<I did not need the Unabomber blowing up college professors to get me to care about the environment.>
CB, I don't recall Ted cared much about the environment. His was much like Osama's campaign [though a LOT less dramatic].
Ted wanted the world to stop, much like the Amish like it stopped. I have some sympathy with the idea and our house didn't have a tv for a decade while the children were young to keep out a little bit of the pollution.
It is a battle to filter out the destructive elements of society, from vulgarity and violence, dietary mistakes and inadequacy, false ideas, unsafe products, and the whole panoply of stuff coming at us. I can see why a lot of people give up and opt for governmental or Islamic chiefs telling them how to run their lives, demanding that the world stop right now so they have some idea of what the heck is going on and how to live and enjoy. Also to "get" those people who are messing it up.
Ted didn't like the march of technology integrated with big military, big industry and big government into a scary monster. I'm actually all in favour of creating the big scary monster because I think it'll be good. Fingers crossed. Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" and Ted's treatise are both worth reading.
Bill Joy recognized the eerie parallel of Ted's with his own concerns. Osama makes some sense too. None of them are simply insane. We can add Stephen Hawking to the mix too [not that Osama should consider himself to be in the same league]. It's what they decide to do with their understanding which is the difference.
Roll on USS Enterprise and IT.
This is a much bigger thing going on that a cowardly wacko medieval mullah in a bunker in Afghanistan. Osama is not wacko, nor medieval, nor a mullah, nor cowardly, though many might foolishly label him that way. I can tell you that it would take a lot of courage to be facing down what he is facing down. When taking on some venture, such as stopping Islamic or IRA terrorism, it's important to understand their supply lines and what the causal chain is to find ways of disrupting it.
In my case, one of the reasons we have cruelly abused and murdered children is that taxpayers in NZ vote for and pay those people to do the abusing [not willfully - it's an unintended consequence of particular social welfare payments]. Similarly, the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestinians and extremist Moslems provides some fuel for Osama's efforts. That Karma is not to assign blame [which should attach to wilful acts rather than inadvertent ones] but to identify causal relationships, such as child abuse in Kiwiland.
You couldn't care less about the people in Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq and neither could nearly everyone in the USA or Kiwiland. They are more interested now. The perversity of terrorism is that it does succeed in getting attention, which is a large part of the drive to conduct terrorist acts. Jerry Springer is down and Osama is up in the audience ratings.
Where we go from here is what matters. Do we sort out Osama then go back to Prozac, Jerry Springer, moaning about the price of fuel for the SUV and sporadic terrorist and military attacks and mayhem around the world or do we use the coalition of nations to actually restructure the human world into something more stable?
I'm sure a complete solution isn't available, because there will always be belligerent young males wanting to show who's boss [them] and avenge some grievous harm.
Now, if I can just raise your consciousness we'll get somewhere. I'm not holding my breath.
Mqurice
PS: Overstuffed? Me? I'm rake thin. With a beard and turban I'd make a good Osama supporter - hmm, maybe I could disguise myself like that and head off into outback Afghanistan and persuade them to my theory - I hope they speak Kiwi. |
