I think you misread me. I'm not saying you should accept guilt for an act that you yourself would/could/did not commit, I'm saying you have to accept that some people will hang it around your neck anyway. The whole scenario is a lot easier to deal with if you at least understand the stigma being attached to you & accept that, depating opinion with such people (think fanboy, it helps) really is like playing chess with a pidgeon. Or as my mate's auntie maisie says, "you can't educate pork" (no irony on the livestock intended)
To judge others, you have to understand them. To understand them, you have to first understand yourself. Particularly that you are not that much further down the road of enlightenment as the person you judge. You may not remember the good ol' colonial days, but we are all still living with the consequences. It's why those Muslim dudes are here, for one. And although 1953 Iran happened just before we were born, Iraq and Afghanistan are pretty much present day. All that **** comes back to haunt us.
I dunno dude, I stopped believing in Jinn when I was...well, you get the picture. I mean, sure, it's only by pure luck that I happened to be born into the right generation in the right year that I happened to get a high level of education, the ability not to be executed for my heretical beliefs, and was lucky enough to have a strong sense of critical reasoning instilled in me, but, still - it doesn't change the differences that they were lucky. Indeed, I just reject responsibility for these things. I couldn't vote on any of what happened while I was alive, that was all pre-18me, so that isn't on me. Don't get me wrong, without accepting undeserved blame, I do get what you're saying. I mean, it's essential to know one's history and to understand the past and the reasons for why x y and z happen. But to jump from "Well the reason those dudes hate me is because my ancestors went to their country and dominated it for a few hundred years" to "I have to accept those guys acting like jerks and blowing stuff up just because my ancestors did the same to them?" No thanks. edit: Also holy crap it's 10 years since the Iraq war kicked off. God that makes me feel old :|
I'm not apportioning or accepting blame, nor suggesting that we should accept their dickish behaviour; I'm saying that we should not make fundamental attribution errors. These guys are acting like jerks like some white chavs act like jerks (try walking down their neighbourhood looking a bit ethnic). That does not mean we should generalise that behaviour to a whole ethnic group, nor be blind to the circumstances that may have contributed to this state of affairs.
