Paris, Sadly

[n2doc]

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Gothmog]

2. Thank you for the cartoons

[Samantha]

3. Thank you for posting these, n2doc

Very sad days, indeed.

Sam

[Myrina]

4. Wait, we like them now? What about Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast?

I'm so confused.

[Binkie The Clown]

7. Different day, different people to hate.

"At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge, which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible." --George Orwell in 1984

[Myrina]

11. +1

n/t

[DFW]

26. What about Freedom Toast? This is The Freedom Toast:

&feature=channel_page

[Bigmack]

5. K & R nt

[Octafish]

6. What it's ALL about...

[Lizzie Poppet]

8. Exactly.

Among all these great cartoons, this one really brought me up short.

[Octafish]

9. The rightwing will grow stronger.

And tyranny will, again, replace Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.



War is good for traitors, warmongers and banksters.

[Lizzie Poppet]

10. Depending on how Hollande reacts...

...this could lead to "President La Pen," a horrifying thought. But Hollande is actually pretty hawkish in terms of foreign affairs, so I expect an enormous French military response, for better or worse.

[judy]

12. Yes, very good point

I am from Paris myself, still waiting to hear if my friends and family are all OK.
Hearing the words "act of war", and "total war" makes me sick, and is reminiscent of GWB's response to the attacks of September 2001. And we know how catastrophic that response was.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

16. "President La Pen" scares the shit out of me,

but its a real possibility. Its not like Paris hasn't been destroyed before, by Adolphe Thiers types.

[1monster]

13. The third one:

Je n'ai pas peur: I'm not afraid.

[Paka]

14. K&R

[burrowowl]

15. K&R!!!!!!

[smirkymonkey]

17. K&R

[GliderGuider]

18. I forget - were we all Indian when Mumbai happened?

Have we all been Lebanese or Kenyan recently?

Or are we really just a bunch of racist hypocrites?

[Democat]

19. If a person doesn't fight all injustice, they shouldn't fight any?

How is it racist to support the people of the multiculture city of Paris?

Some people complain about everything.

[GliderGuider]

20. That's not the point.

The point is about who we identify with as our in-group, and the fact that most of us don't even notice that process at work.
How does that blind spot color our political decisions where other nations are involved?

We tend to be curiously choosy where "fighting injustice" is concerned.

[n2doc]

22. Well, you have a more immediate example

Je Suis Beirut?
http://usuncut.com/world/beirut-this-terrorist-attack-didnt-get-any-media/

[whathehell]

24. Could we cut the "racist hypocrite' stuff for a moment? It's not about that

It's perfectly natural that the US, as a western democracy, should feel a specisl bond with another western democracy, especially one who helped us win our independence, and who is, in fact our oldest ally.

Everything is not about racism.

[GliderGuider]

25. I'm talking about personal reactions here, not political ones.

This isn't just a bit of casual drive-by cynicism or simple guilt-tripping. I'll try to clarify my intentions.

I'm quite introspective, and take a fair bit of pride in being aware of my less-than-conscious mental functions. So I was surprised when I felt my heat rising as the news broke from Paris. It turned out that the heat came from my sense of identification with the French victims. Strong feelings of identification like that are usually a red flag warning me to look deeper at what's going on. When I did, I realized that I've never felt that sense of identification in atrocities where the victims were non-Western (ahem).

The closest to this sense of commonality I can remember feeling was during spectacular national-scale disasters - Fukushima, the Andaman tsunami and the Haitian earthquake come to mind. But the massacres in Mumbai, though horrifying, didn't raise my hackles the way Paris has. Ditto for the recent Beirut bombings, the Kenyan university massacre by Boko Haram, the repeated American drone attacks in Pakistan, or the Rwandan genocide. With them I felt outrage and anger, but there was no sense of identification to amplify the flood of emotion. By contrast, I did identify strongly with the Sandy Hook victims.

Despite my continual references to the oneness of all humanity, the fact remains that the in-groups I instinctively identify with are white, middle-class and of European lineage. In my view that makes me a racist and a hypocrite. This shocks me, because it is not how I have seen myself until now. The only thing I can be at all grateful for is that this event has given me the opportunity to look a little deeper into my own soul, and recognize some of the shadows still lurking there.

By posting this, I hope to invite others to a similar self-examination.

[whathehell]

28. I think you are being too hard on yourself,

and, by extension, others who may be experiencing the same thing.

Humans, by nature, tend to identify more quickly with those they see as similar to themselves. That doesn't mean we shouldn't, "stretch" ourselves

to find, and embrace the common humanity in all peoples, but there's no need to beat oneself up for natural impulses.

[GliderGuider]

29. I've been revisiting my reaction this morning

I agree that I was too hard on myself.

"Racist hypocrite" is just a label. We use assign labels to ourselves and others so that we can respond more automatically, without having to think too much.

