|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
BobR wrote:
> The evolution of consciousness requires that mankind first survive, and
> second to find common ground to co-exist. He must rise above his "concepts"
> of god.
and Kim wrote:
> I don't agree with everything Ayn Rand offers but the most important thing
> ever written by her (not sure if OM will agree), is the concept that the
> sovereign entity is NOT the 'group' (company, county, state, country,
> religion etc.). It's the self - the individual.
Well, Kim, you are close... but go deeper. Why is the sovereign entity the individual and not the "group"?
**
What you find at the heart of any political fanaticism is mysticism: an irrational belief in a "higher power" (the state (fascism), a god (Islam, among others), "the working class" (communism), race (Nazism, among others), etc.) Every barbarism in history has been justified by reference to some mystical higher power. The current barbarism is no different.
As long as any value is placed above the value of free life itself, as long as belief in mystical "higher powers" exists, there will be those willing to give and take the lesser value (life) in order to obtain, or achieve the success of, the "higher" (mystical) value. And as long as that is the case, there will be "terrorism".
Pull the weed of terrorism up by the roots? Turn "the offending countries" into parking lots? Do you honestly believe that this will stop "terrorism"?
Let us be clear: what we are discussing now does not have much to do with obtaining justice. The 18 or so perpetrators of the terrible acts in New York and Washington are all dead. There is no more justice to be obtained from them. Everything being done now is either justice at the margins (punishing accomplices and the like) or it is about preventing future similar acts. So the important question is: how are such future acts to be prevented? I submit the following: you may kill as many people as you wish, but you will not stop terrorism as long as mystical beliefs in "higher powers" exist anywhere.
To those of you who believe that terrorism can be eradicated by a military campaign I ask: How do you plan to find every person who is willing to give his life (and take yours) for some "higher power"? Are you able to read the minds of everyone on earth? Are you under the illusion that such people live only in "foreign" countries? Do you believe that Islam is the only mystical fanaticism that exists?
So what is the answer? Increased security at airports? Will increased security prevent the boarding of martial artists who kill without weapons? More prayer vigils and remembrance services (fighting mysticism with mysticism)? Singing patriotic or religious songs? Perhaps we should light some more candles? Who's for bringing back the yellow ribbons from the Carter years?
No, the answer does not lie in Proverbs or in any of the above empty gestures. The answer lies in reason. When reason trounces mysticism, when ALL mysticism is seen for what it is, anti-life, only then will we have the real weed by its roots.
The Omega Man
|