From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Thu Sep 27 2001 - 08:24:43 MDT
"Alex F. Bokov" <alexboko@umich.edu> wrote:
> The POINT is, we are not at war with a government. We are at war with
> a transnational network of fanatics. This time, we are on the
> centralized, top-heavy end of a conflict. This calls for new
> strategies of warfare.
Oh I dunno. I've been reading stuff like:
The Clash of Civilizations, by Samuel P. Huntington
http://www.alamut.com/subj/economics/misc/clash.html
and
The Roots of Muslim Rage
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/90sep/rage.htm
Which, as you can tell by the titles, postulate deep deep differences
that are not gonna go away anytime soon. It's almost enough to make one
long for the communist era and a return to the cold war.
> It seems to me that a strategy worth trying is memetic warfare in
> conjunction with economic aid. Give them some secular nonsense to
> occupy their brains so there's less room for religious nonsense. Give
> them something to lose and they won't be so in love with carnage.
> Call it moderation if you want. I've thought of a catchier name--
>
> The Porkrinds, Porn, and Pilsner Campaign
I agree that memetic warfare can be very much a useful potential
strategy, but I would hope extropians can come up with something better
than dropping pork rinds on muslims. While some starving Afghanis,
perhaps especially women begging in the streets to secure food for their
children, might appreciate crunchy pork snacks, the price of getting
caught doing so might well be immediate execution.
Here are some possible strategies:
1) Convert to Islam. Why not? I've been arguing anyway that a
people-centered security state is quite possibly better than a
technology-centered security state, and at least Allah never came out
against many specific extropian and futurist goals like nanotechnology
or space travel (as far as I know). I'd much rather live in a state
where many things are forbidden than one in which everything is
forbidden but that which is specifically allowed, which I see as the
endpoint of the technological security state (my new term for what has
previously been called ubiquitous law enforcement). In any case
education has historically been a good thing in Islam. Perhaps we can
get Bill Gates to explain that nothing works right till version 3.0 with
Old Testament = v. 1, New = v. 2, Koran = v. 3. At least american office
workers can appreciate that logic. Once we get off-planet we can start
reasonably discussing atheist societies.
2) Move all Israelis to New York, make NY state the new Israel, then
nuke Jerusalem. At least this puts the center of controversy within a
relatively much safer christian civilization and should defuse the whole
middle eastern issue. Nuking Jerusalem is just an end-point to prevent
future war over it. Nobody would want it if it was highly radioactive.
The Israelis could take the Wailing Wall with them and reassemble it in
some empty space in Manhatten. Hmmm.....
3) Think a generation ahead. Offer muslim women free immigration to the
US, along with young kids, but no males older than maybe 10. And of
course they leave their husbands behind. Perhaps they might convert to
christianity if free to do so. Of course announcing such a policy might
lead to millions dead in a bloodbath but imho we're heading there anyway
might as well do it now and get it over with. In any case the only part
of Dubya's most impressive speech announcing war on terrorism that is
actually maybe working at all is the turn-them-against-each-other
strategy, except of course that it applies to all islam not just the
terrorists. I mean, didn't he give a clear-cut ultimatum to the Taliban
to a cheering congress? Good thing he didn't specify a time frame,
though the 'tone' of the ultimatum I at least interpreted as 'a.s.a.p'
if not 'immediately'. Not 'if and when you find time to get around to
it'.
> Where reason and basic human decency fail, perhaps the adversary's
> basic human greed and hedonism can still offer a ray of hope.
I think you may be projecting western values here.
-Mike
-- ====================================================================== Michael Wiik Principal Messagenet Communications Research Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants http://messagenet.com mwiik@messagenet.com ======================================================================
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