Human Nature, Religion, Culture Clashes and Terrorist Plots...

how often is it that one of these leads to, or influences, one or more of the others? More and more often, as it seems. It's a foregone conclusion that with the spread of people through the world, often as a result of wanting a better life for one's self or family, that sometimes as a result of intolerance and countless other reasons, there are eventually going to be differences springing up between people and nations. And rather than handling them properly through honesty, deliberation, tolerance, understanding, and an acceptance of each other's differences and staying "out of each other's faces" to the benefit of everyone, the differences escalate into disagreements and violence, sometimes localised but in the case of recent events international, to the detriment of people, property and cultures. Disclaimer: Before you read the next paragraph, be sure that this is not a(nother) literary attack on the USA, though they are used as an example and these are all my own ramblings... Let's face it, everyone knows (though may not be prepared to admit) that the "war on terror" is a not-so-veiled excuse for getting George W's troops in to put puppet governments in countries that have the natural resources the USA needs to carry on its existence as the "most powerful nation on earth". Actually, I remember reading somewhere that the USA probably has more oil reserved under its own territories than in all the countries their troops are currently deployed in. The problem is that the USA wants to use everyone else's before its own so that it can be seen as even "more powerful" and can have everyone kissing their ass for the resources, and so bring the world to "embrace" their version of Western culture (also known as the "American Dream"). Global slavery, I'd call it...but back to the topic at hand... Take the recent spate of international attacks and bombings on civilians and holiday makers as the first example. Many people around the world are under the impression that large numbers of these bombings and killings are because of religious reasons - because that's the impression you may get from listening to the media and other influences they may be receptive to. Not so...I believe they are cultural with religion being used as an excuse. In many instances, local politics is the reason behind attacks on innocent populations and tourists, with the attacks carried worldwide by the ever-hungry media giving the attention to the perpetrators of the violence that they want. That's the attackers' cowardly way of trying to bring about change in their country, claiming that their Governments are not listening to their demands (maybe that's part of the problem assholes, stop demanding things and start working together toward achieving them through peaceful means - it is possible, I believe) and so it is perceived that violence is part of the culture in those countries. As the second example, take Iraq, where terrorists/freedom fighters want the Western Forces out of their country (and who can blame them, we all want sovereignity for our motherlands) because they do not want the western culture and means of government instilled in their people and want to live their own culture (which includes religion and government). The Iraqi fighters are also prepared to do anything to achieve the withdrawal of the western forces, including killing their own people in these attacks. Popular dissatisfaction is growing in Iraq and no matter how much PR the Western forces throw at the problem, there will be no peace in Iraq until the troops are deployed elsewhere and the culture is allowed to return to an Iraqi culture. Eventually, Iraq will become another Vietnam for the Western forces and there will be no "winners", only losers, the people of Iraq. I say leave them to their culture and if it doesn't look or sound nice to Westerners, so what? It's theirs and nobody should be trying to influence/change it, except themselves. The same goes for the Western culture. As the third example, the recent "war" in the Middle East is another example of the mix-up between culture and religion. Again, it's not religion, but a cultural battle raging to the detriment and destruction of Lebanon and its people...as if they haven't had enough war in their recent past. In this case, Hezbollah wants to destroy Israel and the Israeli culture, with religion as one of the reasons. Take the wars that have raged in that area over the last few millenia and they've all been fought over the same reasons with culture at the heart of it all and religion used as the excuse. That's something that's always baffled me...religions are supposed to spread the word of peace and harmony among men, yet it's often at the heart of many a disagreement between those same men...go figure. Two weeks ago, in the UK, there was almost another Jihad against the West. And for what? The simple, ridiculous, reason that one of the Pakistani cricketers was perceived to have tampered with the ball. No religion involved there, but for some people sport is a part of their culture, my partially-adopted South African culture included. All because that daft fuckin' Darryl Hair (the centre of more cricketing controversies in his short umpiring career than Ian Botham in his entire playing career) decided to lay down the laws of the game in a rush of blood to the head with no definitive proof. He was perfectly entitled to enforce the rules, I hear you say, and I couldn't agree more. It was just the way that it was done that caused the furore and almost led to another culture clash. The latest to come out of the UK is the Government admitting that it may have made some mistakes regarding its immigration policies. I couldn't agree more with them. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes people want a better life for themselves and their families, and often that means moving to a different country (my family included in that, as we moved to SA from Scotland in 1969). You cannot blame people for wanting better lives, it's part of human nature, but then those people should be prepared to embrace all the good things about the culture they are moving to. Unfortunately, religion comes into it again though. Take any Westerner who wants to go to a predominantly Moslem country and they are required to live in compounds (in many instances) and their freedom of movement is severely restricted. This is not only an infringement on basic human rights, but it is ascribed to religious requirements. If this is the case, then how much of an uproar do you think there would be if the predominantly Christian countries suddenly created compounds for Moslems (or any other religion for that matter). In short, it's nothing short of cultural racism, blamed on religion. I guess one also has to look at what makes up a "culture" and the use of the term. Human nature is one of the prime ingredients. The influences of people on others causes influences in the culture of that country, city, and hell, even down to street level. In fact, taking it to the extreme, even down to individual home level. My home culture is different to every other home around us and it's partially due to influences from the neighbours. Some of them we are very good friends with, others we greet on the odd occasion we pass each other in the driveway or on the street. Human nature and culture has dictated whom we will and will not socialise with, and our respective cultures are affected accordingly. In other words, there are many different ways to interpret "culture". It goes without saying that religion makes up part of a culture too. The differences between Christianity and Islam, to name but two religions (though there are many similarities between them), are many. Christians are/were traditionally seen by the Moslems as infidels, and vice versa the Moslems are/were seen as babrarians by the Christians. Archaic terminology perhaps, but these are/were terms used by the different cultures in which these religions are/were dominant. We all have our ideas of what culture means to us. For me, aside from human nature and religion, it's things like language, government, skin colour, sport, love for the motherland, caring towards your fellow man and not just countrymen (something sadly lacking in SA, but that's another posting), law abidance, politics, tolerance for other human beings and their differences, culinary "peculiarities" (take spinach for example, that's peculiar, and not in my culture), style of housing, customs, habits, humour, curios (the Hairy Haggis is a prime example of Scottish "culture" where we try and convince the world that this is the edification of some poor little creature that we like to eat, which inhabits the highlands of our beautiful country), fauna and flora of the country (most countries have a national flower and animal - SA has the Protea and the Springbok, Scotland has the Thistle and fucked-if-I-can-remember-what-the-animal-is, probably beaver). My list is by no means comprehensive, but you pick it and somewhere it fits into the cultural make-up of a nation and its people. Sadly, each culture also has its nasty side too. SA is a prime example of that where a few arrogant white politicians tried to impose apartheid on the population (no colour mentioned there as it affected all colours in one or other way, even to this day). Religion can also be a nasty due to the above reasons of having caused more wars than any other cultural trait in history. There are many lessons learned from history where cultural differences caused hostility and wars between nations, clans, and even family members, but somehow the human race seems to keep repeating these mistakes. Personally, I embrace all the positive things not just about SA and Scotland, but about the human race itself and I try to "stay out of the face" of other people and not antagonise them but understand them and come to agreement with them and agree to disagree on issues. And that makes up my "culture"...what makes up yours?