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: Dear Lorelei, : : This has nothing to do with drugs or sex,... : does music have anything to do with drugs or sex? does anything you love have anything to do with drugs or sex?... what is it that drugs supposedly do to your mind, & what is it that sex supposedly makes you feel? i only mentioned music, because it's what i love - it "opens my mind" & increases my "passion." similarly, your interest in argument is something i think that you love. i don't think this is "bad" or "wrong." it's just that love can grow stale or stagnant... : : : Because we value this quality of uniqueness, : : we have a desire to maintain its integrity when : : some force or agent comes by to threaten its : : property. Thus in such a situation of threat : : a person or group will act such that they maintain : : this property of uniqueness. : yes, this is what our "Western" culture brainwashes us to believe. i don't like it when someone tries to tell me i'm unique or "just like the rest of them." these categories make me claustrophobic. that's the only way that i can describe it. : : If we were all the : : same it wouldn't matter who ate food or who : : lives in a high rise or who has a country or not. : i don't know if i agree with this. part of me thinks it would matter, even if we were all clones of each other. : : The very fact that you, a mix of ethnicities, : : consider yourself Assyrian you are relying upon : : this property of uniqueness to distinguish your : : group membership. Not only am I a member of : : the group humanity, i am a member of the group : : Assyrian. : i fell into this category thanks to someone who wanted to define my family & its culture. i don't even like being classified as "human" - that makes me claustrophobic. : : And, because this quality of uniqueness is something : : we value, we will defend its integrity when there : : are threats to its loss. : again, this is something i feel that we've been brainwashed to believe. we see this even in ADs on TV. : : We counter assimilation : : by teaching our kids to speak assyrain, : : marry assyrians or go to assyrian parties. : : We inculcate special values, we dress certain : : ways and we rely upon certain handshakes and : : forms of greeting because these are all : : qualities of the property of uniqueness. : actually, it seems that we use these things to assert a quality of sameness, despite our "uniquenesses." not that this is "bad." is a group "unique?" esp. when they rely on things that other groups use to assert their sameness? : : We defend its integrity simply because we value it. : : Would I be wrong to say that it is "human" nature : : to value things? I don't see you disagreeing : : with that. : i don't know what human nature is. sometimes i think i do, most times, i don't. maybe i do value some things - but what does it mean to "value?" is this something i would give my life for, or is this something i'm willing to pay a lot of money for, or is this something i don't want to lose?... : : If there was a strip of property : : somehow available in Northern Iraq for permanent : : assyrian autonomous settlement, i would opt to : : move there, and i know many people would also : : want to do the same given if the situation there : : is safer, etc. : actually, i've been thinking of going to Iraq sometime in the near future (maybe this summer). oh, i suppose if the US bombs Iraq, i may be killed... i don't necessarily want to live there permanently - i think i'll see if i like it 1st. of course i might like learning about some aspects of "my father's people," but there may be some things that i chose to ignore about their past, as well. who knows? my future, my mind in the future, is something i can not & do not want to predict. : : BUT, when we move as a collective unique unit : : to this place, we will act then to maintain its : : integrity. What i mean is we will define and : : map borders, we will have officers at borders, : : we will have diplomats representing us to other : : countries, we will have a policing system, we : : will have an educational system promoting Assyrian : : values. : maybe. i don't know if i'll want to live there then. : : And if someone comes along and threatens that? : : If all of a sudden Kurds say, the hell with : : Assyrian autonomy, lets raid those m'fers? : : We will defend it simply because we value it. : : And that defense will mean a loss of life. : : And therefore i wholehearteldy disagree : : in the idea that we can survive as a civilization : : without killing other people. I say that largely : : because we cannot know for certain that other : : people wont' act as agressors to our quality of : : uniqueness. : if this is the way that a civilization must survive, then i want no part in it.

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