tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3647180678398772674.post4451555892053465475..comments2024-01-19T16:57:32.385-08:00Comments on Six Foot Turkey: RefugeesJoshua Leachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04786588059362202964noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3647180678398772674.post-42468095152124933112015-08-22T20:35:40.764-07:002015-08-22T20:35:40.764-07:00As usual, I largely agree but will comment on the ...As usual, I largely agree but will comment on the parts that I disagree with:<br /><br />(1) I think you draw too sharp a distinction between local and national identities. It seems plausible to me that in the same way that interacting regularly over an extended period can lead a small group of people to feel a sense of identification with one another, participating in and benefiting from a set of national institutions can lead one to feel a sense of identification with others who sustain and benefit from those institutions. This is an organic sense of identification that's distinct from the artificial construction of nationalism which you rightly criticize. Obviously the feelings of identification will become more and more attenuated, and less morally and politically significant, the larger the groups of people involved are but I don't think they vanish completely. <br /><br />(2) Your point about Islam and Buddhism, while it obviously has a lot of merit, is too dismissive of what seem to me to be real differences in how religions with different teachings affect behavior differently. Without investigating the question in great detail, it does seem reasonable to me to claim that Islam has more problems with religiously sanctioned violence than Buddhism and to trace this to the fact that the major Islamic prophet was a general, Islam draws much tighter links between the religious and political communities than other religions do, there's an established theological concept of religiously based warfare, etc. <br /><br />I don't think taking this approach commits you to the idea that Muslims as people are uniquely and fundamentally evil. First, as you've emphasized in past conversations, any given person has many cultural identities so someone who's a Muslim may also be shaped by other cultural traditions which are more pacific (and vice versa for an individual Buddhist). Second, I think most major religions and similar worldviews have characteristic flaws of this sort (for Buddhism it would probably be indifference to suffering that can be alleviated by human action) so Islam isn't being singled out as uniquely malign.<br />Ajayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16863145396520268530noreply@blogger.com