Join the new world

This makes me think of Edward Said's "Orientalism", which also has as a theme the idea that we divide the world into ourselves and "others". He applied this particularly to Arabs and Muslims (he was himself Palestinian), but the idea is that we create a mystique around people who aren't part of our group, making it difficult for us to view them as individuals. This book by Eco sounds like an interesting read.

You always give us something to think about. Thanks!

"Orientalism" is excellent book. I have studied it as part of my Postcolonialism Theory studies in University. You can read Amin Maalouf's "Origins" too, another excellent book with similar ideas. Or if you like belletristic more - "The Buddha of Suburbia" - Hanif Kureishi is one of the most amazing novels I've ever read. 😉

The racism is not a solution.

In this game the country is like a house. Did you like that a group will come and take your house? Your treasury?

I don't think you would like that.

Now, rules of the game from admins are like that. We must make with that.

I prefer to see my country wiped, like to lost all our work since few years.

It is one of my personal peeves, so feel free to stop me when I start to rant 😉

It is truly endemic to our nature to think in 'categories'. In fact, it is one of the reasons we have something like 'culture' (in the anthropological meaning of the word). It offers us a set of tools to compare 'our group' (our culture) to another group and quickly rate is as 'suitable' or not.

Culture, is built amongst others on values a group of individuals share. It is a mental manual which we use to rate the behaviour of others. If it deviates too much from what 'we' think is socially acceptable, we catalogue it as 'deviant' and often therefore not wanted.

We all do it. When we say, for example, the Italians are loud, we are actually saying 'The Italians are louder than we are'. When you ask a third party, they might even think the Italians aren't loud at all, because in their own culture, it is quite normal to be loud.

We always take our own viewpoint as the benchmark.

When trying to justify a conflict (for example, why is it just to burn witches, even when we share a value of not killing?), you often see the enemy demonized by using the opposites of those values we hold in high regard.

And, like you said, because we think as a group about another group, it is very difficult to discern individual differences within those groups.

Ca serait plus facile pour moi en français. tu as la lutte, la résignation.
Lorsque l'on s'exprime nous avons plusieurs façons de partager des propos.
Maintenant la vraie vie est très différente pour moi que ce jeu, sauf à un point, le racisme, le rabaissement de la femme... le respect de l'être humain.

It is an old social biological way mankind lived for ages. It helps to stay in your group and be united. In the same time it suppresses individuality and alienates others.
In modern times this is not that useful any more I think. Our groups are enormous (cities/nations) we are connected all around the world. Human rights are improving, our way of thinking and acting should too.
That way we can hopefully improve our society and get peace and happiness within each reach.

V + S

Seems like an excellent read, added to my wishlist 😃

Interesting, voted & shouted.

votado

voted o/

The old man have spoken 😃