From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue Jun 01 2004 - 02:43:33 BST
Hi all,
FYI, here's a very recent email exchange between Noam Chomsky and a
questioner. Chomsky answers 100 of these a day, they tell me, some
with much more detail. The subject was "Moral Relativism."
Chomsky's reply is first, the question follows:
Reply from NC,
It's an interesting argument. By the same logic, one
should praise Saddam, because, after all, he didn't send
millions of people to gas chambers, the way highly
civilized westerners do (recall that Germany was the peak
of Western civilization in the sciences, arts, etc.).
I wouldn't call it "moral relativism gone crazy." Rather,
old-fashioned racism and mimicry of Stalinism gone crazy.
They're all ragheads anyway, and deserve what they get.
And we'll sink to any depths of depravity to protect the
Holy State from criticism.
The clear truth of the matter is that it wasn't "abuse,"
but torture, and it wasn't a few "bad apples," but general
policy. And furthermore, it's not particularly new, nor
out of character. US jails aren't all that different. The
culture of torture and sadism goes right back to the days
of "Indian fighting." Usually, torture and other atrocities
are farmed out to mercenaries, like the Tiger Cages in
Vietnam. Same with others. That's why the French had a
Foreign Legion, for example. Pretty standard operating
procedure in systems of unaccountable power, particularly
bad when the political leadership are simply thugs.
Noam Chomsky
*** The question ***
I notice the right wing in America are downplaying the
prison abuse scandal by making light [sic] of the fact that
Saddam actually tortured people; raped and killed in mass.
They also point to the Berg beheading to prove how much
more monsterous the bad guys are, and how noble we are.
That the prison abuse only applys to a small few, a 'bad
apple' here and there.
They say that it is wrong to compare our torture to
Saddam's, when his was way more extreme. Some in the right
wing have compared the prison abuse to a college hazing.
That we are taking this out of proportion to the true evil,
that is Islamic radicalism.
Do you think they make a point? Why do you think they
downplay such crimes, even crimes that they see with their
own eyes? They act like the prisoners were al Al Queda
killers. Is this moral relativism gone crazy?
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