“And world peace requires the willingness and the ability to defend oneself if some sand-burrowing religious fundamentalist bastard decides that the world, in turn, would be better off without you. ‘Peace’ means lack of overt conflict, not one side rolling over to expose a belly as yellow as a spring chicken. Simply touting ‘world peace’ on little cardboard signs in the hope of appeasing said bastard won’t do anything at all – it’ll simply send the message that you’re completely ready to be bundled up in primitive robes and to have all of your freedoms taken away in the name of Angry Sky God Allah.”
“What I think these people don’t realise is that morally surrendering to what is undeniably a ruthless and bloody campaign of terror is not a Good Thing. These people aren’t like your priests – they don’t just hand out Hail Marys or deep thought as penance for your sins – they will sanction the mutilation or murder of you or your family for any transgression against their entirely arbitrary and useless moral code.*** These are Bad People, not just brothers-in-spirit who happen to have dark beards.”
–Monica White
I wish our politicians were this direct in their communication.
This blog post reminds me tangentially of a interview I heard where some historian was describing the naivety of Jimmy Carter’s foreign relations. He approached other world leaders as if they were reasonable people who would honor their agreements and could be convinced to take the actions that would be best for the people of their lands.
My reaction at the time, and to this day is that I wish I lived in this mythical “Jimmy Carter world”. It would be fabulous. Unfortunately, I live in a world filled with greedy, murderous thugs who are filled with ambition to take what is not theirs by any means necessary.
I do differ with Monica’s notion that prayer will do no good, other than perhaps the dubious honor of putting you into good stead with the shamans of your faith.
If there is no God, then prayer still has a good. I believe that no matter how much personal power one possesses in life, there are events beyond one’s control. Prayer is an active way to pursue a kind of mental health that wishes for the best and accepts a power greater than one’s own “metaphysical potence.” Praying for better weather does no harm and relieves one the duty to worry about it.
In the event that there is a God, than perhaps God will intervene in the behalf of the supplicants. It’s a small price to pay for a great possibility if you ask me. That’s my twisted version of Pascal’s Wager I suppose.
So I can pray for peace in the Middle East, but also be very glad that people are willing to go there and enforce the peace with deadly force if required.
- Author: timbu
- Published: Oct 18th, 2004
- Category: Words & Language
- Comments: None
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Monica of The’ Inkwell has a great riff entitled Surrender monkeys unite!.
She begins by railing about some peacenik appeasement types whose pictures are collected in someone’s blog.
The quote from her entry that resonates most with me are the following two paragraphs.
