I'm the other way - I'm definitely better NOW than I used to be, but I'm still less a head turner and more a stomach turner. Ah well, "We'll always have Paris...."
Whilst I applaud that. I don't see it in the 'real world'.
Some of us rarly get the chance to show our characters. as we are overlooked because of our looks. Nobody has ever looked at me and said "WOW - look at the mind on that!". You know. So out in the 'real world', I struggle.
Here, people don't HAVE the physical option, so I'm accepted more for my posts (my brain) than for a handful of grainy pix.
So 'out there' my experience is that people DO place a high value to the physical.
It's a difficult issue. Back in the 70's/80's we had the IRA at their height - yet we never perceived them as a catholic group. Bader Meinhoff (sp) we not perceived as being of any religuis faction (by the masses). Yet today, many are killing in the name of Islam and that fact is getting the media attention. Timothy McVeigh committed the biggest act of terrorism on US soil prior to 9/11 but he wasn't a muslim.
We have a lot to thank the media for our perception of the truth.
I may get shot down for this (by a US made weapon sold to Taliban foreces) but terrorism is all about perception.
The IRA in Ireland, in general believed that they had no option other than to commit the acts that they did. The 'purists' amongst them would have seen it as the only way to achieve their goals. Yet I those acts as terrorism.
Nelson Mandela was the leader of an illegal group. He sanctioned bombings that lead to the death of innocent lives. Yet he is considered a hero by us, because most of us agreed with his cause (if not his methods).
And during the crusades, did WE not reinvade Jerusalem to take it back from Saladin's Muslim armies.
Islam is, like any faith, is a convenient 'cause' for such actions. Clerics the world over point to Koran texts that 'show' that a "suicide bomber" will not go to heaven. But the recruiters and trainers are simply more charasmatic and have greater power over the weak..
I don't associate terrorism with Islam, I associate it with cowardice.
RE: How important is the physical?
THAT's The tequilla talkin'