For OpEdNews: Alessandro Machi - Writer
When people in the United States assemble for a protest, they usually are much calmer than the crowds we see protesting on the "other side of the world".
In the United States we have both industrialized and white collar jobs that appear to be peaceful. Whether one works on an assembly line piecing together gas guzzling, oil thirsty S.U.V.'s, or works for a fortune 500 company orchestrating stock offerings so that huge malls and corporate villages that straddle pristine forest land can be built, we consider our jobs to be "peaceful" in nature. Yet an abundance of our jobs actually create a greater and greater need for oil and other resources that we must then procur from outside of our own borders.
Is that really a peaceful way to live?
The type of jobs found in the opposite part of the world may not appear very appealing to us, but for the most part they may in fact be the peaceful type of jobs we portend to have in the United States. Do you see the irony here? We believe we have peaceful jobs, protest peacefully and civilly, and are a peaceful country. Meanwhile those on the opposite side of the world probably have the real peaceful jobs in which they make one of a kind clothing amidst swirling clouds of dust, or hand pick their food products, yet we have the propensity to see the opposite side of the word as being more violent and barbaric than we are, especially when they protest.
In the United States we plan our protests in air conditioned Star Bucks locales, then carry out the protest protected by sun tan lotion and bottled water as we make plans on our cell phones for that evenings social calendar.
In the opposite side of the world, in places like the Middle East or South East Asia, protests appear to be of a much more violent and hostile tone. In America, we generally see Americans protesting peacefully, lol, if we see them at all.
In the opposite side of the world, "Death to America" has become a common chant over the past few decades. Maybe after a real hard day of work in a non air conditioned, dust laden environment, perhaps I'd be really pissed off as well and would look angry if I then felt obligated to attend a protest.
I tend to look for a sign from the opposite side of the world that they can assemble in public in a peaceful, responsible manner without suicide bombers lying in wait, and without having to chant "Death to America". However I also no longer accept movies like "Transformers" in our own country as being peaceful when they have blatant tie ins to General Motors and their gas guzzling "MUSCLE CARS".
In the United States, we tend to not see the underlying violence in messages that are peacefully delivered. If a message is peacefully delivered, it must be peaceful in nature, we mistakenly believe.
Our news media glamorizes movies like Transformers and General Motors hopes their marketing tie in to this movie will help create the next generation of customers who will purchase their big, loud powerful gas guzzling anti-oil conservation vehicles.
If I could pass a law, it would be that no longer can an American news broadcaster put their own comments over images from another country and tell us what it is we are seeing. I'm not exactly sure who's voice or message should be over the images that come from other countries, but how can we trust a news program that advertises and promotes a movie like Transformers as a good thing in this day and age when we wage war over oil reserves located in other parts of the world?
When it comes to our animals, we love our dogs and cats, and eat cattle. In the opposite of side of the world, they revere cattle as being sacred and eat dogs and cats, another example of how the opposite side of the world behaves opposite to ourselves.
Because we are on opposite sides of the world and view many things in an opposite manner, perhaps we can never really reach any true compromises or understanding. Maybe if we first understand we are opposites in so many ways, then some level of real understanding could be begin to happen.
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