From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 00:18:39 MST
Samantha writes
> > 4) Would you be comfortable with a person like Sadaam Hussein
> > walking the streets of your neighborhood?
>
> Nope. I also wouldn't be comfortable at all with Bush (Sr. or
> Jr.), Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld or a host of others.
Oh, did they happen to kill their elementary school teachers
when they were eleven, too? Are you truly interested in Saddam's
personal history? If you do become knowledgeable about exactly
what kind of person Hussein is, get back to me about how comfortable
you'd be with him as a neighbor, as, compared to, say, Bush.
Emlyn writes
> - Why can't we cooperate? What's the story with the whole
> nation gig, anyway? Why do we get bucketloads of implicit
> and explicit nationalism and jingoism on extro-l of all places?
As for the latter, the reason why is the same reason it
most always turns out to be: because evolution built us
that way. Less grandly, and more specifically, those
tribes that did not have members whose patriotism was
not easily aroused were non-competitive and did not survive.
We *do* wish to move towards more inclusiveness, less alienation
and conflict. In fact, history has been a story of precisely
this progress. But it won't do to pretend that it can all be
just swept away by an effort of will---we absolutely must
*appreciate* the reasons for the existence of "explicit nationalism
and jingoism". And they're not all lamentable ones, nor regrettable
ones.
As realists, it is incumbent upon us to both recognize and
*appreciate* what is really behind things we despise, such
as war and racism. It absolutely WILL NOT DO to assume that
we are *above* all that, or that by simply thinking good
thoughts and practicing our abstract moral principles it
will accomplish anything more than a transitory boost to
our egos.
Your questions, "why can't we cooperate", "what's the story
behind nations, anyway" are good questions. But you probably
could figure out many of the reasons yourself, if you'd just
allow yourself to do so, because you've probably already
studied enough anthropology and history to get an idea.
Do you equally wonder why primitive animals tried to kill
and eat each other in Earth's a half billion years ago?
"Why couldn't they just get along?", (to use Rodney King's
memorable phrase).
Lee
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