Well, I do take exception to your implication that it is “self evident” that all races are equal. Too many of my opponents think the same way, but the onus is just as much upon them as it is upon me to validate their opinion.

Your premise that those whom I consider prone to criminal behaviour are law abiding within their own group does not really hold water. The largest group of victims of aboriginal violence is aboriginal women and children. People associated with the US KKK kill one or two negroes every year, but tens of thousands of US negroes are murdered by other negroes every year. Here in Oz, some immigrant group criminals (Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean) choose their victims almost entirely within their own ethnic group. The exception would be Arab Muslims, who, according to Detective Sergeant Time Priest, prefer their victims outside of their own cultural and racial group.

You and I both agree that culture is the most important factor in understanding human behaviour. And I would agree that a naturally violent person or a Pit Bull terrier, raised by loving families who instilled passive virtues in either, may indeed influence the development of the personality enough to give the dog or man the emotional maturity and strength to overcome their natural inclinations. But will you not acknowledge that the converse is also true?

If we as a society, expose young men who are not real bright, are naturally violent, impulsive, impatient, with little empathy for others, and who have little self control, to a culture glorifying violence against women, a sneering contempt for all authority, a glamourising of illegal substance abuse,, and the glorification of spectacular criminal, thrill seeking behaviour, then we are sowing the wind. What I am saying is that those young men genetically more prone to criminal behaviour than others, are more likely to engage in this behaviour if exposed to the same culture which smarter young men may consider is simply harmless entertainment.

Dear redneck
Is the last para of your last post a polemic against US television programs being broadcast on free to air television in Australia? Or, am I misreading the culture being indicated?
odsoc

Yes, Mr Odsoc.

My premise is that the spiralling rates of violent crimnal behaviour in this country is primarily caused by the fact that we are changing our culture. We are changing it through immigration, and we are changing it through the inappropriate liberalisation of our censorship laws.

If we as a society allow the entertainment industries to sell a product to our most vulnerable young people which tells them that criminal beahviour is cool and fun, then we should not be surprised if these people do exactly what we are allowing the entertainment industries to promote to them.

If we as a people can understand that allowing tobacco companies the right to use media images to sell their dangerous products to immature young kids will result in thousands of kids taking up a dangerous and dirty habit, how is it we can not make the same connection when another bunch of corporate low lifes make staggaring profits by using media images to promote anti social attitudes to kids?

If you came home and found a man in your house telling your kids that criminal behaviour was fun, taking drugs is cool, and women are just meat for sex, you'd chuck him right out of your house.

But you come home, the TV or the radio is on, and you don't think twice about it.

Dear redneck,
the trouble with your post is that criminal behaviour is not spiralling.
In fact the opposite has occurred.I'm working from memory here, but I believe the murder rate in Australia has actually halved in the last 5 years.
Maybe people from all sorts of backgrounds, when treated with generosity and respect, are mostly good people, after all.
Why do you want to think the worst of them? How do you feel when you see a newborn of a different background -one you are sure is "inferior" - does it bother you that by your reasoning they have limited hopes? Wouldn't you prefer to give them, at least, the benefit of the doubt? It might make you happier and more content if you did, you know.

Redneck, I love you.

Racism and religious intolerance are twins mirroring each other.

Let's be optimistic:

Jews and Muslims Seek to Bridge the Gap at Moscow Forum
Created: 20.06.2006 14:12 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:23 MSK

Jews and Muslims pledged to fight religious intolerance at a forum held in Moscow under the aegis of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) this week. Senior clerics, diplomats, scholars and theologians discussed measures to bridge the gap between the two world religions, the Lenta.Ru news website reports.

The forum entitled “Islam and Judaism: the road to dialogue and cooperation”, organized by the EAJC and the Council of Mufits of Russia received backing of Patokh Chodiev, chairman of the global foundation “For Democracy”, and entrepreneur Alijan Ibragimov.

......
Full story:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/20/newcontact.shtml
http://lenta.ru/news/2006/06/16/forum/