niranjan,
If I were to generalize your posts, many of them reveal a generalization.But my eyes are evil.
So you yourself is stating that your eyes are evil. And evil in what sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do a
search: optical illusion and click a couple times to try some common optical illusions. Do your eyes see perfect or do they distort things like mine do? The brain works by making generalizations. It fills the voids of missing data and it will do it without a person even knowing it. The brain guesses and presents it as a fact. For example if a person lives in the city or around buildings with sharp straight parallel edges everywhere then their mind will try to make lines straight and parallel even if they are not. The brain does this without even asking your permission. You have to learn the illusion to see past it..
Are you saying that the atrocities committed by Islamic terrorists to the Zoroastrians, the Bahais,the Assyrians, the sikhs, the hindus, the jains, the buddhists in asia are an illusion .
And if you say yes to that , I must say that you are severely deluded.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do anything about it - Albert Einstein
Whether it is age, genes, height, weight, ethnicity, language, country, religion, economic status, gender, birth defects, eye sight, intelligence, education, family size, breast fed or bottle fed, a specific belief... there is a way to identify and classify people. With whatever that classification or categorical system is, the system itself can direct the eyes and the behavior of a person which can further bias the collected information. Then when you factor in that the mind can make generalizations from limited or noisy information, the result is unseen distortions or illusions of reality. If you don't believe it then review those optical illusions and the reasons they occur.
..
And do you think the atrocities and torture inflicted on the Bahais and which was witnessed by the austrian officer Captain von Goumoens was an optical illusion as well.
From the wikipedia.....
An Austrian officer, Captain von Goumoens, working in the court of the Shah at the time, gave the following account after signing his resignation:
"[I saw] ones who, with gouged-out eyes, must eat, on the scene of the deed, their own amputated ears; or whose teeth are torn out with inhuman violence by the hand of the executioner; or whose bare skulls are simply crushed by blows from a hammer..." "As for the end itself, they hang the scorched and perforated bodies by their hands and feet to a tree head downwards, and now every Persian may try his marksmanship to his heart’s content... When I read over again, what I have written, I am overcome by the thought that those who are with you in our dearly beloved Austria may doubt the full truth of the picture, and accuse me of exaggeration. Would to God that I had not lived to see it!... At present I never leave my house, in order not to meet with fresh scenes of horror... I will no longer maintain my connection with the scene of such crimes.”
And do you think the assyrian genocide too was an illusion, and the statement of one of their survivors John Eshoo was an optical illusion as well!!!!!!
From the wikipedia....
In early 1918, many Assyrians started to flee present-day Turkey. Mar Shimon Benyamin had arranged for some 3,500 Assyrians to reside in the district of Khoi. Not long after settling in, Kurdish troops of the Ottoman Army massacred the population almost entirely. One of the few that survived was Reverend John Eshoo. After escaping, he stated:
You have undoubtedly heard of the Assyrian massacre of Khoi, but I am certain you do not know the details."
These Assyrians were assembled into one caravansary, and shot to death by guns and revolvers. Blood literally flowed in little streams, and the entire open space within the caravansary became a pool of crimson liquid. The place was too small to hold all the living victims waiting for execution. They were brought in groups, and each new group was compelled to stand over the heap of the still bleeding bodies and shot to death. The fearful place became literally a human slaughter house, receiving its speechless victims, in groups of ten and twenty at a time, for execution.
At the same time, the Assyrians, who were residing in the suburb of the city, were brought together and driven into the spacious courtyard of a house [...] The Assyrian refugees were kept under guard for eight days, without anything to eat. At last they were removed from their place of confinement and taken to a spot prepared for their brutal killing. These helpless Assyrians marched like lambs to their slaughter, and they opened not their mouth, save by sayings "Lord, into thy hands we commit our spirits. [...]
The executioners began by cutting first the fingers of their victims, join by joint, till the two hands were entirely amputated. Then they were stretched on the ground, after the manner of the animals that are slain in the Fast, but these with their faces turned upward, and their heads resting upon the stones or blocks of wood Then their throats were half cut, so as to prolong their torture of dying, and while struggling in the agony of death, the victims were kicked and clubbed by heavy poles the murderers carried Many of them, while still laboring under the pain of death, were thrown into ditches and buried before their souls had expired.
The young men and the able-bodied men were separated from among the very young and the old. They were taken some distance from the city and used as targets by the shooters. They all fell, a few not mortally wounded. One of the leaders went to the heaps of the fallen and shouted aloud, swearing by the names of Islam's prophets that those who had not received mortal wounds should rise and depart, as they would not be harmed any more. A few, thus deceived, stood up, but only to fall this time killed by another volley from the guns of the murderers.
Some of the younger and good looking women, together with a few little girls of attractive appearance, pleaded to be killed. Against their will were forced into Islam's harems. Others were subjected to such fiendish insults that I cannot possibly describe. Death, however, came to their rescue and saved them from the vile passions of the demons. The death toll of Assyrians totaled 2,770 men, women and children
In fact one of the ways that I categorize people is to see just how badly a person generalizes and categorizes other people in terms of 'WE' versus 'THEM'... or associates themselves interchangeably with a another individul of a group, like the leader... or challenges someone else to defend the actions of everyone who claims to be in another group. Then to discriminate further I might compare words with words from an individual to see how honest their model is. For example I would scrutinize your words 'destroy' and 'iron fist' with the word 'terrorism' or 'violence'..
So if the police or the armed forces use the words 'destroy' and 'iron fist', does it become 'terrorism'.
When scientists state that they are committed to destroying AIDS or cancer , does it become 'terrorism' and 'violence'.
And if our guru and prophet have used the words 'destroy ' and 'iron fist' against Islamic terrorists, in order to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians and the rape of non-muslim ladies( which according to you is just an optical illusion ), does that mean it becomes 'terrorism' .
Those are just a couple of my methods of categorization and sometimes I might even ask for evidence, but when the generalizations and classification of people that a person has never even met get so thick and obvious... then I tend to just make a post like this one.
<<<< but when the generalizations and classification of people that a person has never even met get so thick and obvious... >>>>>
Through this I presume you are stating that I have never met muslims or islamic terrorists personally. And if that is so,I must say that you are wrong on both counts.
And anyway I don't think anyone has to meet islamic fundamentalists and terrorists personally like me, to fight against islamic terrorism and fundamentalism.
There are animal rights groups all over the world. Does a man or woman has to personally witness violence against animals in order to support animal rights groups or to condemn perpetrators of violence against animals ?
Another striking example of the absurdity of your logic, though I must say that your post indeed contains some good points. We indeed have to be very prudent and not let our emotions get the better of us. However this is an uphill task , as any sensitive human being who reads about the atrocities on the bahais, assyrians,sikhs and others will lose their nerve. However as I stated before, one indeed must be strong and keep his nerve,and be proactive, instead of being reactive.
Sin is never in action, it is always in reaction.
----Swami Chinmayananda
Act , do not react.
---Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.