| Hey Schmiggens!
Should I be flattered at Mrs. de Anthony's following my example yet again re: bullies? I'm just not sure what to think anymore! (See my comments on that topic back on May 6 last year, 2004, in my response to your questions about the copyright lawsuit.......
http://www.inreview.com/showthread....2505&forumid=36 )
I'm happy to be setting a good example though, and bullying is an extremely complex issue straddling everything from schoolyard violence and ostracism to repressive regimes in government, business, and even global marketing. Bullying can be as simple as an incident of a teacher ridiculing a child in front of his/her classmates, or it can be as complex as the blotting out of any given culture by the heavy-handed media machines of entertainment corporations in requiring unbalanced representation of their product at the expense of more local product.
Venezuela has come up with a unique answer to the punishing (bullying) monopoly of foreign tv and radio programming by having "communitarian" radio and television stations beaming local and national content to their countrywomen and men. (See this website: http://www.arena.org.nz/venradio.htm -- for an excellent NY Times article on the issue.)
Diversity and open-minded tolerance really are the way to go, and forced global homogenization isn't, imho. What kind of arrogance is it to say that one way is the only way? My apologies to fanatics everywhere, but the agenda behind this approach is suspect. Life, in all its bizarre and amazing forms, is very creative and springs from chaos-- not from oppression. Global entities need to stop viewing the cultures they are invading as merely more opportunities to line their pockets. If enough is as good as a feast--when is enough?
So, if the pinnacle of Rambam's Ladder is the gift of self-reliance, then surely the opposite must be true when that self-reliance is stripped away. It should be more than reprehensible to squash a culture and irreparably damage the livelihood of its citizenry. Isn't it more cruel than outright genocide? And in this context, we can see now why excessive profit is referred to as a 'making a killing'.
So, bullying can be done on a global or national level too by one culture over another, whatever that culture might be--a corporate culture or a religious one. And who do you tell when *that* is happening to you?
Maureen | |
