perspectives of this atrocity in Gaza.  I want to understand as much as I can.  That means listening to all sides.  I watch videos presented by Zionists as justification for Israel's perspective.  ISIS murdering swathes of prisoners, heads on sticks in Syria, and more.  In a way it is 'good science' - Popper's falsification and all that.  The idea is to try as hard as possible to disprove your theory.  I have lots of supporting evidence for the view that Israel has gone berserk and is in the act of what might prove to be the most profound inhumanity this planet has ever witnessed.  I'm not suggesting it is the largest but possibly the most significant philosophically.  One of the most 'civilised' and 'advanced' nations on the planet being witnessed engaging in such inhumane slaughter may prove a turning point in the consciousness of humanity.  Respectable men in suits gorging themselves on the entrails of innocent children - it conjures a disturbing image that even Quentin Tarantino hasn't constructed yet.  So I want to know how awful this 'enemy' is.  I want to know what depths of depravity it reaches.  I want to know how dreadful and contagious is the evil that it represents that it warrants all effort, with no expense, compassion or humanity spared to rid the world of it.  I even want to know what they 'think' might justify this holocaust.

I was locating the source of a video which is of the assault on the civilians (including ambulances, doctors, press) who were attending a strike which had happened 5 minutes earlier.  The second assault killed many including the journalist Rami Rayan whilst standing next to an ambulance.  It is here:

Live video of the explosion that killed RamiRayan 30 July 2014
In the comments someone who clearly 'understood' the Israeli point of view responded to bewilderment that the Israelis would target an ambulance by saying "why would that surprise you?" and they followed it with this video:


Why the IDF attack ambulances
If this is the best they can come up with (so to speak) they have clearly lost the argument.  I am still searching for the heinous crimes which Israel would need to justify their behaviour.

None of us are perfect and it would be insane to try to suggest that the smallest infringement of someone else's 'rights' might justify murder (let alone the slaughter of their family and neighbours including the dog).  It would be insane to suggest that Palestinians must be faultless or their extermination is justified.  So I want to see and hear both parties grievances.  So far the internet seems bereft of any significant evidence of the crimes against Israel which would in any way explain this inhumanity.

Of course one also has to look inside the heads of these humans (metaphorically of course).  If there were any explanation (and actually there must be) for this behaviour it would seem to reside in the conceptual world.  It is inside people's heads.  There are two arenas that spring to mind that contribute: 1) The 'fear' inside Israel's 'head'.  This does look like the fear that Palestinians or 'others' would destroy them if they didn't destroy them first. 2) The subjective projection by us all onto the objective world.  There is much to be thought about and to be discussed but on the second point it strikes me the thing that perpetuates this relentless violence in the world is because each of us is 'subjugated'.  Our 'subjective' view is perverted.  Our 'subjective' view is actually the reflected view of our parents (guardians, teachers, figures of authority, peers etc.).  In other words we don't actually see the world from our perspective but rather see ourselves as our parents see us and adjust our 'world view' to conform with a 'safe' image of us.  In other words we absorb (for want of brevity) the judgemental value system from our culture and keep trying to understand any conflict in terms of who is right and who is wrong.  Our subjective view is hijacked by some other - we are subjugated to them.  I know this is covered in complex detail in psychology, sociology, political theory, etc. but it needs to be understood how 'we' are driving this insanity.

The overview, however, is clear:  There is never any 'justification' for this insane slaughter of disarmed people.

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