Yeah, I heard before alright that the Oktoberfest can get messy, plus flights and accomadation are much more expensive when its on aswell. Just saw your post in the German forum aswell. So you enjoying it in Deutschland so far?
I am enjoying it, the history, the culture, etc., but I haven't met too many other heads yet. I came from San Francisco where residual hippy culture is still very strong. I miss that.
The big thing in Europe more so than hippies is the whole new age scene but it has the same underlying principals maybe a little more punk or anarchy orientated though. You'd meet a lot of people into that at techno/drum n bass gigs. I know Berlin has a massive scene for this according to a few mates of mine who were staying over there for a while.
"Can nationalism breed racism?" Duh. But it's not just nationalism that's the problem in America (fuck off ), many Americans want all Muslims out of the country, even if they are American citizens. Sad, sad world.
Become? Was that an inadvertant use of the future tense? I think nationalism will often breed racism in the sense of thinking of nationalism as a jongoistic superiority ideology. But there can be non-racist nationalist movements. Like liberation movements by oppressed peoples wanting national independence. Either way, I think nationalism is potentially very dangerous....
Please tell me you are joking!?! I presume this is a very small braindead percentage of the population!
It is, but for some reason they air these few people on TV all the time cause they think it'll interest the rest of us.
Holy crap... I love that. He's right. I've heard people say that they would support putting all Muslims in internment camps "just to be on the safe side, because after all, they're the ones who attacked us." As goldmund said, I have also heard people who I thought were at least somewhat intelligent say that nuclear bombs should just be dropped on the Middle East. I just don't understand these people.
I think nuking the holy land would solve a lotta problems. Plus if you believe in the rapture, it'll never happen if the holy land is turned into a radioactive wonderland.
Isn't that scary!? The ones I've talked to seemed serious. I couldn't believe it. When questioned, they reply, "fuck them, look what they are doing to us!" I liked the earlier comment on the differences between national liberation movements and nationalism.
Nationalism tends to walk hand in hand with racism. Historical nation did not transcend borders. Nationalism, then, was restricted to lines on a map. Racism has no borders but would tend to stay in them because of the great difficulty of crossing those borders. In light of deterritorialization and an appeal to a common that transcends the sovereignty of those lines nationality and racism can be seen to have parted ways.
It happens here as well. They just want to side with the man who's in charge. It doesn't make sense; they need to get minds of their fucking own.
And I think one day, sooner or later, the u.s.a are gonna have a racist government. With all the "god bless america" going around... U.S.A isn't racist yet? I'd beg to differ "Eye for an eye, as long as your not white"
Yes... It can breed racism, and can even lead to war and genocide. But It can also provide a common purpose and turn a nation from a loose collection of decadent individuals into a living, growing organism with a purpose and thereby, provide everybody with a sense of identity and instill them with ambition and alacrity. It all depends on the definition of a nation. A "nation" should never be defined racially and should be as inclusive as practicable.
When I went to the Italian hill country a few years ago, I was struck by cities that were surrounded by castle walls, their history of violent military conflict with their neighbors, but also their deep sense of pride and community. It made me wonder whether war, and fighting against peoples, ideas, actually helped create identity, comradery, etc. I brought this idea up in a college class where we were discussing racism and intolerance. One student responded that while this may be true, there is a way to transform this patriotic zeal into a fight against UNIVERSALLY accepted notions of evil, such as disease, hunger, violence, and poverty.
Sure Does. As Mussolini said, "a country is nothing without a conquest" But that conquest does not have to be a war against other nations. It can be the conquest of fear and weakness. I Wholeheartedly agree Think of it this way: a bar of iron does not have any magnetic force until all its molecules are aligned the same way
Sometimes I wish people could just cut the shit and say "We're at war because of greed"... buttttttttttttt... that wouldn't work. We all know it anyway.
