Blogging Around

Dan made a post likening the treatment of Africans by Europeans in The Heart Of Darkness to that of factions on all three sides- American, Israeli, and Palestinian, of that conflict. I responded.

"I find your point interesting, but strongly disagree with your basis for comparison.
The way Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians treat and construct each other is very different from Africans and Europeans. Africans were made out to be the dark, mindless inhabitants of a place we need to bring the light too. While some aspects of our treatment of terrorists can be seen to be slightly similar, they are portrayed as a dangerous and capable enemy, ready and willing to directly threaten our way of life. While still try to bring our way of life to them, we realize that the leaders of these peoples, as well as moderate factions within Muslim states can be bargained and cooperated with, to help reach the goals of both sides- peace and prosperity.
To defend Israel directly- when Israel goes to war it deliberately avoids causing excess amounts of civilian casualties, a problem complicated by Hamas's use of civilians as shields. Saying that attempting to save lives in spite of war in this way is akin to the disposablity Africans were treated with is almost offensive.
More importantly, your comparison overlooks a fundamental difference between the conflict in the Heart of Darkness and that in Gaza and Israel today. Israelis and Palestinians coexist in the same territory. The mothers, wives, and children of the men fighting for their right to exist live in close proximity to the conflict. They fight to protect a way of life. In marked contrast, young men went to Africa in many cases for the sole purpose of exploitation for a profit. These fundamentally different motives reflect the fact that while Europeans happily took advantage of the lands they went to, those involved in the conflict in the Middle East only want stability- even if it is on different terms."

Jenna what ifed about the Matrix, wondering what it would be like to wake up like Neo did, and going as far as to suggest that we were in the Matrix, and the machines used the movie to trick us into thinking we weren't. I responded.
"Jenna,
Your what ifing is interesting, but I would respond, at least to your last thought, with a so what?
So what if we're in a matrix fantasyland?
So what if you can never really know who or what you could be or are?
So what if there are actually holes in you?
Well, I guess you might like to know. But let's say you couldn't ever know. Let's say your actual body is in a soupy machine cell being harvested for energy.
Does it matter?
The human body is pretty limited to just being able to process, understand, and experience what our senses take. We conjecture and dream a lot, but even that is just based around experiences we've already had. That means that if we're living in a dream world, our body behaves as if that dream world were real. Your body doesn't care. It's pretty easy to trick. Maybe your mind is the same?"