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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Worswick who wrote (582)	10/6/2001 5:54:37 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 644

Hi Clark, <<I am full of amazement at where we are, as I have said, and how we got here. Personally, I think this is the nastiest, cheapest and meanest way for these fundamentalists to gain "control" in their communities. You don't take up the issues of overpopulation, lack of education, poverty, abuse of the poor and disenfranchised...rather you preach the kingdom of heaven and reaching this place by violent hatred-laden acts. In heaven... not here everything will be made good. There will be water, virgins, sweetmeats, young men, etc. I really can't make much distinction between Muslim, Christian, buddhist or Jewish fundamentalists... they all seem opportunists of the rankest sort. They all seem fixated on gaining power through hatred.>> Indeed. Can't agree with you more on this. Hatred and fear are time honored ways for "politicians" to gain power, though. Dostoevsky was, I think, the first penetrating analyst of this behavior, in fiction anyway (Machiavelli certainly knew how it worked as well, but wrote under different constraints).. Arthur Koestler updated him for the Soviets in Darkness at Noon, is there a correlate that you know of for the Islamic world? Some of the most wonderful people I have ever met have been "fundamentalists" of one sort or another, and some of the worst. They aren't called "extremists" for nothing. Best wishes, Sam

To: Worswick who wrote (582)	10/7/2001 6:33:34 PM
From: Bosco	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 644

Hi Clark - many people, reasonable people, share your amazement. For the past 2 decades or more, during those moments of hopelessness and helplessness, I have figured that if humanity cannot get its act together, indeed there is a good chance a new species will rise to supplant it. But then, time and again, idealism has resurfaced. So, I am hopeful that the cycle of despair and renewal will continue for a little longer. Indeed you are right, fundamentalism of any strip, or maybe fanaticism in the name of purity, appeals to the lowest denominator of human primitive instinct. This is more tribal than religious. It is interesting to note, though, that many so-called "fundamentalists" are revisionists in disguise. Burka is really an invention to control those who may threaten the hierarchy. Are they afraid the basic mother instinct will overthrow the contrived notion of "70 virgins in heaven?" Do these clerics not have mothers of their own, whose breasts they once suckled with such greed and possessiveness? These are the inherent ironies of twisted minds and tortured souls! When superlative concepts like jihad are hijacked to incite the illiterate and dispossessed who rely on the hijackers to provide basic and spiritual subsistence, the human psyche can be shaped and molded into dark orifice! The irony is especially poignant in Central Asia where it has been the holy ground for so many sublime traditions. Agfanstan used to have 2 of the tallest buddha statues. Well, they were no more when the Talibans chose to waste valuable resource to blow them up. Great masters like Naropa were active in what is now known as Kashmir. Now, Hindu and Muslims are murdering each other in the same region. Certainly, killing is not an answer. The more killing there is, the more these fanatics will justify their politics of hatred and total destruction. However, removing them as the root cause of refugee politics is one part of the multi-pronged remedy. If there is no cure for psychopaths, locking them up in the asylum of criminally insane may be the next best thing. Remediation by restoring hope and reasoning to the masses can then proceed. I am doubtful I will see this in my lifetime, but for the sake of humanity, I am hopeful that it will happen. best, Bosco