[thechat] Justice, was Chomsky

deke web at master.gen.in.us
Tue Sep 18 23:48:09 CDT 2001


On 18 Sep 2001, at 10:22, Erika Meyer posted a message which said:

> I support pacifism, not passivity.
> Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi strongly advocated pacifism.

<quibble>
Gandhi was a pacifist, but Jesus was not.

Scholars increasingly believe that Jesus was part of the essene
community of Kumran. They refer to themselves as "The Poor"
in the dead sea scrolls, and the Nazorites. Jesus, of course, 
referred to "the poor" in the sermon on the mount, where he
proclaimed that they shall inherit the land. A number of scholars,
even centuries ago, have argued that Jesus did not appear to 
have anything to do with the community of Nazareth, and was
instead a Nazorite, such as Samson was.

The community of Kumran had a forge, and was actively involved
in the attempt to overthrow the government. The community was
apparently wiped out in the jewish rebellion against the romans
about 70 AD.
</quibble>

I have serious reservations about this war. I see no "exit strategy".
We face the same basic problem we had in VietNam - we could
not destroy the enemy because we could not *identify* the enemy -
but unlike VietNam, we will not be able to "declare a victory and
bug out" because we will have no place to bug out *to* - the war is 
already being fought *here*.

I can't see the argument that we are the good guys, and God will
fight on our side - we're *all* God's children. God has historically
fought on the side of the heaviest artillery, but only in conventional
warfare. Francis Marion succeeded, Che Guevara succeeded, the
VietCong succeeded, despite being outgunned, because it's a 
more effective strategy to be sneaky than to mimic a bullseye.

We're powerful, but Sonny Liston was powerful. They can float like
a butterfly, sting like a bee, and if we think we're going to win this 
in a walk, we're fooling ourselves.  It's going to be about as easy to
win this war as it has been to win the war on drugs - or the war on
spam.

But what choice do we have?  It's kinda hard to pick up our continent
and run with it. Either it's a fight or a mugging.  I don't want us to go
without a struggle.

deke



------------------------
 "The church is near but the road is icy; 
  the bar is far away but I will walk carefully." 
                            -- Russian Proverb




More information about the thechat mailing list