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( applause )

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My students often ask me,

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"What is sociology?" and I tell them it's the study of the way

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in which human beings are shaped by things that they don't see.

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And they say "So, how can I be a sociologist?"

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"How can I understand those invisible forces?"

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and I say, "Empathy."

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Start with empathy.

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It all begins with empathy. Take yourself out of your shoes and put yourself

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into the shoes of another person.

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Here, I'll give you an example.

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So I imagine my life if a hundred years ago, China had been

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the most powerful nation in the world,

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and they came to the United States in search of coal.

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And they found it, and in fact they found lots of it right here.

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And pretty soon they began shipping that coal ton by ton,

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rail car by rail car, boat load by boat load back to China

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and elsewhere around the world.

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And they got fabulously weatlthy in doing so.

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They built beautiful cities all powered on that coal.

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And back here in the United States we saw economic despair, depravation.

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This is what I saw. I saw people struggling to get by,

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not knowing what was what and what was next.

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And I asked myself a question.

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I say, "How is it possible that we can be so poor in the United States,

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because the coal is such a wealthy resource. It's so much money?"

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And I realize because the Chinese ingratiated themselves

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with a small ruling class here in the United States

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who stole all of that money and all of that wealth for themselves.

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And the rest of us, the vast majority of us struggle to get by.

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And the Chinese gave this small ruling elite loads

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of military weapons and sophisticated technology in order to insure

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that people like me would not speak out against this relationship.

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Does this sound familiar?

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And they did things like train Americans to help protect the coal.

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And everywhere were symbols of the Chinese.

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Everywhere a constant reminder.

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And back in China? What do they say in China? Nothing.

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They don't talk about us. They don't talk about the coal.

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If you ask them they'll say, "Well, you know, the coal?

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We need the coal. I mean, come on."

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"I'm not going to turn down my thermostat. You can't expect that."

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And so I get angry and I get pissed,

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as do lots of average people, and we fight back.

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And it gets really ugly and the Chinese respond in a very ugly way.

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And before we know it they've sent in the tanks

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and they've sent in the troops and lots of people are dying.

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And it's a very, very difficult situation.

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So, can you feel me? Can you imagine what you would feel

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if you were in my shoes?

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Can you imagine walking out of this building and seeing a tank

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sitting out there or a truck full of soldiers.

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Just imagine what you would feel because you know why they're here

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and you know what they're doing here, and you just feel the anger

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and you feel the fear. Okay? If you can, that's empathy.

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That's empathy. You've left your shoes and stood in mine.

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And you gotta feel that. Okay, so that's the warmup. That's the warmup.

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Now we're going to have the real radical experiment.

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And so for the remainder of my talk what I want you to do

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is put yourselves in the shoes of an ordinary Arab Muslim

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living in the Middle East, in particular in Iraq.

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And so to help you--

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perhaps you're a member of this middle class family in Baghdad.

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And what you want is the best for your kids.

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You want your kids to have a better life.

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And you watch the news. You pay attention. You read the newspaper.

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You go down to the coffee shop with your friends.

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And you read the newspapers from around the world,

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and sometimes you even watch satellite CNN from the United States

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so you have a sense of what the Americans are thinking.

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But really you just want a better life for yourself.

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That's what you want. You're Arab Muslim living in Iraq.

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You want a better life for yourself. So here, let me help you.

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Let me help you with some things that you might be thinking.

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Number one, this incursion into your land these past twenty years and before?

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The reason anyone's interested in your land in particular the United States?

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It's oil.

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But it's all about oil. You know that. Everybody knows that.

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People here back in the United States know it's about oil.

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It's because somebody else has a design for your resource.

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It's your resource. It's not somebody else's, right? It's your land.

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It's your resource. Somebody else has a design for it.

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And you know why they have a design? You know why they have their eyes set on it?

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Because they have an entire economic system that's dependent on that oil.

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Foreign oil. Oil from other parts of the world that they don't own.

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And what else do you think about these people?

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Well, the Americans, they're rich! Come on, they live in big houses, they have big cars,

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they have blonde hair, blue eyes. They're happy. You think that.

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It's not true, of course, but that's the media impression. That's like what you get?

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And they have big cities and the cities are all dependent on oil.

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And back home what do you see?

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Poverty, despair, struggle. Look, you don't live in a wealthy country.

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I mean this is Iraq.

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This is what you see -- you see people struggling to get by.

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I mean it's not easy. You see a lot of poverty and you feel something about this.

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These people have designs for your resource, and this is what you see?

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It doesn't feel good. But here, a couple other things?

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Something else you see that you talk about.

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Americans don't talk about this, but you do.

