Also, every person is born free. And should decide for her/him-self.
Not be forced by others to obey their rules, out of fear from violence.
Cultural relativism; that any tradition is ok because they are just different;
is cowardice, lacing in empathy. We all know that torture is wrong.
For everybody!!! It’s not ok in some places, because they call it their way.
Common values do excist in the human race.
Such as speaking one’s mind freely. And not being forced by violence.

In our hearts we are a lot the same, us people.
We cry, we laugh, we get angry.
We want peace and joy.
To be healthy, and live in love with friends and family.
Those who don’t want these things, are hurt in some way or an other.
No one is born bad. Upbringing brings out sides of our personalities.
Violence begets violence. Nonviolence begets nonviolence.
Each of us is one of us and one of them, an other to the other(s).
Evil must excist in order for Good to excist.
As without darkness we couldn’t speak of light.
Anyways. A truely inspiring cartoon. I will check it out further. Cheers!

Point is the middle man preaches tolerance of difference,
yet when mr. J and mr. M want to say that all people deserve equal rights, the middle man does not like otherness any longer,and shows his true face of intolerance.
A brilliant cartoon stripe, thanx, author!
Let’s hope we can all be more tolerant of otherness, as equality has nothing to do with that, we are all equal beings in individual ways. Love =)

We have been colonized for a thousand years, first by the muslims and then by the britishers. (After independence we have become so good at science now that thousands of Americans come to India to get medical treatment because they can’t afford it in America. They say why pay huge sums to Indian doctors in America when you can pay low sums to Indian doctors in India. Perhaps you will be coming here too in your old age for medical treatment.) Do you want me to list the atrocities inflicted on India first by the muslims and then by the britishers (the westerners)? Do you want me to list the atrocities inflicted on China by Americans (feeding the chinese opium trade and cutting the chinese melon) and the Britishers and the Soviets? What will it take to make you give up your western chest thumping? Should we conquer you and subject you to colonization (infact we have already done that with our religions, most of the west is a slave to eastern religions, ha ha and what can be worse than mental slavery? ) before you will acknowledge that the east is equally great? The Indian and Chinese civilizations were at their peak for thousands of years when the west was a mere backward cesspool under the dark ages. In fact it was the riches of India that led to the discovery of America and the emergence of Europe as a sea power. In their greed for the riches of India they had to make themselves sea worthy. India is the only country after which an ocean is named and the native Americans are called Indians testifying to this fact. Usually I don’t even call myself a hindu, I call myself only an atheist. Only when I am called on to defend the east I am forced to draw on the greatness of our past to counter your chest thumping. Do you think you are ever going to convert muslims to scientific mode of thinking if you keep insisting that the west is solely responsible for all scientific advances and is the sole custodian of free thought? The more you stress that progress lies in the west the more you are going to make them insist that their religion is just as great or greater, just as you have made me do here? Do you think you are winning friends and influencing muslims with an attitude like this? Don’t croon so much about western civilization, if you have asked the romans, the greeks, the indians, the chinese, the egyptians, they will tell you that once their civilization was also at the top but they all fell and yours will too it is just a matter of time if we go by the rise and inevitable decline of civilizations. Success leads to arrogance (like shown in this thread), and arrogance leads to failure.

“As long as it was part a social condition combining agrarian subsistence economy with caste system and princedoms, there was virtually no change. This system gave food to a very small upper caste that every once in a while came up with a new spiritual concept that they could not (and did not want to) put into use.”

This shows how much ignorant you are about the caste system or about our history or about our science. Our astronomy could calculate the period of revolution of the sun (do you know how many years that is without looking it up now?) around the galactic center thousands of years ago while the west still believed that the sun went around the earth just a few hundred years back.

“Thing is, it is not just the point of coming up with smart concepts like “zero”. The Ancient-Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria came up with a steam-powered device around 50 AD (1957 years ago!) ”

Science is like a chain reaction. To reach critical mass takes a lot of effort. To invent the fire or ‘zero’ which you dismiss so lightly as of no consequence is the most difficult part. After critical mass is achieved later inventions become comparatively trivial because of the sustaining energy. Just because when science reached its critical mass when the west happened to have its turn at the top, don’t trivialize the enormous leaps that had to happen before. There are more scientists living today than all the scientists who have died.

“Btw. I enjoyed reading your comments on blasphemy on your website, thanks for allowing me that.”

Thanks. In those comments no where have I mentioned that I am an hindu, but all those principles are the principles of hinduism. Freedom for blasphemy is a hindu concept that we have enjoyed for thousands for years, that the west is realizing just now. (A hindu can call any of his gods bad names and other hindus will not object. You can make any number of comics about hinduism and it will not offend me.) In fact the west doesn’t enjoy freedom for blasphemy even now because almost all the western countries including USA and UK have anti-blasphemy laws while India does not have an anti-blasphemy law. It is illegal to teach evolution in many American states. Shame! Shame!

http://www.gocomics.com/rallcom/2008/01/03/

Btw. I enjoyed reading your comments on blasphemy on your website, thanks for allowing me that.

Thing is, it is not just the point of coming up with smart concepts like “zero”. The Ancient-Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria came up with a steam-powered device around 50 AD (1957 years ago!) but it was not used to make the life of the people any better (outside of a theater) and using it for increased production or transportation etc. because antique mediterranean society was based on slave-ownership and agrarian subsistency and there was enough labour around and no need for technological progress. This is something that came with the economic and individual freedoms that brought forward the industrial revolution and all technological revolutions since. (capitalist “bourgeois” revolution so to say)

I truly hope you will be right that India will be “in another 50 years we may have become very much more advanced”. But this will be because you use modern methods and not the old, because you got rid of the traditions that hold you back and maybe put to use some traditions that are of use today, pluralism and creativity beeing some of them.

In the end: about John Adams, American revoltionary and second president of the USA following anecdote is told:
“Speaking ex cathedra, as a relic of the founding generation, he expressed his admiration for the Roman system whereby every man could worship whom, what and how he pleased. When his young listeners objected that this was paganism, Adams replied that it was indeed, and laughed.”
(“Our Godless Constitution”: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050221/allen)

http://www.pickledpolitics.com/

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notes.php

That is exactly what I am protesting here. Why equate scientific advancement with the west? Isn’t what science has become today the result of the efforts of the entire mankind? Where would computers be today if we Indians had not invented ‘Zero’? Imagine computers running on roman numerals I and II instead of 0 and 1.

“But as the scientific method (and the progressive world view it tends to engender) -regardless of its perceived geographical origin – continues to advance it will inevitably find itself in conflict with local traditional/religious practices.”

You say this because your only experience with religion has probably come from Islam and Christianity. They are like single person dictatorships (with a written book, things written down become resistant to change). On the other hand hinduism is like a multi party democracy, you can select your own ideas, gods, beliefs, prophets, hol(e)y books. Hinduism is very very open to change, in another 50 years we may have become very much more advanced than you while the west will STILL be debating evolution vs. intelligent design (a debate that doesn’t even occur here, just as there is and was no debate that the earth goes around the sun).

“By the way, are you the same dd who sometimes posts on Pickled Politics? ”

No. I am very busy and usually I have time only for one forum at a time. I came to this site because I am a fan of cartoons. In fact dd stands for “donald duck” my favorite. My real name you can find in the linked website.

“If not you might want to check it out.”

I will, but wheres the link?