Domestic war indeed

[days_unfolding]

patricks just posted an entry about a Sikh gas station owner who was shot and killed.

Am I the only one who's completely demoralized by incidents such as that? Well, judging by some of the entries of people on my friends' list, others are too. Somehow the fact that the people harassing and attacking people are from the U.S. makes it harder to bear than the initial attack.

Can society break down that fast? Some sociologists (Durkheim in particular) say that society will break down when the society is under stress, and people are largely anonymous to each other. It's a lot easier to depersonalize people whom we don't know.

On the other hand, a lot of people are condemning such acts, and the people committing them are largely on the fringes of society.

Anyway, I need to get a lot of stuff done today regardless of what's going on outside.

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

There are idiots in all societies. We actually seem to have fewer than in some. Those are the people calling in fake bomb threats and harassing others. It wouldn't matter what the excuse, they just need to make themselves feel important because they know that they themselves are really not. They're not because they've refused to rise above their ignorance and open their eyes to what's really around them.

But I think if you look around you at the people you come into contact with, that you'll find the same good people you always found. At least that's what I've found. People being even more polite and friendly than usual. I was crossing the street in Boulder Creek friday and tried to wave a car making a right turn in front of me to go ahead, as she wouldn't have slowed me down at all. She just smiled, and waved me on across.

I can see positive things coming out of this tragedy, but how long they last is another matter. Certainly we've all seen how much we're connected to each other, all over the world.

Idiots and the ignorant (and here I'm including the Revs Foulwell and Robertson) aside, I'm really proud of how the people I know are acting.

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Mid-day on Wednesday, the traffic in Silicon Valley was the sanest and politest that I've ever seen it (at least for a long time). By Wednesday night, some of the self-important idiots had come back out of the woodwork again.

However, overall I think that you're right. People seemed especially nice when I was running errands yesterday.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that one of the consequences of terrorist acts is to provoke the kind of truly senseless acts as, in this case, the shooting of the Sikh.

I suspect, however, that folks in this country will do "better" in this department than has traditionally been done.

Cheers...