Dec 12 2011: I don't mean Love as a feeling nor as an emotion. But rather as a strong appetence and commitment for improving the life of some other people. and the understanding that you can learn and get so much happiness doing so that it does improve your life in return.
IMHO, most people focus on making the transition, which is good. As we could have seen recently in north african countries, one of that reason for that focus is that disrupting from the current tyranny is very difficult and has medium to low chance to succeed.
This is good to add chance of success, but far from being enough, for the following reasons: if the transition has been done with violence, unethical facts, ..., then it will be mostly impossible to transition to a peaceful democratic regime, because people will have reasons to hate each other.
So I don't know if nonviolence can succeed, but my point is : if you want to move to some situation which is worth the move, for that situation to have value, be stable and welcome, the move must be nonviolent.
If you move from an oppressing regime with violence, all you will do is to move to another oppressing regime, just switching who are those who take advantage of the country.
I suggest you to have a look on how Germany deals with religion. If my understanding is correct, when they pay taxes, they say which one is their religion, and a fraction of their tax goes to some representative instances of that religion.
In france, it would be a revolution if some official paper was asking the religion of individuals!!
Nov 28 2011: I hope you'll have the opportunity to get how it works here in France (by the way, how come you have such a Frenchy name?? :) )
We are supposed to have separated state and religion since 1904. THen all the religions are supposed to be equal, provided they are not classified as sects, but in fact a lot remains, which makes still the Catholic religion privileged compared to the others
- Churches being very old buildings, part of our heritage, they are maintained by tax payers, so catholics don't have problem to find places to pray (more difficult to find a priest in some places, but it is another story), while muslims have to pray in vaults or streets.
- if a bank holidays is related to religion, it is a catholic day !
- When some non catholic (protestant, jew for instance) people can pretend to be president, this religion things is a matter in nerwspapers...
Nov 27 2011: Here in France, on the contrary of the US, by the law, the marriage is civil first (sentenced by the mayor) then (and only after) optionally a religious marriage can be done, in the religion of choice.
Nevertheless, the gay marriage is still forbidden, in despite of having the topic regularly brought to discussion, or some demonstration done.
So although I am in favor of your goal, I'm not sure that your suggestion will be efficient.
Nov 26 2011: Sitting in front of a nice mountain landscape, or in some Irish countryside, on a warm sunny day, after some sufficient hiking do to be quite isolated.
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A comment on Conversation: What moment in history do you wish you could have witnessed?
Ah, and Armstrong on the moon. (thus I would have to be there too, so cool!!!)
A reply on Conversation: If you could magically make everyone know one thing, fact or idea, what would it be?
This can include compassion.
A comment on Conversation: If you could magically make everyone know one thing, fact or idea, what would it be?
A comment on Conversation: What does it take for nonviolent movements to succeed? Is there really power in nonviolent actions? Can nonviolence succeed?
IMHO, most people focus on making the transition, which is good. As we could have seen recently in north african countries, one of that reason for that focus is that disrupting from the current tyranny is very difficult and has medium to low chance to succeed.
This is good to add chance of success, but far from being enough, for the following reasons: if the transition has been done with violence, unethical facts, ..., then it will be mostly impossible to transition to a peaceful democratic regime, because people will have reasons to hate each other.
So I don't know if nonviolence can succeed, but my point is : if you want to move to some situation which is worth the move, for that situation to have value, be stable and welcome, the move must be nonviolent.
If you move from an oppressing regime with violence, all you will do is to move to another oppressing regime, just switching who are those who take advantage of the country.
A reply on Conversation: Make Civil Marriage the Norm for the entire country and religious marriage a symbolic addition to that
I suggest you to have a look on how Germany deals with religion. If my understanding is correct, when they pay taxes, they say which one is their religion, and a fraction of their tax goes to some representative instances of that religion.
In france, it would be a revolution if some official paper was asking the religion of individuals!!
A comment on Conversation: Fill in the blank: I would like ________ (a living expert) to give me a 5 minute lesson on ________ (a creative topic).
A reply on Conversation: Make Civil Marriage the Norm for the entire country and religious marriage a symbolic addition to that
We are supposed to have separated state and religion since 1904. THen all the religions are supposed to be equal, provided they are not classified as sects, but in fact a lot remains, which makes still the Catholic religion privileged compared to the others
- Churches being very old buildings, part of our heritage, they are maintained by tax payers, so catholics don't have problem to find places to pray (more difficult to find a priest in some places, but it is another story), while muslims have to pray in vaults or streets.
- if a bank holidays is related to religion, it is a catholic day !
- When some non catholic (protestant, jew for instance) people can pretend to be president, this religion things is a matter in nerwspapers...
A you can see, things are not perfect....
A comment on Conversation: Make Civil Marriage the Norm for the entire country and religious marriage a symbolic addition to that
Nevertheless, the gay marriage is still forbidden, in despite of having the topic regularly brought to discussion, or some demonstration done.
So although I am in favor of your goal, I'm not sure that your suggestion will be efficient.
A comment on Conversation: What is your "Time Machine"?
A reply on Conversation: In what way do you get self-confidence? Or how do you become more confident?