Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

File Under: Don't Believe The Hype

This graphic uses a liberal application of logic, and logic here is used liberally.

I do not know the definitive answer to your question Rodney King, yet I have some theories.  I'm guessing the author of this graphic makes no distinction between orthodox and extremists in any faith.  He or she also ignores the fact some religions are A ) older and B ) have developed in more secular, more progressive parts of the world and therefore with time and exposure have been better able to wrangle their extremist factions.  Moreover, while religious extremism, however minute it may be in most sects, is not widespread in the news there is no small degree of de facto financial and political warmongering still very much happening in some of the so-called innocent sects by overt/covert support and influence of secular governments and socioeconomic institutions.  Finally, To assert pacifists support Islamic extremism over Judaism ignores the blatantly unabashed Zionist lobby filled with pacifists.

A lack of coexistence is propagated by the 20th century foreign policy of western nations, that coincidentally were historically perceived as Christian nations, who tried to maintain wealth and jockey for power in the emerging new global economy as they transitioned away from the old direct imperial system to the new.  After World War I, the Middle East was was going to be a subject of Western democratic free-market capitalism and stripped of its resources, then left for dead as had Sub-Saharan Africa - one way or another.  The problem is the Middle East would not be complicit in that scenario.  Through foreign policy, arms proliferation, and the secret coup d'etats of the Cold War a global situation has flourished where true peace and security may never be realized in actuality.

Our modern-day lack of coexistence has nothing to do with differing beliefs on what awaits us in the great beyond or if one kind of sex act or another is Evil, although that is very much what will be used to fuel the passions of people.  It is easy to make someone feel strongly about their deity, it is a much more difficult proposition to inflame their righteous fury over a drum of oil which largely profits you and not that person directly.  No matter what the tactics of the combatant may be, everyone is carrying banners of faith in a fight over resources, money, and power - and the banners have all kinds of symbols on them.  That way any loss suffered is automatically persecution and any gain achieved, no matter what atrocity you commit to achieve it, is divine right.  The author and I can agree on one thing: the bumper sticker does not speak to the heart of our problem as a species.

"Imagine" by John Lennon from Imagine released 1971 on Capitol