let me try substituting a word in that last sentence.
"A couple of tables down two slightly overweight white men made the observation that "our schools are filled with trash and they have no Aryan traditions!""
funny how we use these collective labels to dehumanise people who are different from ourselves. it makes us capable of unimaginable horror.
and yet the same people who dehumanise different people may be caring family members. find the in-group, find the person.
this is all about the way our brains work. those who create the label absolve us of the obligations of our shared humanity. they fracture us into sub-groups that hate one another.
the idea of pure virtues - as if judeao-christian values are somehow apart from and better than those others pursue - is a part of the problem. i think it is a problem of fear and ignorance rather than of inhumanity.
do people believe in individual compassion? we all do. nearly all. love thy neighbour is not unique to christianity or judaism. it is essential to all religions and all moralities. indeed, increasingly we learn it is embedded in the behaviours of all sorts of life. and even into the mathematics of the universe: game theory apparently finds altruism to be an efficient mode of interaction. fish that school are bonded in a mutual protection system. the fungus and bacteria that decompose a dead tree are part of the cycle that preserves us all. cooperation along the supply chain adds value for everyone that participates in it. trust between buyers and sellers is a far more efficient model than one in which everyone is ripping everyone else off. energy use that is non-polluting in the end is better for all of us.
when doma talks about love as fundamental to the structure of the universe, this is how I understand him.
for myself, i think kindness has to strike a balance with self-interest. but all the same, without compassion, there is no civilisation.
time for a rethink in america.
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