Hi Jason, Platt, Horse, Roger and all
OK, I know I said I wouldn't participate on this thread, but since it was
born of(and lived on) conflict, I hope a little level-headedness will help
it to die a peaceful death.
>The terror being referred to here is one of biological origins all right,
>but it is not the kind of terror we face today.
>
>Terrorists - Computer hackers, Columbine kids, Timothy Mcveigh, do not seek
>to Rule anything. They are the antithesis of rule. Complete destructive
>chaos is all they seek.
Wrong. It is ALWAYS about being the boss. Who do you think would be head
honcho of the muslim world if Bin Laden managed to re-instore the sultanate
? Come on, no one who pursues the use of violence with such method and
determination does it "just for fun". While his deep motivations might very
well be narcissistic in nature, his primary aim is to become the "top-dog"
of an islamic superpower state. Terrorism is a POLITICAL tool. That should
have told you something. ;)
Therefore, it is only logic to recognise in this a social pattern trying to
replace another using biological means (killings), and not "biological
terrorists" that we should eliminate "like germs". Since it is clear that
Bin Laden and his ilk do not defend intellectual values, I do not side with
them in this conflict. Even if the US have not always been up to the values
they defend, at least these values influence them.
Let's remember here that, while the Intellectual level SHOULD rule, due to
SOM's inate defect in identifying values, it is fast losing ground to the
social level (according to Pirsig, but I agree). All too often we Westerners
go around posing as morally superior to everyone else, while in the
background it's the same old song of social exploitation that's been going
on ever since man invented societies stable enough to go past the level of
mere survival. So we get the moral advantage only through a tenuous hold,
and it would be best to remember that before rocking the boat too much.
That's why, Platt, your interpretation of the events of last September
(while understandable from an emotional point of view) seems to me to be a
gross exageration of the MOQ moral message. I know how you must have felt,
because on that same fateful day my sister, who lives in the USA, was on a
plane departing from Boston (fortunately, not toward LA), and I was scared
sh**less she had been in one of the crashes.
But yelling for revenge does not ressucitate anyone, and neither does
bombing third-world countries. No one on this forum has enough information
on geopolitics to know what would have been the best course of action, but
according to most media, the bombings did nothing more than scare a few
civilians, kill some others, and provide some feeling of revenge for the US
population. When there is no infrastructure to destroy, no armament better
than a few home-made kalachnikovs, and no roads, what good are bombs ? I do
not dispute the aims, but the means were, and still are, very questionable.
Which is all the more dangerous when the same social forces urging for the
attack are threatening to invade our own lives and threaten our liberties.
I recently read an article in the press which was titled "Is God a Murderer
?". The following sentence stuck with me, and I invite all members of this
forum to ponder how much it applies to them.
"Any man who picks up a book and proclaims it contains the Truth, is
potentially an assassin."
I'll associate another, more familiar to us : "And what's good, Phaedrus,
and what is not good... Do we need anyone to tell us these things ?"
I hope that will help everyone understand that quoting Pirsig can produce as
much error as quoting the Coran or the Bible can. And that, folks, means A
LOT. There is no substitute for critical thought.
Be good
Denis
PS : As a side-note, Jason, your amalgamation of hackers and terrorists
shows how well media and government propaganda works. Hackers are, at worst,
glorified delinquants, and at best just computer security nerds. Terrorism
implies murder of civilians, not replacing a government homepage with an
idiotic message, or preventing an online bookshop to sell for a few minutes.
Putting the two on the same scale cheapens human life, IMHO.
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