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There's this thing this militarization of the world, and it's centered right in the United States.

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And the United States is responsible for almost one half of the world's military spending.

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Four per cent of the world's population and you feel it, you see it every day.

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It's part of your life and you talk about it with your friends.

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You read about it. And back when Sadaam Hussein was in power?

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The Americans didn't care about his crimes.

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When he was gassing the Kurds and gassing Iran they didn't care about it.

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When oil was at stake, somehow suddenly things mattered.

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And what you see? Something else?

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The United States, the hub of democracy around the world?

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They don't seem to really be supporting democratic countries all around the world.

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There are a lot of countries, oil-producing countries, that aren't very democratic

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but supported by the United States.

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That's odd.

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Oh, these incursions. Here, let me help you.

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These incursions? These two years wars? The ten years of sanctions?

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The eight years of occupation?

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The insurgency that's been unleashed on your people?

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The tens of thousand, the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths

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all because of oil.

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You can't help but think that. You talk about it.

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It's in the forefront of your mind always.

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You say, "How is that possible? Come on."

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And this man?

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He's every man. Your grandfather, your uncle your father,

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your son, your neighbor, your professor, your student --

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wants a life of happiness and joy and suddenly pain and sorrow.

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Everyone in your country has been touched by the violence,

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the bloodshed, the pain, the horror. Everybody.

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Not a single person in your country has not been touched.

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So here, but there's something else.

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There's something else about these people, these Americans who are there.

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There's something else about them that you see. They don't see themselves.

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And what do you see? They're Christians.

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They're Christians. They worship the Christian God.

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They have crosses, they carry bibles.

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Their Bibles have a little insignia that says U.S. Army on them.

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And their leaders, their leaders, before they send their sons and

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daughters off to war in your country, and you know the reason,

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before they send them off, they go to a Christian church

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and they pray to their Christian God

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and they ask for protection and guidance from that god.

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Why?

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Well, obviously so that when people die in the war they are Muslims.

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They are Iraqis.

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They're not Americans.

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You don't want Americans to die. Protect our troops.

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And you feel something about that. Of course you do?

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And they do wonderful things, beautiful humanitarian things,

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but these humanitarians, I mean because these people, they're there

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you read about it, you hear about it, they're there to build schools

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and help people and that's what they want to do.

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They do wonderful things, but they also do the bad things

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and you can't tell the difference.

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And so you don't.

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And this guy, you got a guy like Lieutenant General William Boykin.

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I mean, here's a guy that says that your god is a false god.

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Your god is an idol. His god is the true god. The solution to the problem in the Middle East

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according to him is to convert you all to Christianity.

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Just get rid of your religion.

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And you know that.

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Americans don't read about this guy.

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They don't know anything about him, but you do.

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You pass it around, you pass his words around.

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I mean this is serious. You're afraid.

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He was one of the leading commanders in the second invasion of Iraq,

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and you're thinking "My god, if this guy is saying that,

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then all the soldiers must be saying that."

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Right?

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This word here. George Bush called this war a "crusade."

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Man, the Americans they're just like, "Crusade, whatever, I don't know what that means."

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But you know what it means. It's a Holy War against Muslims.

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Look, invade, subdue them, take their resources. If they won't submit, kill them.

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That's what this is about.

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And you're thinking "My god, these Christians are coming to kill us."

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This is frightening. You feel frightened.

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Of course you feel frightened?

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Of course you feel frightened.

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Why wouldn't you feel frightened.

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And this man, Terry Jones, I mean here's a guy wants to burn Korans, right?

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And the Americans, "Oh what, he's a knucklehead, he's a former hotel manager,

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he's got three dozen members of his church",

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they laugh him off. You don't laugh him off.

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Because in the context of everything else, all the pieces fit.

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I mean of course this is how the Americans think,

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and so people all over the Middle East, not just in your country are protesting.

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He wants to burn Korans, our holy book.

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These Christians, Who are these Christians? They're so evil, they're so mean.

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I mean this is what they're about?

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This is what you're thinking as an Arab Muslim, as an Iraqi.

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Of course you're going to think this. How can you not think this?

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And then your cousin says "Hey, cuz, check out this website.

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You gotta see this Christian, this Bible Boot Camp.

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These Christians are nuts. They're training their little kids to be soldiers for Jesus."

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And they take these little kids, and they run them through these things

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and they teach them how to say "Sir, yes, sir!", and play games like grenade toss,

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and weapons care and maintenance.

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And go to the website. It says U.S. Army right on it.

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I mean these Christians they're nuts!

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How would they do this to their little kids?

