From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Fri Dec 03 1999 - 19:39:50 MST
Robert J Bradbury wrote:
> Once an individual or group gets a distinct technology or numbers
> advantage, then yes, we do seem to have a bad habit of falling
> back on violence.
Lebensraum. If I understand you correctly, Robert, then I emphatically
agree that "gratuitous homicide" is the exception rather than the rule.
The problem is, if we think "national" morality is a scandal, this is nothing
compared to "international" morality. It is curious how a species as
apparently intelligent as ourselves has been so impotent in translating
ordinary village civility into intercivility with respect to the relations of
putatively civilized political entities.
"Territoriality" seems to confer a civil waiver on competitors; even
"gratuitous homicide", based entirely on indulgence in sadomasochistic
anal wishes, is permitted with discretion by military officers because
of its power to intimidate (or "terrorize").
I apologize for my apparent preoccupation with perhaps distasteful
medical gestalten this evening. Rather "crabbed" as someone told me.
Unfortunately, a medical, like a German, joke is no laughing matter.
So what is a Saturnian to do?
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
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