Goatboy Offline

Definitely education is the key, specifically the realisation that the "enemy" has similar fears and wishes to one's own. Actually I was recently listening to an interview with one of the Loyalist paramilitaries and, when asked what it was that made him leave violence behind and start campaigning on the side of the Catholics, he said it was the first time he actually talked to one of them. The hall of mirrors that supports conflict can only exist so long as both sides are divided - unite them and the illusion crumbles.

In the case of the crusades, the division was massive because of the lack of knowledge about each others' culture, as well as the massive physical divide (the idea of embarking on a year-long journey simply to reach the country you'll be fighting in entirely bizarre!). Nowadays it's harder to keep up the illusion, thanks to communication technology, so I can only see two ways in which people can stay deluded - either they lack the willpower to actually check their beliefs, or they are indoctrinated from a young age. In both cases you can only really challenge their opinions and make it clear they don't have a leg to stand on - luckily that's pretty easy now.

cmon mann! understand cats for a change.\

cute...

I honestly believe that the whole Christianity Vs Islam conspiracy has grown because of people's search for a cause for their problems, since all it really does is give people something to fight against.

I had to read, for my English course, some poetry by a guy called Michael Longley who has an interesting idea about the troubles. His way of looking at it is a war that the upper class intellectuals wage on the working class, only given the appearance of a sectarian conflict so that the working class Protestants think they are being wronged by the working class Protestants, and vice versa. That way the upper class can look after their interests to the detriment of the working class, but without anyone noticing the class issue.

I'm not sure how valid this is when talking about the Troubles, but the suggestion that sectarian conflict is an effective way to mask more real issues seems very relevant when you look at the whole anti-Islam, anti-"Terrorism", über-patriotism that has sprung up in some countries.

Well, I'm online every day because I have nothing else better to do. If I'm not on my mom's computer, I'm upstairs in my room talking to people on here

HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY FOODZ!

Oh okay. That's fine. Well, you can private message me any time if you want to. I'm always online, but it'll say that I'm offline when I'm really not. So, ttyl

Maybes catz and dogz should get along.

Oh that's cool. Why do you keep making those faces? You must be a little bored or something. You should go on the chat so we can talk xD

Dog has bigger teeth.