Gary Younge: "Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the Twenty-First Century?"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-08-25/gary-younge-who-are-we-and-should-it-matter-twenty-first-century
In this new century, identity is at the heart of the most pressing and often violent issues of the day. In the U. S. and abroad, people often retreat into the refuges of religion, nationality, class, and race. It can be seen in the wave of social unrest that spread across England. Or in Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s description of undocumented workers as an “army of evil.” And seventy percent of Oklahomans voted to ban the introduction of Sharia law, though only a small portion of residents are Muslim. One journalist urges us to search for common, higher ground. He warns that if we fail, our society may become more divided than ever before. Diane and her guest talk about why identity matters.
Guests
Gary Younge
columnist for the "Guardian" and "The Nation, and author of "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "No Place Like Home."
Comments
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Genes.
And then environment.
And more environment.
Add daily to exposure to corporate government messages both open and not, intended or not,
and here we are... help?
Look forward to hearing Mr. Younge - his columns in the Guardian are must-reads.
Us vs. Them was artificially created. It helped Bush administration to create fear atmosphere and gain election. Not only Muslim were demonized but also European countries that did not supported our march for revenge.
Diane,
Your short introduction compares Berlusconi's racist remark with the state of Oklahoma wanting to ban Sharia law. There's no comparison!
Sharia law entails horrific human rights abuses! It's anti-gay and anti- woman to put it mildly!
Unless one informs oneself of what Sharia law entails, you wouldn't believe what it would mean to institute Sharia law in America.
Please have as your guest sometime Nonnie Darwish (an ex-Muslim) -- she will inform you!
There was no reason to repeal Sharia law in Oklahoma. There is no chance of it being applied in US. This was just to scare ignorant people. We are more endangered by our Christian fanatics attempting to gain political control.
An addition to my remark about Sharia Law -- The guest is pointing out some prejudices about Obama being a Muslim BECAUSE his dad was a Muslim. Yes, of course, there are a lot of "silly" prejudices in America + the whole world today. However, that doesn't mean therefore that some legitimate concerns about Sharia law are NOT valid!
Bo-Jones - "An addition to my remark about Sharia Law -- The guest is pointing out some prejudices about Obama being a Muslim BECAUSE his dad was a Muslim. Yes, of course, there are a lot of "silly" prejudices in America + the whole world today. However, that doesn't mean therefore that some legitimate concerns about Sharia law are NOT valid!"
Not in US. It is naive to think that it could gain hold and would be permitted to prevail over our Constitution.
The true clash of civilization that exists trough the history is the prosperous urban centers vs. rural or small town. The religions (no matter which one) have tendency of degenerating in rural/small town areas. We see this in US and any other country. It is particularly acute in countries that have most of population living outside urban centers.
If rural/small town conservative values prevail, our progress will be halted and we will start going backward. This what happened to Muslim medieval civilizations.
Sane - I hope you are right that Sharia law has no chance in America. However, since the Muslim population is increasing, there could be a tipping point where a majority of Muslims will institute it even here in America. Just look at Europe, especially France and Gr. Britain. There is a definite trend toward "creeping or stealth Sharia" there.
Read N. Darwish,
If I understood your guest's comment correctly, he said the US is making a mistake of caring about identity.
Does he mean in terms of our government caring who we are, or that we should lose our birth personality in order to get along with the mainstream? If the later, then come on! This country was built upon the strengths of individual differences...how could this be construed as a mistake? Is he jealous of our culture? And why does he wish for it to change? What good does he see coming from this attitude?
Thank you.
Bo-Jones - there is no single European country with Sharia law and there is no chance for one. All riots are by underprivileged youth, often minority, but not always.
I don't think someone like Darwish. poet (member of communist party) was interested in establishing Sharia law (communism implies atheism)
@ikafka, you totally miss the point. I despair it would be useless trying to explain such a simple concept to you. Perhaps you should think about why you assume someone you consider to be an outsider is jealous of "our culture". The answer to that question will answer your your last two questions above.
i am not sure what the point is. first, the guardian newspaper is UBER LIBERAL. second, without really saying it outright all his derogatory comments and examples are about white people and white society, both in Britain and America.
quite frankly i'm sick of this constant tirade against anglos. ms. rehm, if you are going to continually parade this partisan slop on your show, then i ask you to start inviting conservative authors to come on.
PhlyingRPh wrote- @ikafka, you totally miss the point. I despair it would be useless trying to explain such a simple concept to you. Perhaps you should think about why you assume someone you consider to be an outsider is jealous of "our culture". The answer to that question will answer your your last two questions above.
I agree.
This is a vision of people that never traveled and is fed some misinformation.
Our culture needs some work. We are behind in culture, education, democracy and falling further behind. GINI (wealth distribution) coefficient puts us on equal footing with China and some third word countries.
The fact that that everyone is jealous of our culture has no base in reality.
He is British. But I would despair it would be useless trying to explain such a simple concept to you.
"lkafka1063 wrote:
He is British. But I would despair it would be useless trying to explain such a simple concept to you."
I agree with you, you think in simple concepts that are beyond my comprehension.
There is on piece missing from the conversation.
That is a statement that came from An Essay on the Principle of Population by Malthus.
No social organization can work without addressing population control.
I agree with the principals of tolerance but when the "other" is taking food of my plate he is no longer "another" human being but a threat to my survival.
All the racial, religious differences are are just identifiers for those that do not belong in "my" hunting ground. My hunting ground may very well have been someone else's that they could not defend - and now that I'm here - I'm not leaving.
I see this as the root conflict and it can not be put off with play nice behaviors.
ThomasB
you are right, we cannot get rid of our tribalism and use it to justify the worse human behavior.
