Truth can sometimes come to you from unlikely sources. Even though I'm not fond of this writer's style, and perhaps his ideological bent, and definitely not the people he is writing about, there are some things that ring true. This is the book I'm reading right now...
There is a quote from an amerikan convert to Islam, about how your perspective should be more of a global rather than a strictly local one...
" The only difference between a "political" event and a "personal" event is the difference in scale and geographic proximity to the event. Thus I never understood why if my neighbor or relative is raped, God forbid, it's considered a "personal" event, but if many women are raped in Bosnia or Indonesia in the course of a war, it's a "political" event, and therefore I should somehow not be as concerned. Only someone lacking in humanity would make a distinction between two equivalent events that differ only in location."
Incredible. I could never have put it better myself. You don't have to be an academic or political theorist to understand this. This is the merging of the personal and the political. This is the outlook and stand that we should all try to adopt. And to hit it home...
There is a quote from an amerikan convert to Islam, about how your perspective should be more of a global rather than a strictly local one...
" The only difference between a "political" event and a "personal" event is the difference in scale and geographic proximity to the event. Thus I never understood why if my neighbor or relative is raped, God forbid, it's considered a "personal" event, but if many women are raped in Bosnia or Indonesia in the course of a war, it's a "political" event, and therefore I should somehow not be as concerned. Only someone lacking in humanity would make a distinction between two equivalent events that differ only in location."
Incredible. I could never have put it better myself. You don't have to be an academic or political theorist to understand this. This is the merging of the personal and the political. This is the outlook and stand that we should all try to adopt. And to hit it home...
