OT (digestmode!): terrorism, patriotism, blahblah, etc. ad nauseum

In a message dated 14.09.2001 01:48:27 PM, bjm10@CORNELL.EDU writes:

><SNIP> So long as these states
>are permitted to continue this support and shelter, these acts will just
>keep happening, no matter how many bugs get squashed.
    ::grins like an idiot savant:: I just got through watchin' _Starship
Troopers_, a sci-fi movie in which the enemy of "civilization" were/are
actually bugs.
    Throughout the movie, I could see how the demonization of "the Other"
occurs = xenophobia and genocide.
    I couldn't help but laugh like a madman when I saw the neo-fascist
uniforms of this futuristic militarized world "Federation." I recognized lots
of SS- and Vichy French-like uniforms in the first 1/4 hour alone!

    Also I think there was one reference to the war being [like] a "crusade"
or something like that ;)

    czHANg

In a message dated 14.09.2001 01:49:29 PM, bjm10@CORNELL.EDU writes:

>On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, J Y S Czhang wrote:
>
>>     Retaliating violently against terrorism only creates more victims,
>more
>> martyrs, more sympathizers, more terrorists, and more acts of terrorism.
>
>Thus, we must just do nothing at all!  We just bend over and take it
>while we try to work out negotiations.  Then what they learn is that
>terrorism gets them more of what they want.
>
    I never said or advocated doin' nuthin'. (Why do so many people resort to
angry "bend over & take it" anal rape metaphors when others try to use reason
and strategy???)
    Nor do I think the normal methods of diplomacy and negotiation work
because of all the long-held cultural prejudices and resentments/grudges
dating back to the Crusades on both sides (the so-call _civilized "Christian"
West_ and the _exotic Islamic Arab "Orient"_). [One must also note the
alleged terrorists are a very small minority of extremists in the Arab world]
    I just think it is more effective to think about a long-term VICTORY
rather than the short-term battle. That means - in this context - a better
understanding of one's opponents' grievances, religion and historical
worldview at the very least; genuine dialogue and cultural
understanding/respect at the most. Know yourself. Know your enemy. Win
without needless fighting. (I remain hopeful 'cause of the good things
beginning to happen in South Africa and Northern Ireland).
    If violence is called for against terrorists everywhere, it will be an
endless, futile war of escalation. With missing Soviet suitcase-size atomic
devices - not to mention biochemical weaponary - up to the highest bidders,
this could be a very short, nasty war for all or most on earth.

    Like the ol' sayin' goes: try to think before you speak or act - don't do
anything ya might end up regrettin'.

    czHANg, who likes to think of himself as a "provisional pacifist", Gung
Fu scholar-warrior style


In a message dated 14.09.2001 03:01:11 PM, p.r.ramsey@WORLDNET.ATT.NET writes:

>there is just us, weak, confused and all too bent to the clarifying joys of
self->sanctioned murder. Give it a rest. There is nothing that any one of us
can do; there is >no person on whom we can have any effect  - except
ourselves.
>
>Meanwhile, let's go back to making up our little personal languages, an
>activity vastly more sane and worthwhile than what the rest of the world
>has given itself up to.
>
    With this very wise email, I am humbly reminded of the Serenity Prayer:

    God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
    The courage to change the things I can,
    And the wisdom to know the difference.

    With that I return to doin' what I can and what I love most (bondin' with
friends in recovery/sobriety, strange music, stranger still conlanging, ...
communin' with cats & dogs & other animals more different than myself ;)
doin' tons of email [125!!!!] *gigglabyte*, etc...)

    czHANg, thoroughly sickened by this subject matter of terrorism &
retaliation and the nauseous taint of bloodthirst introduced on this list, ...
    prefers bein' a wild-child-like space alien spirit in an all-too-human
body than bein' a so-call "adult human male" :)  :P  :P~  *gigglabyte*

    "Human beings are bad animals." - William S. Burroughs

    "Human beings make bad animals." - czHANgie's elucidation of the above

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