Malin,
Minor point - I said predjudice (which is what we were talking about) was very
common in politics, not specific
only to politics. I wish it were just in politics...
Concerning the muslims and other groups, if one of the goals of their culture is preserving itself, inoculating its adherents with intolerance against outsiders would make them less likely to abandon such culture. That is especially important for those living next to a foreign culture and in danger of losing children to assimilation. (See "The though Contagion" book for good description of culture propagation.)
Considering that this particular culture is expansive - if only because they reproduce faster than us - the only remedy
for us is to deport them, place ghetto walls around them or destroy such culture. That call for destruction can be veiled behind a call to
modify it by making it
compatible with ours but once hostlility to outsiders - the main protective feature of it - is removed, the children will assimilate, abandon religion, clan, family and morals, etc. and their society would disappear.
It may be fine for some to have children assimilate - unless the culture into which they assimilate cause them harm (drugs, alcohol, no procreation) but what if one's religion/culture specifically proscribes it? No compromise is conceivable here.
You and I on the other hand have had access to an educatiuon system that ... and by the nature of our upbringing are more understanding of others beliefs, colour and feelings. You are flattering me and I am sure many people here would not agree with you on how good and balanced my education was.
But I will argue another less obvous point - that in some respects my education, while making me more empathic and
sympathetic to other people circumstances and feelings made me
less tolerant of their existence.
For example, there are vast categories of humans (of all races) whom I exclude from consideration as being co-ancestors for my descendants - not because of their personal fault or any other flaw that can be remedied, but for the genes they inherited from their parents.
I would not care about them one way or another if they did not affect me - and I am not worried that my descendants would run into theirs in competition for resources. But it is
intolerable to me that I am coerced to part with my earnings for their support or that their cultural preferences affect me through voting on issues that constitutionally should not be a prerogative of the government. This way their existence hurts my interests - in the short run and in the long run. It's not greed. I do not mind my money being spent on some people across the planet while I would not like it being spent on some people across the street.
With some it's religious. A christian cannot expect his descendants to coexist with muslims (unless totally separated) and for one religion not to supplant another - through conversion, demographic out-reproducing, etc. Christian that takes his religion seriously would not consider a future in which his descendants lose their faith as an acceptabe future.
Nazism is a good example of what education influenced by extremism can do Just because they called it "education" does not make it education as we define that term, even if what they taught corresponded to their state of knowlege and they were sincere in imparting it on their young.
But let's imagine that they got a real education corresponding to the factual knowlege we have now. Imagine that instead of their explanation why jews were disproportionately respresented among rich, powerfull, cultural and scientific elites - being inherently evil, having supernatural influence, talent for deceipt, etc. - we offered them the modern explanation.
What if we showed them with reproducible tests that ashkenazi jews are somewhat genetically superior to germans when it comes to intelligence (~15 IQ ponts), that having half of top positions occupied by jews despite miniscule fraction among population was just a natural and mathematically predictable outcome?
Granted, some would have tried to marry ashkenazi (there is an argument if they are really jews rather then an offshoot of hazara tribe adopting judaism) and urged their children to, in order to have smarter descendants without caring what label they would carry as their nationality.
Some would just ignored the issue and breathed with relief that their neighbour is not a devil's spawn but just a valuable member of society.
On the other hand those who's culture dictates them to preserve their national identity and purity of blood would have seen much greater and much more real danger in jews than they did before that would not have been solved by simply resisting jewish influence or even by deportation.
In this case true education combined with underlying culture would be expected to produce quite an explosive mix.
miko
