where is the "humanity?"

EoinC

"Does the tree falling in the forest make a sound if nobody is there to hear it?" (or something like that). I'm not sure how one would quantify the 'amount' of barbarity in the World now vs. previous eras - Quantity? Quality? Novel methods? I am sure that it is more open to view now, however, than it ever has been in the past. There are groups who look for acts of barbarity occurring, in order to bring them to the World's attention.
The new problems lie with discerning what is 'good' information, and what is 'poor' information (biased, incomplete, innaccurate etc). We, as human beings, are not always adept at picking through the stockpile to sort the good information from the poor.

CDAKIAHONDA

Yes, I hear you. I guess, in my mind, it's a question of "if someone does hear the tree falling, how many people could come running?"

You're right, it's an age of "fair and balanced," that's often anything but...and not to get tedious, but that's kind of really what got me started.

How can, with so much information available, so much "enlightenment" can people still be burning other people alive?

To be "fair and balanced" I guess I can't put myself in the sandals (stereotype) of someone who's reached that level of dispair.

I travelled to France this year, and I felt no anti-American sentiment on an individual basis. I read about differences in governmental positions in their press, but that wasn't mirrored to me personally. Maybe as I walked away, having spent my share of Euros, some made comments? I don't know? I hope not. I don't possess that level of cynicism.

I guess that without so much information available, without so much history to learn from, people in the past could almost be "understood" for their ignorances and barbarity. But today? (Every generation asks that right?)

So yeah, I don't blame the technology, I think it just allows the same social forces of "societal evolution" to affect more people. I do however believe that your point of who controls the message undermines its ability to solve the problems. When governments and special interest control the message to include the chanting of "Death to America" in Tehran, or when "Fair and Balanced" deems it un-American to question governmantal policy during a "war." That's really just the same forces of "social evolution" looking for advantage.

The pundits are now predicting that The "Iraq Situation" cannot be WON. Does that strike you as it does me? Peace reults when a stasis of sorts is achieved, right? When diverse groups come together, not when one group dominates. During peace struggles don't go away. They increase in frequency, but diminish in intensity and barbarity. because each side has power and too much to lose. Each will bend, but not break. A "free press" aids that.

Take American politics (please), but isn't the fact that power between our two major factions being so almost evenly divided keeping us pretty well centered in an often "uneasy peace?" Stasis is never achieved, but the balance shifts just a little, enough give and take to keep the "majority" in line. The far-far extremes (the barbarous) never really gain power or infuence beyond their small circles.

If we talk about pre-war Iraq, there was no peace, there was coercive order. The society was not self-regulating 'en masse. It took the acts of a dictator to force the majority into line. Big difference.

Now the administration in the US is trying to force a new government using exclusionary policy. Making the same mistakes, just changing the deck chairs on the new Titanic. With hope, the Iraqis will be able to forward their goals by including a more diverse union. With hope they are not just trying to affect a change with their own exclusionary groups that will simply just further isolate them from the rest of the world.

Maybe we'll develop a little National humility too. I don't dislike Terrel Owens' behavior because he's paid millions of dollars, because he's a talented football player, because he's of a different ethnic group, or because he plays for the Dallas Cowboys and I'm a Jacksonville fan. I dislike his actions because he sometimes fails to understand how lucky he is, and when he screws up, he doesn't usually admit it.

I know this is probably getting very tedious, but it seems to be cathartic for me.