hi darryl,
Darryl:
> I don't pretend to be either rational enough or educated enough to disarm
> the terms being thrown about -- or to suggest alternatives. I do think I
> am able to see that things as they are will not progress for either the
> discussions here or the ones in the real world until some work is done on
> the language we are employing.
Elliot:
I think the problem is that we give one term for the slaughter of innocent
people a good connotation and another a bad one. It is ok to kill for what
we believe in, it is not ok for others to do the same. someone said in
another discussion that the further we are displaced in time and space form
the events, the more reason plays in and the less emotion and other values
not part of reason do. the only solution to me is to let emotion play a
role in yourself. Imagine what it is like to be "a terrorist". These
people are not animals, imagine what conditions you would have to be under
to take your own life. How confused and full of pain they must be. Reason
is a static pattern while emotion is the cutting edge of reality for
humans, it is the perception of quality. therefore empathy is the most
highquality way to address the problem. however it is not the author who
can do this, but only the reader, so i see no solution to the language
problem except to let the reader develop his own emotions rather than
hiding static emotional patterns in the connotations of words. Perhaps
simpler words would work, using human being or the persons name instad of
terrorist or alqueda.
What really needs to happen is that people need to stop thinking along the
lines that the lives of real human beings are as simple as those of TV
stars. We need to imagine our best frined, our brother and our father
doing these things (or atleast draw paralleles to things that we CAN
understand, such as the motivations of the american revolution). What
would it take for me to do that?
Yes, i have no solution,
Elliot
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