Ground Zero
Well, I discovered this blog universe recently so I thought I might give it a shot. We'll see how it goes.
posted by Steve @ 10:00 PM
4 comments
Fried Egg
Many years ago while driving to work I was listening to a Commodores song and I thought that this would be a good handle, if I were into CB. Now in the Internet age, I am still trying to use it. I'm just a middle aged guy with opinions. Move on, nothing to see here ....
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Previous Posts
4 Comments:
Okay, now I am testing out commenting on my blog.
And again ....
Hi Steve,
I don't know if it's your actual blog and if you read this comment at all but I just came and saw your reply to my comment to neo-neocon...
What I want to say is that in that blog I saw no difference between mullahs and those who support war. Both close their eyes on humanity and only blindly follow their 'cause'.
Maybe age matters. Maybe the older we get the uglier the world seems to us, and the uglier solutions come to our mind, but there is always a solution to the problem than closing the eye to the truth. Have you seen mullahs? All you hear about them is how they're inhuman and irrational but let me tell you one thing, those people who stop to see humans and start to see only fear, hatred, and anger, and reduce innocent humans to chess pieces that can be sacrificed as needed, are exactly the same as mullahs. Don't doubt about it Steve.
I fear the world that beginning to be built. I fear close minded angry fearful people who are having the world round their fingers. Some of them are called mullahs, some are bin ladan followers and some well..
If you ever came accross these people, because I saw you're active in political weblogs, tell them to think about this : Does the end really justify the means that much?! Tell them that they didn't believed it once. Why had they forgotten it? Ask them is there anything more terrifying than becomming what you once were fighting against?
Please tell them...
Well, I finally got a comment, so I will respond.
I think what's driving most of the pro-war crowd is fear. That is understandable. 9/11 was a terrible event and I will just say for the sake of keeping myself out of it that it touched me more directly than I will say here.
But 9/11 did externalize fears about a terrorist nuclear weapon that many esp in New York have had for a long time: at least since 1993. That has to be kept in mind.
It would of course be frightening to have a superpower like the USA determine its foreign policy on the basis of fear. That is why I don't think it will happen. But it could. The governments of Nazi Germany and particularly Stalinist Russia -- and the politics of the USA during the Red Scare, both in the teens and fifties -- were also dominated by fear.
The problem is that it is difficult to allay these fears. Nuclear weapons exist. The prospect of seeing yourself, your family, or some city in the US being incinerated in a tenth of a second is real, even if it is very remote.
That is what really fueled the support for the invasion of Iraq and that clearly is what is fueling the support for the bombing of Iran, and basically, the entire Muslim world.
The problem is that we have to live with this fear. If we start trying to take out EVERYONE who might hurt us with a nuke or whatever, we will never stop. And mass hysteria, governed by fear, has a bad track record of going after its own after all the obvious external threats are neutralized. Another turn on the phrase, "revolution devouring its own children."
I think we, as a nation, have a bit of a mass sickness here, a mass sickness facilitated by the nature of internet communication, which, for many serves as a sink for all of our deep down impulses, some of which are quite base and destructive.
Having said that, I would prefer no more nuclear proliferation. But I cannot endorse the promiscuous use of force. The 20th Century is about that: and if we really want to learn any lessons from history, we have to learn that.
I also have to tell you, Nargess, that, being an American, I have to rate my country higher than anyone else's. That is wrong, before God, but it is the weakness of nationalism. My country will take steps to protect itself and it will take steps to preserve our way of life and our way of consumption. Naturally, I would PREFER that this be done with a minimum of violence, and with an awareness that all life deserves its right to dignity, to flourish, and to have its day in the sun.
My best to you.
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