To: jbe who wrote (34178 ) 4/9/1999 7:42:00 PM From: Chuzzlewit Read Replies (3) | Respond to
It seems to me that the root cause of a lot of these conflicts is the refusal of people to recognize one another's humanity. Before you kill people you must first dehumanize them. That was as true of the Nazi extermination of Jews as it was of European colonists murdering American Indians, and it was just as true of tribal warfare between American Indian tribes. American Indian languages used tribal names as a synonym for "the people", or people. Religious differences do much the same thing. I suppose that the genius of America (once we decided that American Indians and Asians were indeed people) is that in spite of failing to make a melting pot, we at least have come up with a decent medley. Maybe this is the result of everyone, save American Indians, being of immigrant origin. And maybe that's the solution -- uproot all of Europe and move them somewhere else [tongue in cheek].
