Keiva, i am so sorry--it was not my intent to offend-- but to offer a glaring example of how Us groups can define there actions as good-- no matter how evil the actions are..
In Us vs. Them conflicts-- it is often the Them that are most like Us that become singled out for the worst punishment.. and the Us defines its self as the epitimy of goodness, health, wisdom, and the Them as evil, sick and crafty, or having false wisdom.. and since the difference between the Us and Them are so hard to disern, the violence to and fear of Them is all the greater. this is why religious conflict are often so terrible.. one can think of ireland, or bosnia, or india, -- where, if the group one choses to align with, become religious, it draws an Us/Them line that is very difficult for total outsiders to see.. but is one that is glaring inside local population.. and creates conflicts that are characterized by being extremely violent and bloody--
the Us would be the group in power, the Them the minority, or powerless group..
the most famous Us/Them example in the US i can think of is the Salem Witch trial.. where neighbor turned against neighbor-- and the Us/Them dividing line seems to have been not much more than who was neighborly, and got along, and who was reclusive, poor, old, or lived slightly further out of the small town..
but the Us group in Salem was very clear in expressing "God was on their side" -- this use of rightiousness that has absolutely no basis, is characterist of this type conflict.. i chose an example of an Us group, that, with time and history, is is clear to see as evil. but at the time, they were successfull, because of how they defined Us/Them WWII was a way for the world to re-define Us/Them. but truth be told, we didn't get involved in WWII because of the internal Us/Them conflict-- and true outsider rarely do.. it was only afterwards that we, the Us the new Power, could look back, and define the Then as evil. before and during the war, many countries, include US, closed their borders to refugees to the internal Us/Them conflict in germany.
and while gai jin is used for foriegners in Japan, and foriegners are generally considered to be "sub standard", the real mistreament of foriegners is saved for Koreans. since ethnicly (and biologically) there is almost no difference between Japanese and Koreans-- Koreans are vilified in japan.. there is a great fear that one of Them, (Koreans) could pass them selves off as Us, (Japanese).
one common characterist of Us/Them is the words and language used by the Us group. ethnic slurs, and terms to define non Us, are always perjoritive. since there is often clear visible difference, between Us/ Them, it falls to language to create the differences.. when They do it, it is lies and propoganda, when We do it, we are spreading the truth....
AlQada fighters are insane, suisidal, terrorist... the US marines in Afganistan are couragious, freedom fighting heros..
(guess who is Us and who is Them in this conflict..)
