From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat Nov 02 2002 - 05:02:52 GMT
Howdy;
Platt:
I'm thankful that the MoQ doesn't shrink from identifying and
condemning evil biological behavior.
Kevin:
Again you oversimplify. No one is questioning whether it's moral to
defend society from terrorism. That seems fairly plain. ...
I'm expecting your usual appeal to "moral ruthlessness", but I don't
think Pirsig would advocate killing the infected patients to destroy the
virus.
DMB:
I'd also object to Platt's take. Biological crime isn't the only kind. Its
no good to simply label every one a bug and the repeated use of the word
"ruthlessness" strikes me as a little blood-thirsty. In any case, at the
risk of over-simplifying, it seems to me that the essence of the situation
was a clash of soldiers. Sure, its illegal and immoral to kidnap civilians
and hold them hostage. No doubt about it. In that sense, the (sp?)Chechans
are criminals and terrorists. But this is no vice crime. This is not in the
same class as rape, robbery or shooting up. They're acting on behalf of a
people who are at war with Russia. This is social level stuff, even if it is
also criminal. Their political aspirations may or may not be based upon
intellectual principles, in either case the main values involved were
clearly military and political. And in spite of the criminal behavior of
these particular hostage takers, I'm not so sure the cause they represent is
unjust. I don't know the scoop about that one, but one guy's revolutionary
is another's terrorist. One man's freedom fighter is another's death squad
member. (apologies to the ladies) Sometimes its hard to tell even when we
have all the facts.
"This Zuni Indian was not exactly someone else. This was not just an
isolated tribal incident going on here. This was something of universal
importance happening. This was EVERYMAN. There is not a person alive who is
not in some way or other in the kind of situation this "witch" was in. It
was just that his circumstances were so exotic and so extreme one could now
see it, by itself, out in the open. The story was of a struggle between good
and evil, but the koan it raised was, "Which was which?" Was this person
really good of was he perhaps evil too?" Pirsig (page 111)
Thanks,
DMB
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