Matt Schieffer wrote:
Ha ha. Now now. Be nice. Tim C is outspoken, but he's and ambient music fan. I think everyone knows what its like to succumb to the fear that these terrorists intend. Tim is just angry and fearful like us all.
What kind of music one likes has little to do with what one thinks or how one conveys those thoughts publicly. Anger and fear I understand. Attacking other people's systems of thought while not having any clear understanding of one's own ramshackled and confused assumptions is quite another thing. In fact, it is a kind of fundamentalism and in that way is similar to any creed or epistemology which refuses self examination and proceeds to attack others with no basis other than "I said so". The fact that Randroids quote Aristotle freely without even knowing they employ what he called the 'hypothetical fallacy' is very ironic. The fact that they employ such belief in a system with so many gaping holes radical inconsistencies (try piecing together her cosmology sometime) is another irony as it demonstrates their use of 'faith' while they pretend they are based on pure reason, whatever that is supposed to be. Everyone else is just wrong. There is a lot of good in Aristotle, and once one factors in al of the indexicals, I am in agreement that "A cannot equal non-A" - western logic cannot proceed very lobg without some ground rules. However, if one steps up to the plate with a case to make, it is incumbent on the arguer to make said case and not just pronouce they have the absolute truth, QED, because "I said so". Even Rand would barf over that. It's nothing but an appeal to authority, based on faith - and in this case, the object of faith crumbles under Aristotelian scrutiny. Everyone, everywhere employs some level of faith in something, even if it isn't organized religion or God or Jacques Derrida - one believes the laws of gravity will still be in place based on something most of us know nothing about and even the experts can't do more than theorize about field theory. Really, I don't care what one believes - Rand, Marx, Jesus, etc, - but Tim's approach is what set my sights on him. It isn't nice to bash all religions and it isn't nice to make the kind of unsupported statements Tim is making. I wish I did have a wand whereby I could thwart all such actions of terrorism, but I will side with Mr. Gagen's brief statement earlier, quoted below. I would add only that it doesn't take a degree in religion to see where followers have historically distorted religious teachings to get an entirely other agenda deployed. To attribute those actions to the religious affiliations claimed is to be manipulated by both the ones who distort those doctrines for their own ends and by the ones oppositional who have a vested interest in making the opposite religiously righteous argument. It's about power. ------------ Don Gagen wrote: Dear Sir, Thank you for your interest in diplomatic relations... It doesn't matter who the president or prime minister is. It could be Bush or Blair, Man or Woman, Jesus or Allah, Santa or the Easter Bunny. There will always be factions who aren't satisfied, in times of war or in times of peace. Sometimes these factions run the government, and some operate outside of it. They have an agenda, and to achieve that agenda means people will die. Welcome to the inhumane world of humans. I sincerely hope all the Londoners on the list are doing well. ----------- 'nuff said. jeff