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Making noise
Mon, Feb. 24th, 2003 07:37 pmNot really much to say, just felt like I should write. Which is funny, since obviously this is my journal, and I am in no way obligated to communicate with this HTML stuff or whatever. Anyway, did anyone notice I have an icon and a new background? I made the boy play around in Photoshop for me, and I think I kind of get it now. Maybe I will make my own icons later. I also made my own custom styles. Not really, but just got icons to show in my Friends page. I feel so accomplished. I think now I can figure out how to make my own real custom style. Hrm. Maybe I should cough up money to keep myself on as a paid subscriber... hee.
Was just reading a few chapteres of Guns, Germs and Steel for class and randomly thinking about Bush and Iraq. I'm a flaming liberal, and the boy's pretty conservative, so that's led to quite a few arguments between us. And I know in general the liberal position for the war is against it. Mostly, that's what I think. Actually, that was completely my mindset until a few minutes ago. I don't like war in general. I'm incredibly anti-violence and pacifist, and war scares the hell out of me, as does nationalism, patriotism and all those things that can lead toward fundamentalism or militarism. Yay isms. But then, I was thinking back to some of the headlines on Salon.com that seemed to be on articles on what the Iraqi population might think of the peace protests and the anti-war protests going on right now. I mean, do they think we anti-war people want to keep Saddam in power? Do they think we're dangerously isolationist, like Tokugawa Japan? Do they think we only care about America and our own affairs? Or do they resent America for the war and for barging in on their country and their politics?
And thinking about it that way, the war looks like some sort of holy crusade to free the natives from this oppressive ruler. Except that doesn't seem to be the way Bush presents it. The funny thing is, I think maybe the war would be a lot more acceptable to more people if it weren't portrayed as taking Saddam out before he unleashes himself on the world and more along the lines of doing what the oppressed Iraqi population can't do. Maybe. I don't know. And then there's the question of exactly how oppressed the Iraqis are. I know there's all that stuff in the media about oppressed women and fundamentalist Islam. (By the way, I think using "oppressed" now sounds so propagandist) But sometimes you wonder. I remember one of the strangest things about my internship this summer (besides the sheer horribleness of investment banking, which, I swear, is a separate level of hell in and of itself) was really getting to talk to people from Mainland China. As I said, I'm from Taiwan, which means I've heard lots of horror stories about the Cultural Revolution and the evils of Mao Tse-Tung, both from my Chinese teachers and less so from my American ones. I think because of that, I just figured everyone kind of knew Mao was this horrible person who did all these horrible things in China. But the interns from China all were talking about who they admired more, Mao or Jiang Ze-Ming or the other political leaders. I'm pretty sure most people in America, not to mention Taiwan, would think this was not something most people say. I hear about all the human rights issues in China, along with the arrest of dissenters, censorship of almost everything, and the persecution of the Falun Gong, in the media, and I guess I just assume that oh, of course everyone must think like that. But I guess to the Chinese, they might see that as American propaganda attempting to discredit their own government or something. POV is everything sometimes, it seems. So I still have no idea what to think about the war on Iraq, after all this. Mostly I think I'd like to know what people in Iraq think.
Was just reading a few chapteres of Guns, Germs and Steel for class and randomly thinking about Bush and Iraq. I'm a flaming liberal, and the boy's pretty conservative, so that's led to quite a few arguments between us. And I know in general the liberal position for the war is against it. Mostly, that's what I think. Actually, that was completely my mindset until a few minutes ago. I don't like war in general. I'm incredibly anti-violence and pacifist, and war scares the hell out of me, as does nationalism, patriotism and all those things that can lead toward fundamentalism or militarism. Yay isms. But then, I was thinking back to some of the headlines on Salon.com that seemed to be on articles on what the Iraqi population might think of the peace protests and the anti-war protests going on right now. I mean, do they think we anti-war people want to keep Saddam in power? Do they think we're dangerously isolationist, like Tokugawa Japan? Do they think we only care about America and our own affairs? Or do they resent America for the war and for barging in on their country and their politics?
And thinking about it that way, the war looks like some sort of holy crusade to free the natives from this oppressive ruler. Except that doesn't seem to be the way Bush presents it. The funny thing is, I think maybe the war would be a lot more acceptable to more people if it weren't portrayed as taking Saddam out before he unleashes himself on the world and more along the lines of doing what the oppressed Iraqi population can't do. Maybe. I don't know. And then there's the question of exactly how oppressed the Iraqis are. I know there's all that stuff in the media about oppressed women and fundamentalist Islam. (By the way, I think using "oppressed" now sounds so propagandist) But sometimes you wonder. I remember one of the strangest things about my internship this summer (besides the sheer horribleness of investment banking, which, I swear, is a separate level of hell in and of itself) was really getting to talk to people from Mainland China. As I said, I'm from Taiwan, which means I've heard lots of horror stories about the Cultural Revolution and the evils of Mao Tse-Tung, both from my Chinese teachers and less so from my American ones. I think because of that, I just figured everyone kind of knew Mao was this horrible person who did all these horrible things in China. But the interns from China all were talking about who they admired more, Mao or Jiang Ze-Ming or the other political leaders. I'm pretty sure most people in America, not to mention Taiwan, would think this was not something most people say. I hear about all the human rights issues in China, along with the arrest of dissenters, censorship of almost everything, and the persecution of the Falun Gong, in the media, and I guess I just assume that oh, of course everyone must think like that. But I guess to the Chinese, they might see that as American propaganda attempting to discredit their own government or something. POV is everything sometimes, it seems. So I still have no idea what to think about the war on Iraq, after all this. Mostly I think I'd like to know what people in Iraq think.
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