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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

The equivalency of injustice
Oct 28, 2002, 19:28
> I'm afraid you've bought into the myth that
> racial discrimination in Britain is less insiduous
> or less patently evil than racial discrimination
> elsewhere.
>
> Same rules apply. Why is this different than
> Palestine, other than force of opposition and
> force of repression being lesser?
>
i know sod all about Scottish politics, or the specific socio-cultural issues faced by people north of the border. This isn't English parochialism; i'm Irish... the only reason i know anything about English politics is cos i happen to live here.

So i don't want to to give the impression that i'm making any comment on the Scottish issue here (cos i try not to comment on stuff i know zero about). What i would like to do though, is question the statement you made (quoted above) YAIP.

You ask "why is this different to Palestine?" In essence buying into the myth (to use your phrase) of what one of my philosophy lecturers refers to as "the equivalency of injustice".

You see racial discrimination *is* less "patently evil" in Britain than other places (let's use Palestine as the comparison, though there are others). You are essentially arguing (perhaps unwittingly) that the "simple act of discrimination" is the sum total of the 'evil' being done here. Because that is what both situations share, and i'm not arguing against that (though as i say - i have no conception of the actual issue of Scottish discrimination).

However, that single similarity (that acts of oppression occur in both places for racial reasons) is *not* the sum total of the issue. Indeed, it is - in truth - a tiny issue.

Let's take anti-semitism. Hitler killed 6 million people because they were jews. That is anti-semitism at work. A hypothetical waiter refuses to seat a couple in his restaurant because he knows they are jewish ("sorry", he says, "we're booked solid tonight"). That is also anti-semitism. A man in the restaurant (who has many jewish friends and will live his entire life being nothing but outwardly pleasant to every jew he meets) inwardly smirks to watch the couple turned away. That too is anti-semitism.

Are all three equivalent "save for the force used"? Like fuck are they. The primary (overshadowing all others) "evil" in Hitler's act is not the anti-semitic motivation. If it were; then the man who smirks that once in his life is just as "patently evil" as Hitler. No, the primary injustice is the torture and murder of 6 million.

Similarly, drawing an equivalency between Scotland and Palestine simply because of a identity of motive, is ignoring the fact that palestinian people are murdered daily by their oppressors, live herded into refugee camps under incredible curfews, have their infrastructure systematically destroyed by an occupying military, are subjected to random internment and end up reaching for an automatic weapon before they are 10.

Unless there's some serious media censorship going on; i suspect that's not happening in Scotland.

All just my opinion, y'dig?
In reply to:
Re: Nae state, nae class and nae cash (YerArseInParsley)		 Replies:
Re: The equivalency of injustice (YerArseInParsley)
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