I love theway we will stand up and fight for what we think is right.

Lots of healthy debate and lots of tolerance of opposing viewpoints, too.

Chainsmoker, great name, I agree with your thoughts. There are easy presumptions a lot of people make when they see things being done differently. The person driving up the wrong lane could simply be unfamiliar with the directions or is new to the area. And I agree that there is really no need to be so negative all the time.

Country Gal, you analysis is also quite right in that we can safely presume people to be self-interested, particularly when people do not know each other, and should not be taken as being selfish. There is a tendency in large cities for people to be very absorbed in materialism, even for professed Christians. The Bible advocates some really good ideals, but despite being taught there have just been too many instances of breaches in a world of conflicts and confusion, internal and external.

It looks that that there is some sort of consensus in this forum that there is at least some ideal that the society can work towards, at least we know what the "don't"s are, and despite prevailing self interest, we do not over step the line into hating each other. Boaz what you are advocating sounds even more idealistic than trying to find common ground, is this little difficult to achieve with your "neighbour" who inadvertantly drives up the wrong side of the lane and being thought of as selfish? Regards

chainsmoker,it appears alot of people ARE feeling negative about themselves today, mabye its not 'more' than van Gogh's day as its now less hidden and we dont lock people away out of view.
Still im concerned for the youth of today and the lengths they can go to to express their self doubt.
Self harm has become a semi regular thing amongst the younger generation.
Slashing in particular, which has shocked me. Still i feel its examples we set to our youth that are failing. No cohesion to the groups anymore-even if the old 'group' wasnt healthy , it was at least a bit of backbone. Famous peoples do have responsibilities, towards the public, considering that the public keep famous people wealthy.
Angelina Jolie was a slasher-most young people know this, its easy for her to move on with her fame and money, yet her copy-cat victims are left behind.
And so on and so on as role models go. Peer group pressure etc. Older people seem to think that the young will just sprout old heads on their shoulders or something-and that they can escape their turn of playing 'elder'.
Any one see my point.
So sturdy role models for our young would be in my view like gold threads.

No CJ...not at all...its Kartiya :) and the Aussies so far who I've encountered doing that.. I must confess.. once I stopped, (in front of the offender) got out, and asked "What are you thinking"? I did this for very sound public safety reasons .. people don't reverse out of their spaces looking the WRONG way for cars coming (as far as I can see)
The bloke I did that to turned out to have an 'Invalid' sticker on his car :) but that doesn't give him any special privilege to drive the wrong way down a one way street.

CG... and Solomon said: "A good name is more to be desired than great wealth, and to be respected is better than silver and gold." Prov 22:1

Some Biblical Proverbs
17:1 Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
than a house full of feasting, with strife.

10 A rebuke impresses a man of discernment
more than a hundred lashes a fool.

12 Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
than a fool in his folly.

22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones

We can never escape the fact of conflicting values. It's part of life. The values CJ mentioned are not recognized by some very strong minded people in our community. I would not recognize certain behavior as ok, and our Islamic community would feel the same about not only those issues, but others as well. I feel all religions should be able to be criticized, including their founders, Muslims do not believe this. ="Conflict". How we resolve that kind of values conflict is the critical question. In one case it might be felt that violent demonstrations are the solution to intimidate the community. Others might take more peaceful approaches.