Who is Gene Sharp? | 191 comments (191 topical, 0 editorial, 1 hidden)

racist? what's racist is assuming that Egyptians have to import their revolutionary ideas.

by stevesim on Sun Feb 20th, 2011 at 07:06:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Well, Gandhi wasn't a white man. (4.00 / 3)

Nor was Nelson Mandela, or MLK.

Steve, I just think you're being a little bit too race-conscious here. I don't see a race issue here at all.

I don't find anything extraordinary about "importing" ideas from people of different nations or different races (I'm neither nationalist nor racist).

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Sun Feb 20th, 2011 at 07:19:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

Steve, I just think you might be concern trolling here.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun Feb 20th, 2011 at 11:06:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

no, it isn't because others, who are more knowledgeable, have also expressed the same opinion.

I think you don't accept criticism of your ideas very well.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 02:59:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 1)

It would be sad if they were so racist or xenophobic as to refuse to benefit from the ideas of an excellent thinker just because he was not Egyptian, or was white.
Clearly, that's not the case.
Good for them.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 02:51:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

sorry, but that makes no sense. just because someone is not known in your culture does not make that a xenophobic culture or act...

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 03:03:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 2)

More racist that claiming they relied on Facebook and Google, both of which come from America?

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 02:54:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 1)

Nobody's "assuming" they have to import their revolutionary ideas, reference is being made to what some some Egyptians, ones central to the organisation of the revolution, have said or done, e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood publishing one of Sharp's books on their site, as I've already pointed out. Intelligent people learn from a variety of sources and ideas cross national and cultural boundaries all the time. Angry Arab himself draws on European ideas when it suits him, he describes himself as a "former Marxist-Leninist",

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As'ad_AbuKhalil

cf:

AbuKhalil is suspicious of all religious movements, whether Islamic, Jewish or otherwise. "During the French revolution, the Jacobins wanted to erect a statue to reason in place of a statue to religion," he said. "That's an attitude that would be useful today, especially with all the religious fervor and fanaticism we are seeing."
http://harpers.org/archive/2006/07/sb-a-statue-to-reason-1152745267

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:17:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

sorry. still not convinced.

Islam has a long history of non-violence among believers, for example. As I recall, that is what was being shouted in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria and Suez - violence is non-Islamic.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:20:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 3)

stevesim:

Islam has a long history of non-violence among believers

Are you serious? I would rather say that Islam, like Christianity, has a long history of violence among believers.

"People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them." - Jean Monnet

by Melanchthon on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 09:53:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

I disagree. One of the central tenets(?) of Islam is non-violence against believers.

Against non-believers, it's a different story.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:26:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 4)

That doesn't mean it doesn't get violated with abandon or hasn't been throughout history.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:30:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 4)

One of the central tenets of all the Abrahamaic faiths is "Thou shalt not kill".

Can we laugh hysterically now?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:49:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

and 99% of people abide by it.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:58:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 4)

In modern Hebrew "thou shalt not murder". In biblical Hebrew, I suspect the closest is "thou shalt not commit manslaughter". But that just makes Judaism a little less hypocritical than the others.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 02:04:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 3)

I mean, seriously, it's a fucking religion. They find the justification they need for the violence they want to commit.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:50:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 0)

hmm. Level of violence varies with religion even within a country like the USA, so I tend to disagree.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 10:57:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (none / 1)

In the US, the relationship is the other way around: More religious areas have elevated levels of violent crime, substance abuse and a couple of other things generally considered dysfunctional. But religion (at least as it is measured in these surveys) correlates with poverty and poor education, which are known risk factors for all these things. I am not aware of any body of studies that has stripped out those confounders, nor established which way(s) the cause-and-effect relationship runs between an excess of piety and a lack of wealth and education.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 05:59:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Who is Gene Sharp? (4.00 / 3)

You may disagree, but it would be better if you substantiated your claim.

One of the central rules of Christianity is non-violence against anybody, believer or not (remember "turn the other cheek"?). That didn't prevent them to kill numerous Christians as well as non-Christians...

As for Islam, it started with the assassination of caliph Uthman in 656, shortly followed by the Battle of Bassorah, the Battle of Siffin and the Battle of Nahrawan, where tens of thousands of Muslims were killed by other Muslims...

Do you want me to list all the killings of believers by believers?

"People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them." - Jean Monnet

by Melanchthon on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 12:23:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Who is Gene Sharp? | 191 comments (191 topical, 0 editorial, 1 hidden)

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