From: Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Date: Fri Jun 27 1997 - 20:51:11 MDT
JKC writes
: > In general, the desire not to be killed is much stronger than
: > the desire to kill a stranger, even a Jewish stranger.
S.J. Van Sickle writes
: Unfortunately, I don't believe this is true. There have evolved
: systems of memes whose *sole* purpose is to get you to value killing
: the other guy *more than your own life* (let alone net worth).
: Examples include certain muslim beliefs about jihad and paradise,
: the christian Crusades, Maoist revolutionary theory, and the
: extremely sophisticated psychological manipulation in Army and Marine
: basic training. "A rational army *would* run".
Are these phenomena pervasive enough to overcome JKC's "In general"?
I have yet to encounter such a fanatic in daily life.
Also, these fanatics generally (there's that word again) have a goal
other than simple killing. The Crusaders didn't care about wiping
Islam from the world, just from the Holy Land. The suicide bombers
of today may have a secret desire to kill all Americans, but they
mainly kill soldiers in Arabia. And so on.
(How many of the Crusaders went by their own choice, and how many
were dragged along by their feudal lord?)
[...]
: > Jews would be willing to pay as much as necessary, up to and
: > including their entire net worth not to be killed. I doubt if
: > even the most rabid anti Semite would go much beyond 2%.
:
: Ah, but what if you can con someone else into paying the price for
: you?
One more good reason to abolish taxes.
Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com
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