I\u2019m in the process of reading a forthcoming translation of an ancient Chinese legend.\u00a0 I\u2019m not editing it, simply making a few minor suggestions as to fundamental differences of a cultural nature that might confuse western readers.\u00a0 During an apologetic, explanatory email to the author \/ translator I made an observation that startled me, before granting me an insight.<\/p>\n
I said \u201cWe’re all people, and often make the mistake of thinking that as such we’re the same – we are not. \u00a0The thinking process of our parents and peers definitely modifies the way we look at things.\u201d<\/p>\n
True to form, as is so often the case with these types of things, a few hours later I found myself listening to an audio book titled \u201cUnbroken<\/em>\u201d by Laura Hillenbrand. \u00a0Within it, she raised the national indoctrination of the people of Japan prior to the Second World War.\u00a0 The militaristic government set out to pervert an ancient, rich and wonderful culture \u2013 essentially twisting their own history to convince the Japanese people that brutality, bloodshed and cruelty were acceptable forms of behavior when used against the inferior nations<\/em>.\u00a0 The war crimes perpetrated as a result of this indoctrination must reign right up there with those perpetrated by Nazi Germany.\u00a0 And guess what?\u00a0 Hitler did precisely the same thing to the Germans \u2013 dehumanizing the Jews and rendering any behavior toward them \u201cacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n What have we learnt from history?\u00a0 Sadly what history all too often teaches us \u2013 that we don\u2019t learn from history.\u00a0 Genocide is occurring in multiple regions of the world today.\u00a0 In most of those cases the \u201cenemy\u201d is dehumanized, while the cruelty of the oppressors is lauded.\u00a0 Look at the horrific behavior of multiple Islamic factions who delight in brutal beheadings. \u00a0\u00a0And now, before you nod your head in outraged agreement, look in the mirror and ask yourself how you feel about Muslims\u2026<\/p>\n How do you feel about people whose skin is a little duskier than our own, whose hair is darker, whose noses are larger, whose facial hair is thicker, who dare to worship a different deity?\u00a0 Do those differences render them somehow less human?<\/p>\n A little shame faced?\u00a0 Discard the rhetoric we have shoved down our throats on a daily basis, then ask the question again \u2013 but this time emphasize how you, personally, feel.<\/p>\n Is the answer the same as it was moments ago?\u00a0 I truly hope not.<\/p>\n Now, I leave you with a final thought.\u00a0 Eugenics is alive, strong, morally reprehensible, and utterly impartial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m in the process of reading a forthcoming translation of an ancient Chinese legend.\u00a0 I\u2019m not editing it, simply making a few minor suggestions as to fundamental differences of a cultural nature that might confuse western readers.\u00a0 During an apologetic, explanatory email to the author \/ translator I made an observation that startled me, before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}