Human rights are one of the great tasks of our civilisation. This article discusses the importance of this task along with our personal responsibility to be involved.
This article fleshes out some of the ideas in the introduction and would be a good one to read after that.
The massacres in Rwanda were an event that touched me deeply, and taught me much about the world. Here are a couple of good summary articles about why the west should also learn from them.
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that
It is rare to read a book which so upends your historical notions of the place in which you live. Although I went to an alternative school where I studied Aboriginal History, and despite reading about Aboriginal life and culture before, this book was a revelation to me. The first revelation is the Aboriginal society was more technologically advanced than we have commonly been taught. They had forms of farming and housing which I was specifically taught that they didn't have. The book seems to imply that this means they should have been treated better, or that Aboriginal culture should...