From: Hubert Mania (humania@t-online.de)
Date: Sun Jul 20 2003 - 17:07:12 MDT
Karen wrote:
> First of all, if I read a post of the type you suggest
> (even if not directed at me) then I would conclude that the author is
unable
> to make intellectual arguments, has an anger control problem, is prone to
> fits of hysteria, is possibly dangerous in person, and/or is a jerk.
Think what you will about my intellectual strength. I know my abilities and
my limits pretty good. Fortunately I am not ambitious enough to regard
rational intelligence as my most valuable fetish, 24 hours a day.
Karen, I strongly advice you to read Robert's original mail and then ask
yourself *who* is the jerk here? He cold-bloodedly proposed a genocide, I
wrote a *friendly* letter and attacked this view. And now *I* am regarded as
the bad boy and not this potential mega killer.
I clearly said: "in some extreme cases" I believe it's appropriate to attack
someone personally. I would not see the slightest reason to attack anybody
because of any extreme intellectual views. I can think about them, reject
them, but I never would attack a person because of his visions. But
I *do* resort to sarcasm and irony, when it comes to the support of killing
people, because I don't see any other way to express my disgust at the
idea of mass murdering. Should I appeal to his rational intelligence -
the very feature he is so proud of? What do you suppose, I
should say to somebody who proposes a genocide: "This is not very ethical,
Robert!"? No, I simply want him to know that I have a strong suspicion that
he might be an asshole, if that is okay with him.
> [. . .] with the cool-headed, rational,
> serious deliberation that the issue deserves. I believe your approach in
> such a situation would be a detriment to the cause.
As I said before, in the face of such a monstrous thought, Robert has
expressed, all rules of politeness vanish. You can regard my recourse to
sarcasm and irony as a weakness, that's okay, maybe it is, but when it comes
to utilitarian thinking desasters like this one, for me the case is obvious
I can save my intellectual powers for more difficult issues. This one here
does not need more than healthy guts and a rough understanding of
Kant's categorial imperative.
I don`t want to get involved in a *discussion* about genocide.
Thank you very much. If the majority believes, this depravity is even
worth a discussion, then, I think it's an act of superior intelligence to
leave this forum and waste my time with more pleasant things than
dealing with infantile jerks who believe they will save humanity by nuking
poor countries who do not fit in the Western (that is US) system of values.
Good night Extropy!
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