Saturday, January 24, 2015

Pulling Punches?

Playing it safe in the ms media inevitably involves pussyfooting around with words:

"On tribalism we're much more conflicted. Easily the best counter to tribalism would be to ban religious schools. Not religion. That's fine. But segregating children on religious grounds inculcates Chosen People Syndrome from birth. Be it Wahhabist, Jewish or Anglican, in Saudi, Paris or Bronte, chosenpeopleism makes war, not peace. This is not God's doing, though religions lend themselves to tribalism." (Tribalism lets out our inner fascist, Elizabeth Farrelly, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/1/15)

'Wahhabist, Jewish or Anglican'. An interesting choice of words. Wouldn't 'Muslim, Jewish or Christian' have been more to the point?

And if, as is the case with Farrelly's op-ed, the focus is really on the interface between tribalism and religion, where the going really gets rough,wouldn't the logical choice have been 'Wahhabist, Zionist or Christian Zionist?

But just imagine the conniptions which would have followed.

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