[Enraya]

I dont want SAMENESS. im talking about somewhere where we ARE different, but we RESPECT those differences. there's plenty of people who i've debated with in another forum on religion who have radically different view points on life than me; however, we still get along amiably outside of that forum. why couldnt that apply to the israli and the palestinians, or the middle east and the western world? *sigh* i suppose i just dont understand humans. Oh well. x.x

if it came off as me believing that sameness is the way to go, im sorry. that is certainly not the belief i hold.

I don't think I made myself clear.
I understand your dream of the ultimate world: a world where everybody can just accept everyone for who they are, and get along. People don't have to be under pressure every day, worrying because they're gay, or because they're of a different religion, or because they're teased at a school for being overweight.

But I don't think you have envisioned how to get there. You want everyone to respect everybody; but HOW? Do you expect to waltz in, say "let's all get along guys!" and have everybody follow you? Life is never going to be that simple. The people you have talked to on the forums are probably part of the more open-minded of the community (why else would they go on a forum, for which the main purpose is to share ideas and interact?). Not everybody is this way. Like you said in your post, why can't Palestinians and Israeli just get along? Because, for the extremists of these, it is practically religion to hate each other. They are supposed to stop that? They're supposed to give up one of the most important things in their life just because some guy says so?

See, people are too different. And contrasting ideas are just not going to get along. Perhaps the world could somehow accept one another for who they are and just put aside the issues that they have conflicts with, but that's a short term solution. Sooner or later, those issues are going to come back and haunt them. There is NEVER going to be absolute respect in the world, not with all our different personalities. There is always going to be SOMEONE who wants it THEIR way. Why? Because, as you stated, we are selfish creatures.

So even if you say you don't want sameness, in reality, you do. We're never all going to get along if we're so different; and we're definitely not going to accept other people with drastically different views. It's like telling Hitler that he should accept non-Aryans/Germans. Is he gonna do that? ....noooo, I don't think so.

I don't think your idea is wrong by any means; of course not! Just that the road to your ideal world isn't going to be that easy... and it's certainly not going to be violence-free.