From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Mar 30 2003 - 03:43:53 BST
Sam and all:
Its not that I'm picking on you, Sam, its just that I think your posts are
the most compelling. I was pretty much with you until the end, so I cut most
of it out. Sam quoted...
Lila (chapter 24): ... "Biological quality is necessary to the
survival of life. But when it threatens to dominate and destroy society,
biological quality becomes evil itself, the 'Great Satan' of
twentieth-century Western culture. One reason why fundamentalist Moslem
cultures have become so fanatic in their hatred of the West is that it has
released the biological forces of evil that Islam has fought for centuries
to control."
Sam said:
And unless the West realises the stakes involved - and transforms itself,
and renews itself - then it will lose. For military sophistication, being
the instrument of control between the social and biological levels, cannot
overcome an intellectual pattern of values. And the assessment that the West
unleashes biological chaos is an intellectual assessment (for Islam, just as
much as Christianity, operates at the intellectual level). And hordes of
jihadis will overcome hordes of intellectuals every time.
DMB says:
The military is the intrument of control over biology? Let me split hairs.
The military is a social level instrument and it is the social level's role
to control biology. But I'd say cops and religions enforce the moral codes
that control the body's appetites, while the military is like the immune
system for the giant itself. It grinds bodies up to protect itself. Its very
rare for a war to be waged for intellectual reasons, let alone actually
fought by "hordes of intellectuals". (Thanks for the hilarious image. I
laughed my ass off. Are you channeling Woody Allen or what?!) I think that
the forces and values on both sides in the present war are social. I don't
think Iraqis hate freedom or rights, its just that Islamic culture tends to
be offended by the quasi-pornographic nature of American culture. We've let
that biological genie out of the bottle and they reject the West for that
reason. The Puritans must be spinning in their graves and would most likely
reject modern Western culture for the same reasons. Hedonism. Vice.
Debauchery. You know, all the really fun stuff. (Of course, the West's
exploitive and lethal policies in the Arab world only add to the problem.
Thanks, Nargess.)
- Oriana Fallaci said:
"...the clash between us and them is not a military clash. Oh, no. It is a
cultural one, a religious one. And our military victories do not solve the
offensive of Islamic terrorism. On the contrary, they encourage it. They
exacerbate it, they multiply it. The worst is still to come."
DMB says:
On NPR I heard an interview with a political science professor from Saint
Lawrence university. He explained how this war has effectively dissolved the
moderate secular and moderate religious positions throughout the region.
Even the leaders who were among the first to condemn the 9/11 attacks are
now calling for resistance and jihads. Later, I heard that the top 600
Mullahs, or whatever the proper religious authorities are called, have
signed a document in solidarity. It condemns US actions in Iraq and calls on
all believers to resist the American invasion.
When terror strikes again, don't say you didn't see it coming. And don't ask
why they hate us.
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