From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 09:20:51 MST
Spike:
>Nova, the science and technology TV program, has demonstrated to the
>entire world some relatively easy and cheap ways to spread radiation
>using any metropolitan subway.[...]
>Some months ago I speculated similarly, that a terrorist could
>easily obtain some type of legal and harmless radioactive material
>such as Americium from smoke detectors, power it, spread it using
>ordinary commerically available fireworks, then watch the proles
>panic.[...]
>I have never seen it used as an argument against mass transit, but
>we should consider that especially subways are so vulnerable to
>terrorists they might already be considered a very bad investment of
>public funds. spike
What is going on here? Perhaps your report is true, but isn't it too
much? Haven't you reached a point where you say to yourself: 'enough
is enough'? For me that point, was 1 1/2 years ago.
Shall we live in underground bunkers, fearful to breathe, fearful to
walk, fearful to think ...? We hear 'War on Terrorism' used in the
same fascist way as the 'War on Drugs' and now 'Weapons of XXXXXXX'
(fill in your latest fear) in the same way! Now on the transhumanism
lists are people speculating endlessly about how a handful of
extremists can bring on the extinction of our species and we should
greatly change and alter our lives, accordingly, based on that fear.
The Grand Security Theatre is doing a fine job at promoting that fear.
Apparently, I'm not 'getting the message' that many of you are
getting, because I find myself more and more frustrated and sad to
see people's obsession with fearful thoughts. This is *your life*.
Do you really want to spend it this way?
I won't change my life for the latest government / media report of
the scare-of-the-week, because it looks like more Paranoia-Ville.
and I refuse to buy into that.
To save my typing fingers I'll paste what I wrote to the wta-talk
list a few days ago on the same topic.
Amara
----------22 February 2003
Subject: Re: Re: Magic duct tape
I am not sure if the topic here is self-defense or security, but
regarding security, I am very sad that so many people's lives are
absorbed with the (false) notion of 'safety'. And I am very angry
that a few people in control-happy and and power-hungry governments
have seized on (and taken advantage of) people's fears from
September 11 to massively build up (what did already exist) the
Security Theatre and the Military Machines that we are experiencing
in the world today. There's an enormous amplifying feedback loop
monster in place now. This monster is the collection of human
violence, fears, anxieties, hatreds, suspicions, which was present
before, but emerged in a new form. I had a fleeting hope after
September 11 that government entities and a large number of people
would reflect on their actions and work to understand what happened
to diffuse the monster. But instead of diffusing that monster,
foreign and defense policies (especially those of the United States
government) are amplifying the fears to a WWIII.
There have always been and there always will be extremists at the
boundaries of societies and cultures. You (general "you") have
choices. You can choose to live your life motivated by your own life
or you can choose to live your life motivated by others, including
those extremists.
If you choose the first, then what are some things that might happen
as you are life-propelled? In that case the extremists are actively
ignored, they might direct their deathist wishes on each other, and
eventually they will die. Along the way, your actions might serve as
an example of the good things possible. And even if those 'better'
ways are not understood by others, leaving them alone to their
choices shows respect for other people, places, and cultures.
For the latter, those that want to wipe out the extremists have to
expend something and there are aftereffects. How much attention,
(money and time) is it worth to one's life to making your life
'safe' (safe: what an weird concept!) from those extremists? Is it
worth 50% of your life? 70%? 90% ? Your whole life? Your progeny's
lives? What if the aftereffects are that the number of extremists
increases exponentially?
In my opinion, these are the questions what every person should be
asking themselves.
(What to do about existing large rogue governments is yet another
topic.)
Amara
-- -- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Stupidity got us into this mess, so why can't it get us out?" -- Will Rogers
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