On Thu, 21 Aug 1997, Zooko Journeyman wrote:
This is a cop-out, used by emotionally stunted men to excuse themselves from their solemn responsibility to ethically justify their own actions and to deal fairly with their fellow humans.
The elected scum are far from being human. Apparently you haven't been paying attention to lovely incidents involving plungers. Is that demonizing them? Yes? Good!
By reciting mantras to one another emphasizing their sense of having been mistreated and their sense of having _unquestionable_ moral superiority, people in this situation persuade each other to become more and more fanatical in their attitudes, less and less in touch with reality, and less and less compassionate towards the "others" who have been demonized in the process.
What compassion did they show? Toilet plungers? Bullets in the head, flame throwers and tanks? Unquestionable? The very fact that I'm replying to you rather than sending out the toilet plunger brigade should give you a hint. What would the LEA's do were you to present the same arguement to them and cause enough noise that others took notice?
Note that this process _always_ includes a group of other humans which are demonized in order to serve as a scapegoat and as a concrete focus for the participant's negative emotions.
Right. Same thing they must have been feeding the FBI the morning of the Waco incident. I believe the key phrases were "gun toting child molesters." Nevermind that they fried to a crisp those same kids they supposedly were going to free from the clutches of the evil gun toting child molesters, and the supposed molesters.
This process is objectively identical to the process experienced by _all_ hate groups, gangs and nationalists.
Incorrect: this process is objectively identical to the process experienced by all HUMANS when faced with a horrid freedom destroying government. That it coincidentally is the same for the jackbooted thugs before they are told to attack. The difference is that no one is telling me to hate or feel rage. The actions of those who abuse freedom are my only inspiration.
You are standing in the auditorium, Louis Freeh's face is displayed on the screen, interposed with film of jackbooted thugs breaking down your door, and you are screaming wordlessly at him along with all of your brethren during the Two Minutes Hate.
Better that than standing in the auditorium and having Philip Zimmerman's face displayed on the screen, interposed with a film of keys and cyphers encrypting data and screaming wordlessly durring the Two Minutes of Hate. At least the former is based in honesty, not governmental orderes under the threat of thoughtcrime. It's not enough to fear Big Brother, you must love him.
THAT should give you pause for thought, Ray.
Still doesn't lessen the enemy's action, nor will it help the wrongs they commited any.
Listen to me: I might take up arms in the trenches next to you someday, if it comes to that. I might murder enemies or civilians in their sleep, if I were convinced that it was the only way to preserve the people and the ideals that I love.
Who said I'd be in the trenches or murder the enemy? Who said I would pick up a weapon and use it? Hating them is not the same as taking actions to quench that hate. That should give your panic pause for thought.
I might work to deploy ideas and technologies that threaten to induce social chaos, if I believed that those ideas and technologies were the only way to ensure the blessings of liberty and prosperity for my children.
Do what you think is necessary within your ideals.
But I will _never_ take one of these actions while intoxicated by a cloud of hatred and self-righteousness. I will _never_ tell myself that I am part of a sacred jihad which absolves me of all guilt, and I will _never_ re-classify my enemies as sub-human in order to justify my treatment of them.
Erm? What Jihad? Since where are we so organized and sacred? Hell, I don't even own a gun, I don't know where you get your knee jerk reaction from. You certainly don't see me renting a Rider Truck and buying fertilizer. So where do you get "sacred" and "jihad" from? Am I supposed to silence my hatred for the crimes against humanity that the scum in power have commited, or for their incessant attempts at destroying our freedoms because you can't deal with another's hatred? Because you imagine and fear that hatred will lead to action? Isn't that what CENSORSHIP is about after all?
So take a fucking BREAK man. Just get up from the computer and go for a fucking walk in the mountains and think about your fucking family and loved ones.
I wouldn't think, nor hate, this way if it weren't for thinking about my family and loved ones and their freedom. =====================================Kaos=Keraunos=Kybernetos============== .+.^.+.| Ray Arachelian |Prying open my 3rd eye. So good to see |./|\. ..\|/..|sunder@sundernet.com|you once again. I thought you were |/\|/\ <--*-->| ------------------ |hiding, and you thought that I had run |\/|\/ ../|\..| "A toast to Odin, |away chasing the tail of dogma. I opened|.\|/. .+.v.+.|God of screwdrivers"|my eye and there we were.... |..... ======================= http://www.sundernet.com ==========================