Posted by pancho (148.244.221.51) on January 21, 2002 at 13:33:01:
Scholars call the age of the Assyrian Empire the neo-Assyrian...just as there is a neo-Babylonian era.
I propose we name this age a new Neo Assyrian time. I hate to introduce another name but for godīs sake we canīt all be called by what we are all called by. There can be a good argument for having to give a different designation to different time periods or even to significant differences within the same time frame.
Some of the stuff that passes for "Assyrian" such as childish declarations and fawning letters by illiterate and proud of it cause they are patriotic...Assyrians, and other such things hurt us all. I donīt expect Assyrians to all be of a certain class or developmental stage, but neither is it accurate to tar us all with the same slime.
Certainly we could dilineate a set of beliefs or expectations or courses of action that would place us in sharp contrast to the rest of them...and not because we think we are better or worse...just that other people have to have some way of distinguishing one from the other...even though it goes without saying that if we do it right, in time we will be the only ones anyone out there thinks of when refering to Assyrians...of the Modern era that is.
There HAS to be some sort of discrimination here, and that isnīt a bad word by itself...hell you all discriminate when you select tissue instead of sandpaper. I always insisted on a place for my sculpture apart from the bazzars they wanted to stick me in...I would have welcomed others too...but we need to produce a higher order of things, be it sculpture or literature etc. Otherwise the excellent looks shabbier next to the shabby which looks positively dismal next to the excellent, now made shabby.
Think about it...or donīt.
Some characteristics of a Neo Assyrian perspective would be that the entire world of human accomplishment is our Heritage, though it is our task and joy to promote that aspect of it with which we are most in harmony, or hail from most directly. And of course we recognize that our Heritage is a legacy, a gift given to the whole world.
More specifically I would like to see us reject Racism, Sexism and any economic system that tries to convince us that the very little it allows us, is all that we can deserve and has to be paid for, as little as it is, by the misery and destruction of countless dark babies around the world...when the truth is that our corporate bosses need to continue ammassing horrendous amounts of profit from the backs of those babies...while throwing a pittance our way and convincing us that they do it for our sakes. America has more than enough wealth to supply the reasonable needs of its citizens...and if it did that, and refrained from committing wholesale murder in our name and supposedly for our benefit, our lives would be far richer...relieved as they would be of that silent gnawing guilt we all carry around whenever the State executes a minor or a mental retard...or destroys an indiginous population in order to "protect" us and our measely belongings.
The Neo Assyrian must be able to comfortable with all other people, granting them the same rights and dignity we wish to have allowed us. Of course there will be conflict, maybe even violence, who knows...you canīt wish this stuff away...but we must be of Good will and honest in our desires...for what we want, every other human bean wants as well...and our claim is no more valid than theirs.