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Great answer! Meaning: that is no answer at all. As philosophers are bent
to do, they can only question and not produce any answers. If your
*wonderful* philosophical mind can somehow take away someone's beliefs, but
do not substitute anything else, that is going to disolve all need for
terrorism? Get real and go think some more. I suspect you will turn into
another statue of "the thinker" before you come up with any useable answer.
----- Original Message -----
From: <the_omega_man@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "krf01" <krf01@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>; "BobR" <bobrabcd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 11:41 AM
Subject: THE ANSWER
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
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