05 July 2007
Goose and Gander
At a July Fourth barbecue yesterday, we and several friends read aloud the Declaration of Independence. That got us talking about the use of force by our President George W, in contrast to King George, to pre-empt the use of terrorism by Islamic radicals. What particularly worried some at the table was the sentiment of 25% of young Muslims in the West, reported by a respected Poll, that the use of terrorism was justified to resolve certain political issues.
The Bush Administration has chosen to combat the use of terrorism with military force, which is designed to repel socially organized violence. It’s a terrific waste of resources and human life in the case of spontaneous anarchy. But the tactic was justified as needed to pre-empt the formation of homes for terrorists who may threaten our own lives.
Instead of pacifying whole countries with cultures different from ours, the nation’s fear of terrorism would be better directed toward measures to change the views of those people who are convinced of the spiritual value of destroying earthly existence. There have always been demagogues who take advantage of distraught populations; but in today’s wired world, these populations have access to dangerous means of fulfilling their nihilistic mission.
Western civilization has over the years assigned more value to individual welfare than in years past, making us unwilling to sustain the devotion of armies to murderous campaigns. However, the advance of information technology is not synchronous with the attitudes towards life and violence of all cultures around the world. It is the source of invasions of certain societies by recidivist blow-ups of violence imported from other cultures characterized by an earlier lifestyle pattern.
At a July Fourth barbecue yesterday, we and several friends read aloud the Declaration of Independence. That got us talking about the use of force by our President George W, in contrast to King George, to pre-empt the use of terrorism by Islamic radicals. What particularly worried some at the table was the sentiment of 25% of young Muslims in the West, reported by a respected Poll, that the use of terrorism was justified to resolve certain political issues.
The Bush Administration has chosen to combat the use of terrorism with military force, which is designed to repel socially organized violence. It’s a terrific waste of resources and human life in the case of spontaneous anarchy. But the tactic was justified as needed to pre-empt the formation of homes for terrorists who may threaten our own lives.
Instead of pacifying whole countries with cultures different from ours, the nation’s fear of terrorism would be better directed toward measures to change the views of those people who are convinced of the spiritual value of destroying earthly existence. There have always been demagogues who take advantage of distraught populations; but in today’s wired world, these populations have access to dangerous means of fulfilling their nihilistic mission.
Western civilization has over the years assigned more value to individual welfare than in years past, making us unwilling to sustain the devotion of armies to murderous campaigns. However, the advance of information technology is not synchronous with the attitudes towards life and violence of all cultures around the world. It is the source of invasions of certain societies by recidivist blow-ups of violence imported from other cultures characterized by an earlier lifestyle pattern.
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