He does wear the same shirt

Andy was definitely wearing the same shirt last night as he wore on Friday night, so I'm not imagining it. Olive coloured, two pockets and little button things on the shoulders.

I need to start keeping a notebook of all of my thoughts and things while I watch the show. I have a lot of things that run through my head, different ideas and opinions, and things that just catch my eye. This blog I think will become sort of like a practice ground for some journalistic/political ranty stuff and may come in handy when I go to declare my major in my second year. It's nothing formal, but will give me a place to stretch my wings, so to speak.

I watched last night's show in the living room with my parents, completely fawning over Anderson. I usually don't watch it with them, usually in my room by myself, because they talk a lot and I actually like to hear what's going on. That way I can start to formulate roughly what I may want to write about in here. My dad also has a tendency to say things that just... Well, it almost sounds like he doesn't think through what he's saying but I know that he is. I guess we just have different thought processes.

Last night, dad asked why all Anderson covers is the war in the Middle East, which was easy enough to explain. But then, when they started speaking about Hezbollah and the high amount of civilian casualities, my dad had to throw in that the Lebanese brought it upon themselves, and if you harbour terrorists, what else can you expect? He doesn't understand why you wouldn't inform and give these people up to the government. Dad and I have had discussions like this before. People don't inform on terrorists or the "bad guys" for the same reason we all turn our heads when we know someone is stealing, or let's say selling drugs. They're not hurting us, so what does it matter? To the Shi'a Lebanese, Hezbollah has built schools, hospitals and taken care of them above and beyond that of the Christian and Sunni government. Not only is Hezbollah not hurting those who harbour them, they're helping them, essentially buying their support. And honestly, how is that any different than what governments and organizations do here? I'm pretty sure that $400 tax rebate given out in Alberta was a huge support buyer/mainstayer.

I have a hard time discussing things with my father. I know how he was raised, at least the attitudes of the time, so I can understand some of why he thinks the way he does. But a lot of the time you can see and hear in his words the lack of understanding, the lack of wanting to understand, other cultures in comparison to our own and his belief in our superiority. He always compares the actions of one nation with an entirely different set of cultural customs to the one that we live in. This morning we were talking, again sparked by CNN, about the differences in culture and what he deems to be "civilized." He said that "In a world situation, there is something as being civilized." Well, who determines what civilized is? Because you know what, Western society is the odd one out. The majority of the world's population doesn't live as we do, and don't hold the same values. He referred to if you steal, they'll cut your hands off. Again, we're the odd ones out. The majority of the world still abides to laws similar to those of Hammurabi's Code.

You can't look at another culture through the eyes of your own. The only leads to the idea of superiority and racism. If you look at our past, even our recent past, Western civilization hasn't been all that civilized. We still murder, still suffer from the human condition. McCarthyism sure as hell wasn't civilized. Up until the 1960s, the southern United States were still segregated. We still bastardize our own who disagree with us. Colonialization was not civilized. I just don't understand the superority complex of a lot of people in North America and Europe. Sure, we live great lives, enjoy amazing freedoms and live without fear. But how does that make us more civilized, more moral, than those who act within the customs and structures laid out before him?

No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. -- Ruth Benedict

If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits. -- Ruth Benedict

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. -- Elie Wiesel

Thanks to bcfraggle for the screenshot from last night's show.