From all reports James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, is an anti-Semitic who believes that the Holocaust is/was a hoax.
Hmm...let's see here. There are a little over 13 million Jews (that's 5 million people FEWER than the population of greater metropolitan New York City) in the world (in a population of over 6.7 BILLION). Which means the Holocaust translates into the deaths of what now would be almost 1/2 the entire Jewish population of the world and this guy thinks somebody made it up!! You gotta be kiddin' me! And, he wants to kill even more!!
Go tell the people who lost their families. In fact...that doesn't take into consideration the Pogroms in Russia (where more Jews were murdered - just for being Jewish...including my great aunt), or the Inquisition (another period, among many, when being a Jew was not a good thing) when so many were forced to convert that if they all went back to being Jewish there'd be A LOT more Jews in this world.
But, back to James W. von Brunn. What makes someone hate that much? Where does that mental state come from? What kind of propaganda can create a mind that believes that Jews, or for that matter any other group, whether religious, ethnic, or "racial" is not as qualified to live on this planet in peace and prosperity as another?
Remember, religion is a belief system, not a "race" or ethic group. And...that "race" and ethnicity are social concepts. So, I guess that means - if you feed people enough distorted stuff about a socially conceptually devised group you can create your own little socially warped concept about them and then figure you're better than they are AND therefore you might as well de-humanize them and spread hate.
Geez, sounds like what all wars play into. Hmm...this hate thing just keeps goin' round and round.
13 million compared to 6.7 billion...doesn't sound like a threat to me. But then again, I've spent my life disavowing the concept of hate.
Oh, and props to President Obama and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (an American Muslim organization) for condemning the attacks.
And, every once in a while listen to John Lennon's "Imagine" for a reality check. Just remember what the Beatles said, "All you need is love." Well, I can hope...can't I?!
The problem is that this radical mentality supercedes any form of logic. I hate radicalism for that very reason, that it inhibits a person's ability to use logic and empathy and as a result that person gets impregnated with a particular idea or belief and commits to that view to the exclusion of any forms of logic or reason. That is why we see the frenzy that hamas and hezbolah demonstrate in their speaches and demonstrations. Why people yell and jump and scream for the death of Israel and it's people and why parents can teach their children to strap bombs to themselves and die.
ReplyDeleteThat is why Brunn stepped into that museum, a place filled with the horrors committed by evil to an innocent group of people, and shot that security gaurd. Its because his mind is so clouded by this hate that the horror of his act cannot even be computed by his mind. In his head, the act was justified, even righteous. Thats the scary part, that all of these radical groups and individuals do not understand reason.
Well put and sadly so true. Thinking for one's self can be very difficult. That's why an education that enables a person to use a cognitive approach to undersatnding the world is imperative.
ReplyDeleteI was in a cab and drove by the museum probably twenty minutes after it happened...
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