Again, with the whispering guest. Diane's voice is clear and distinct, Mr. Younge's voice is soft and mushy and drifts off at the end of sentences. I can't listen to any more of this. PLEASE, have someone adjust the volume control on the guests' mikes so that the volume is consistant! I either have Diane nearly screaming in my ear or I can't hear Mr. Younge at all!
anonymous, please to Mr. Young.
So interesting this subject of mixed race people. I am one, a first generation American, whose family members were born in the multi-racial, multi-ethnic Caribbean Basin, plus Ireland. Our family members have long been subject to "scrutiny" about our identity. But we find the real question people--both white and black--want answered is not really "where are you from?" but what race are you? If one has not identified narrowly as Black, there is especially among African-Americans, a criticism that we are dodging the race issue. We identify the way we were raised, we honor happily ALL the colorful ethnicity that helped us form our personhood--we are multi-racial, proud Americans.
Thanks to Dian for opening up subjects that stream across the broad landscape of humanity.
Very interesting and positive discussion about identity that we can all learn from about we are all in the boat of humanity and we can sink or swim if we don't get out political and social differences worked out so was can move this country forward for the better. Our leaders are not leading and that is pulling us all down. Good segment of the show.
Geographic Identity is the True{!} "great divide". Sailing around The Cape of Good Hope or the Atlantic trade routs/ trade-winds is easy to believe, but saying you're "from" California (the GOP+"left-HANDER"{GB/\irl/dut} coast) and Raised!!!in / from "a mixed community" when you are obviously "all European"/tall blue-eyed white-american {R.Reagan&GHWBush's HAND!} ({[Wisconsin fam]}) is totally UNBELIEVABLE, relate that to health-"care" and my total lack of family history/ethnicity in California and things like "Health care/interPreVention" become fiction!
I tried to find [wikipedia] if M.L.K. Jr. had ever gone to West America/CaliPHornia [mlk S.F.?] and there was nothing, no wiki-GEO-biography [map] exists; even though most internet-information-corporations "started in California"*.
If I tell someone I was born in Atlanta Georgia {and was the only white babey born in that hospital there that day [planned months! in advance]} people will start talking about The-South like I can totally relate...{clueless!} because at about "6 weeks old" we were out-of-there.
*When I ((try to)) relate that a certain person involved in WWII was "visiting my home town/county Santa Cruz Calif" in California{aka east-asia-America/modern-Tijuana}, the geo-unbelievable "fiction" turns negative...like health-care, yet the fundamental cop-out/"lies!?"NOlol makes "normal-POLICy" appear as- "hate-POLICe"; and our love of 3rd-world POVERTY___ and fiction... becomes unHealthy, unBELIEVABLE.
The social ecology of this philosoPHical :[PHiction?]: thread (a.n.n.y.t.) IS,,, JUST THAT POWERFUL. When UBER-empathay is NORMALY balanced _post-beliefe_ pre-ecology, 'big-brother' will bow! to "big-sister's" love of self. And world peace will be incrediblly possible: pro-active schitzo SOULuTION.
But without [wit-hout? 3rd world?] we are running blind-folded unable to believe in ourselves!! and "our own world"peaceFully. Unable to trust ourselves.
Where you are "who? :)" \vs/ Who you are "where? ;("
When I go to Britain or Germany or anywhere inbetween, people "think/believe" I AM! a local, and though I grew-up and was Educated totally! in California, my ligual integrities are typically sufficient to blend in.
But nobody "wants to believe" I'm from California, hence my IDENTITY[and health] are schitzoPHrenically_UBER-AMERICAN [totally Northern European].
To divide a world, just add a great-divide [and igNORe normalcy] "west of the Rocky Mountains" and pretend you're Japonese DOWn.
?
@jonesy196:
Diane already invites plenty of conservative commentators onto her program. So what if The Guardian (or The Nation) is UBER-LIBERAL, as you say? Such a voice is welcome to these ears. If you want to listen to solely regressive voices, listen to O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, etc. There's plenty out there, and they certainly aren't as balanced in approach as Diane Rehm. Of course, "balance" isn't required anymore on the airwaves, thanks to Reagan. Unless, of course, you want the Fairness Doctrine to be brought back....?
By the way, Anglos (whites, really) deserve all the criticism we can get, and we always have. Whether we always will is up to us. Thicken your skin and look in the damned mirror.
Americans have every right to be obsessed with identity. The only exception being,if it creates intolerance, it then becomes a serious problem.
I respect people of all persuasions but I do not embrace their beliefs, values or principles.
Identity does matter.
I find it strange that Gary Younge who seems to criticize our obsession of identity then cites the rejection of Shaira law by an American state.
Shaira law totally disregards the rights of woman to the point of physical punishment and death. It thats the value system he is promoting,we are in serious trouble.
Guy Mulvaney.
Interesting show with Mr Younge. However, I would take issue with one thing I think I understood him to posit; namely, that characterizing President Obama as "other" based on his foreign father, his Muslim father, or his time spent in other lands comes before discomfort with or resentment of his race is wrong, I think. These characterizations only serve as convenient veils for racist attitudes. It is more accepted for racists to seethe at his presence in the White House over the more unique aspects of his background than to admit their racism.
we want our planet back-
the dodoes
seems silly to exterminate a species for fuelish reasons.
especially as a vaccine made via them cures cancers.
Maybe next time 2013- er- 0001.
violations of space quarantine remedied
extreme terrorization- er- terrarestoration authorized
begin sonic gravitational warnings for tourists and resident aliens to begin evacuations prior to scheduled cleansing by fires.
you may now return to your do nuts- go nuts- do nothings.