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And you're reading this website and of course Christians

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back in the United States or anybody says

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"Aw, this is a little tiny church in the middle of nowhere."

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You don't know that.

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For you, this is all Christians.

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It's all over the web -- Bible Boot Camp.

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And look at this. They even teach their kids.

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They train them in the same way the U.S. Marines train.

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Isn't that interesting?

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And it scares you and it frightens you.

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So these guys? You see them?

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You see I, Sam Richards, I know who these guys are.

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They're my students, my friends. I mean I know what they're thinking.

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You don't know.

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When you see them they're something else. They're something else.

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That's what they are to you. (Christian Invaders)

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We don't see it that way in the United States.

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But you see it that way?

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So here. Of course, you got it wrong.

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You're generalizing, it's wrong.

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You don't understand the Americans. It's not a Christian invasion.

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We're not just there for oil. We're there for lots of reasons.

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I mean, you have it wrong. You've missed it.

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And of course most of you don't support the insurgency,

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you don't support killing Americans, you don't support the terrorists.

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Of course you don't. Very few people do. But some of you do?

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And this is a perspective.

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Okay, so now, so here's what we're going to do.

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Step outside of your shoes that you're in right now

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and step back into your normal shoes, so everyone's back in the room, okay?

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Now here comes the radical experiment.

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So we're all back home.

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This photo. This woman?

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Man, I feel her. I feel her.

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She's my sister, my wife, my cousin, my neighbor, she's anybody.

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These guys standing there, everybody in the photo?

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I feel this photo, man.

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So here's what I want you to do.

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Let's go back to my first example of the Chinese, okay?

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So I want you to go there, so it's all about coal

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and the Chinese are here in the United States.

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And I want you to picture her as a Chinese woman receiving a Chinese flag

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because her loved one has died in America in the coal uprising.

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And the soldiers are Chinese and everybody else is Chinese.

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Okay? As an American, how do you feel about this picture?

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What do you think about that scene?

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Okay, try this.

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Bring it back. This is the scene, here. It's an American,

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American soldiers, American woman who lost her loved one in the Middle East,

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in Iraq or Afghanistan?

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Now put yourself in the shoes

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of an Arab Muslim living in Iraq.

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What are you feeling and thinking about this photo,

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about this woman?

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Okay, now follow me on this.

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Because I'm taking a big risk here.

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And so I'm going to invite you to take a risk with me, okay?

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Okay so these gentlemen here, they're insurgents.

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They were caught by the American soldiers trying to kill Americans.

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And maybe they succeeded. Maybe they succeeded?

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Put yourself in the shoes of the Americans who caught them.

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Can you feel the rage?

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Can you feel that you just want to take these guys and wring their necks?

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I mean, can you go there? It shouldn't be that difficult.

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You know you just feel, "Aw, man!"

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Okay, now, put yourself in their shoes.

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Are they brutal killers

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or patriotic defenders?

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Which one?

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Can you feel their anger, their fear, their rage

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at what has happened in their country?

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Can you imagine that maybe one of them in the morning

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bent down to their child and hugged their child and said,

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"Dear, I'll be back later. I'm going out to defend your freedom, your lives."

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"I'm going out to look out for us, the future of our country."

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Can you imagine that? Can you imagine saying that?

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Can you go there?

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What do you think they're feeling?

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You see that's empathy.

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It's also understanding.

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Now, you might ask, "Okay, Sam, so why do you do this sort of thing?"

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"Why would you use this example of all examples?"

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And I say because you're allowed to hate these people.

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You're allowed to just hate them with every fiber of your being.

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aAd if I can get you to step into their shoes

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and walk in inch, one tiny inch,

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then imagine the kind of sociological analysis that you can do

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in all other aspects of your life.

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You can walk a mile when it comes to understanding

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why that person is driving 40 miles per hour in the passing lane,

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or your teenage son, or your neighbor

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who annoys you by cutting his lawn on Sunday mornings.

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Whatever it is, you can go so far -- and this is what I tell my students.

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Step outside of your tiny little world.

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Step inside of the tiny little world of somebody else.

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And then do it again, and do it again, and do it again

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and suddenly all of these tiny little worlds

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they come together in this complex web

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and they build a big complex world.

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And suddenly without realizing it you're seeing the world differently.

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Everything has changed.

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Everything in your life has changed.

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And that's of course what this is about.

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Attend to other lives, other visions.

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Listen to other people. Enlighten ourselves.

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And so what I will say here is, I'm not saying that I support the terrorists in Iraq.

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But as a sociologist, what I am saying is I understand.

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And now perhaps, perhaps, you do too.

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Thank you.

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( applause )