From: skutvik@online.no
Date: Wed Jul 20 2005 - 09:26:32 BST
Platt and Mark Steven
Too late in your conversation as always but on16 July Platt wrote:
> Sure, like capturing and punishing those who aided and abetted the
> British terrorists. Thankfully by blowing themselves up, those who set
> off the bombs saved society the trouble of hunting them down and
> bringing them to justice. Biological forces that threaten society must
> be met forcefully. The problem, as Pirsig points, out is that a lot of
> intellectuals have taken biology's side -- like those who sympathize
> with terrorists.
I agree generally, it's just the biological part that sounds a little
odd in this context. Social value is something much more
fundamental - even "frightening" - than the civil safety and
welfare, and I think the Islam vs West issue is part of the social
vs intellect struggle that has raged since ...??. The Western
societies are intellect-dominated and it is the spreading the
"democratic" message (among many more) to the Islamic region
that frightens/angers the activists so much.
In Africa for instance Islam may be a very good idea as a shore
against biological (sex) drives of the Central African population
where AIDS threatens to wipe out whole generations. But in
Europe and USA Islam it's a failure and what the fanatics hope to
achieve is a great puzzle. If anything the terror attacks has just
alienated the Western population (some Norwegian women who
earlier had found headscarves and submission was romantic
have now come to their senses)
But - sigh - social value is not reason, it is emotions, thus
reasonable arguments may be wasted and if the terror continues
and the the new recruits come from within, then the Mosques and
other closed quarters will possibly have to be put under
surveillance. There are those who see this as the end of
democracy and just what the terrorists want, but during WW2 the
Japanese in USA were interned, still, it all returned to normal
after the war. Intellect as a value level will of course not succumb
if some of its patterns temporarily is suspended .
Bo
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Jul 22 2005 - 20:36:38 BST