From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Aug 18 2002 - 09:05:34 MDT
Michael Roy Ames writes
> [Eliezer's reply] was certainly more compassionate than others
> of the 'who should we attack?' variety.
No argument there. Of course, just as he said (more or less),
the first step really is first aid. The much celebrated NY
firemen and police, as you know, are already paid to be in
place and perform just such functions.
> Perhaps you are assuming everyone has to take an 'us vs. them'
> attitude, before responding to an attack? This is a ubiquitous
> human assumption, and I cannot fault you for it. But couldn't
> we move beyond that adversarial mindset?
Yes. Let us reason together. Let us turn our swords into
plowshares. Let us make war no more forever. Let there
be peace.
The problem, however, of making reasonable *suggestions* to
entities which are already---let's face it---adversaries is
not so easy. I hope that you read the fine posts by Robert
Bradbury and others who lay out measured yet creative steps
that could be taken.
> I consider the problem of 'nuclear threat' to be, not
> us vs. them, but us vs. us - a species at war with itself.
Yes, we are all human beings. And "us" should mean the
whole human race, although perhaps we really want for "us"
to include all sentient life capable of feelings. (I still
wish to exclude trees, rocks, and all those beetles.)
But I don't understand where your observations get us.
Have you found in your own private life that you are
less quick to anger, that you take insults or aggression
better by appreciating the platitudes? Next time that
someone smashes into your car remember that we are all
human beings, and that it is wrong for us to have unkind
thoughts about each other.
> As a rational thinker, my response to an attack *may*
> be identical from either POV, but I suspect it would
> be quite different.
Well, I can't tell if you're an American, but if you are,
then all you have to ask yourself is how you felt last
September 11. Not surprisingly, however, a good many
Brits, other English speakers, and a few other Europeans
seemed not only quite personally affected, but so angry
that they wanted retaliation too.
Or perhaps you've just evolved beyond having those
impulses that nature took so many millions of years
to develop in the rest of us.
Lee
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