Someone I know and had a fair level of respect for sent me an email which is below. The email included a video (also below), and I felt that I had to respond to her.

I'm really amazed that an educated person (who again, I thought of as a rational and kind individual), would send out what she sent to me.

So I've posted my response here and would love anyone's thoughts on it.

Dear XXXXX,

While the video is scary, the comments that came with are scarier.

I'm not talking about the director's comments either.

The thinking which leads educated individuals to categorize an entire group of people as a certain way ("Walking time-bombs" and mentally unstable) is what always has (and always will) lead to global warfare. In this case, it's "Muslims". In Vietnam it was the "Gooks", in the 1950's it was the "Commies", in 1945 it was the "Japs", in 1938 it was the "Krauters"(Germans).)

If you look at what people said about each of these groups during the time periods leading up to major wars, you will find your comments match, almost word for word, what people said, in gross generalization, about each of those groups.

It takes about 60-65 years to heal the damage that is done by the kind of thinking which says "ALL people from "X" group are "X"."

Today, our world view is that Germans are friendly and that the Japanese are hard working people. In another 5-10 years (we're already starting to see it), we will welcome of China (and Chinese Communist ideals) as necessary and even helpful, after that (and after the U.S. become involved in some kind of war with the northern part) a reuniting of Korea, and in about 20-25 years, Vietnam will become a major tourist location. People will come back to America saying what a nice place Vietnam was because of the hospitable nature of the Vietnamese.

While the video was scary (I saw it the first time about two years ago), what is more scary is that an entire culture of highly educated people are slipping back into a pattern of categorizing and mentally convicting an entire culture, based on nothing more than some limited experience and lots of news coverage.

Jonathan
http://blog.strive4impact.com