Comments on: Religion, Hackers, & Nonviolence

By: Kara C

Kara C — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:38:23 +0000

This is really interesting… normally i would say that id a religious community is being attacked in a violent way, that neighbors of that community (in a religious or non religious group sense) should come to the defense of the group for the principle of living in a pluralistic society, however im not sure that one, any group would stand up, or two, that the protesting is without truth to it.

i dont agree with any violent protesting though… but it is intriguing to me to see how much is happening recently with regard to scientology…

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:37:50 +0000

Sorry, I wasn’t very precise with my terminology about forced perspectives. More specifically, I meant that you can’t force an authentic, enduring realization about the truth of a thing. As you said, one can certainly ingrain fear-based reactions with a fairly high degree of reliability. But you can’t force “love-based” understanding, because the attempt itself would be the very opposite of what you’re trying to convey.

By: Katie FL

Katie FL — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:29:24 +0000

What spurred this was noticing that I had been rooting for Anonymous without even really realizing it.

I find that really surprising! Personally, I’ve always found hacking for the purpose of destruction and vandalism repulsive. Fucking with these assholes, now, that I can get behind, like if someone from Anonymous successfully broke into

Every tradition has its share of atrocity committed in its name, and many of them as official policy.

Sure, and atrocities should be condemned across the board.

It’s simply not possible to force a change of perspective upon another.

That’s DEFINITELY not true, unless you’re excluding brainwashing as a form of perspective change, because it’s pretty easy to get people to change their minds when you exploit their insecurities and randomly alternate between offering love/comfort and senseless cruelty. Also, people become much more open to suggestion while on a diet of low protein foods like plain rice or when they induce hyperventilation.

Yeah…can you tell I’ve been in a cult AND an abusive relationship before?

In any case, in my opinion, while forced perspective change is fairly easy (in that you’ll be pretty successful if you do what I listed above, not easy in the sense that you’ll feel good about yourself), it requires a much greater expenditure of time and energy than letting people who actually like your ideas come to you. Also, force is usually unethical (although not always).

What should we do?

Look within and suss out our own issues, and look without and come up with something better. The only way that the world will improve is if we come up with something better.

You’re right about conflict — we need to learn how to deflect it and deal with it when necessary. Most violence can be pulled apart with the right attitude, like finding the loose thread on shirt that supports everything else. We must stay grounded and open and honest, and we must train ourselves physically and emotionally so we can handle anything that’s thrown at us. Or, y’know, most things.

That’s my opinion, anyway.