Upon further reflection, what my recent reaction tells me is not that I'm a racist, but simply that I identify far more with those I have been taught to see as being "like me."

Now here's the rub. Not for me so much as for my ability to participate in discussions on board like this.

My personal philosophy draws a lot from Taoism and Buddhism. Those systems teach that identifying one's sense of self with something that is not oneself is the very definition of attachment, and that attachment always brings suffering in its wake. So my lesson du jour is not that I'm a racist, but rather that I'm overly identified with my race, culture and personal history. As a result, a more positive response for me is not to strengthen my attachment to the victims of Mumbai or Beirut, but to gently loosen my attachment to my own race, culture and history - as they are represented by the victims of Paris.

Unfortunately, most people here on DU aren't going to like this response any better than my previous suggestion of racism and hypocrisy. Politics is, above all, about the identification of oneself with some ideologies rather than others. Most participants here are fervent practitioners of this art.

Because of my personal philosophy I'm trying to let go of my emotional attachments, so it would do little good for me to suggest that my approach is appropriate for anyone else. As a result, I won't. I'm just posting this as an example of how an event that looks very simple from one point of view can have very different meanings to different individuals.

[MADem]

32. Have you been to Paris lately?

Paris is very culturally and racially/ethnically diverse. It's not just a bunch of white guys in striped shirts and berets smoking cigarettes anymore.

[GliderGuider]

38. I spent a year there in 1968.

I got tear-gassed and beaten during the student riots in May, and had a girlfriend from one of the banlieus, the poor ghetto-like suburbs.

I know Paris just fine, thanks.

[MADem]

40. If the last time you were there is 68, you don't know Paris at all.

You will recognize some monuments, but it is a different place entirely.

[MADem]

31. I forget--is India, or Lebanon, or Kenya a country that helped found the USA?

You do realize we'd all still be all for Saving Our Gracious Queen were it not for the MONEY and MILITARY TALENT that France provided to us in our quest for "revolution?"

Maybe you don't realize, either, that a large portion of our population has roots in France?

We have a long, strong, deep relationship with France--they are like our older brother, if you will. We would not exist as a nation were it not for them. Our relationships with other countries cannot compare.

I think it's astounding that this has to be pointed out. It's not "racist hypocrisy"--it's AMERICAN HISTORY.

[GliderGuider]

36. We sang "God Save the Queen"until quite recently up here in Canuckistan.

It's a nice little imperialist ditty, though eclipsed by "Britannia Rule the Waves".

However, my point yesterday was that my lack of emotional engagement with the victims of those other non-white tragedies made me suspect that I am more of a racist than I believed. I wondered if others might find the same about themselves if they took a look.

My position has changed somewhat today as the emotions subside a bit. But neither of my reactions have anything to do with your national history.

I realize from reading various threads that this is the wrong board, and the wrong day, to be floating non-jingoistic ideas. I found the same thing on 9/12 when I suggested that a sober look at root causes might be a good idea. I never learn.

[MADem]

39. Well, you guys still have a Queen--we dumped that deal a couple of hundred years ago.

And France HELPED us do it. The French Navy played a huge role in helping us defeat the British--and while YOUR reaction might not relate to that, OURS does.

It's not "jingoism," it's mourning with a close relative, if you will. To try to pretend that USA doesn't have an unusually close relationship with France that is deeper, more special, more intense than that of other allies is simply denying our history. Our French immigrants are well-assimilated, but they are everywhere.


And we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can mourn and take "sober looks at root causes." Obama's comments in Turkey today were quite salient--check them out.

[GliderGuider]

41. I guess what I've learned is

Posting views that cut across accepted social lines during times of high emotion is an unprofitable venture.

I think I'll go dark for a while. Thanks for helping me make up my mind.

[KingCharlemagne]

33. were we all Syrian when France bombed Syria on Sept. 27? - nt

[KingCharlemagne]

34. +Infinity - nt

[intheflow]

21. Generally a good collection, but the genie lamp is

a racist stereotype. Genies are an Arab legend, but to equate them with these attacks is to blame all Arab people for the attacks, rather than the 50-60k who are members of ISIS.

[lastlib]

23. Je suis Paris

[GliderGuider]

27. Je suis moi-même.

Je ne suis pas Paris, ni Beirut, ni Charlie.
Je suis moi-même.

[Yorktown]

30. Et ça n'est pas beau à voir.

PS: je suis Charlie. Je suis Freedom of expression. Je suis the statue of Liberty.

i.e., these are things I'd fight for.

And I understand you wouldn't.

[KingCharlemagne]

35. Je pense, dong Je Suisse . . . Contra la guerre - nt

[lark]

42. Love the "we are not afraid" meme.

Sickening how the Repugs are trying to inflate and pander to the fear to create more military profits.