9/11 12 Sep 2010 They hated our freedoms, so we instituted warrantless wiretapping, electronic surveillance and denied habeus corpus. They hated our lack of religious control, so we redoubled our efforts to make discussing religion a crime, and to impose particular religious values on all, irrespective of their beliefs or commitments. They hated our wealth, so we bankrupted ourselves trying to invade and control parts of the world that defeated all others. To pay for this we taxed the poor. They hated our education, so we stopped teaching science and history that offended some religious people. They hated our quality of life, so we took the dangers posed by a few, who harmed a few, and made life less for all. They won. Politics Religion Sermon
Evolution A casual disregard for facts 22 Aug 200818 Sep 2017 A little while back I linked to Sahotra Sarkar’s review of Steve Fuller’s Science versus Religion. Now Fuller has put up a defence at the Intelligent Design website, Uncommon Descent, under the gerrymandered image of a bacterial flagellum (if you want to know what a real flagellum would look like… Read More
Humor I should stand for Parliament perhaps 7 May 2010 It’s the going thing in the UK. H/T Leiter. Read More
History Greewald on Bush on Evil 20 Jun 2007 A very thoughtful and interesting, dare I say almost philosophical, discussion of the Manichaean nature of the Bush Administration is in the present Salon here. A quote: The power to order people detained and imprisoned based solely on accusation is one of the most extraordinary and tyrannical powers any political… Read More
I’m Canadian, (from Toronto, a multicultural city) , so maybe my experience is a bit different. I don’t disagree with any of your points in particular. But it seems to me if “they won” you wouldn’t be allowed to write what you’re writing, and I wouldn’t have seen the link here through Facebook. “They” want much much more than what you’ve listed. Steady. Steady.
“They” want to destabilise and disrupt western society and values, which they hate. They won. They do not want to invade or take over our society; mostly these folk want to be left alone to live their horrid little religious lives. To achieve that, they have attacked western society. We reacted exactly as they expected us to. In my country, in Australia, there is a residual hatred of the different that is not unlike any other country, but mostly Muslims live here without any trouble, despite the Murdoch Press’ campaign against them. But my country, which is free so far of terrorism (apart from what might have been a training mission gone wrong by our own intelligence agencies back in the 70s, ascribed to a religious sect) is instituting indefinite retention of electronic activities, mandatory internet filtering (it’s delayed, not gone), and there has been at least one case of a Muslim being detained illegally on suspicion of terrorism, with no legal representation for two weeks – on faulty evidence and extremely bad process. How is that not winning? For a very little expenditure, they got us to do what they wanted us to do.
The point needs to be made again and again. Bush et al played right into the terrorists’ hands with their extreme reaction to the 9/11 attacks, and incidentally forfeited the quite widespread international sympathy for the US that emerged just after that. Now rightwing extremists are again helping their “mirror brethren”on the other side by stupid stunts like threats to indulge in Quran-burning, and the campaign against the Muslim community centre near Ground Zero. They can’t be prevented from doing this of course, but it’s a classic case of what John Fowles used to call “countersupporting” their enemies. Your list of foolish actions by Australia could well be extended, John. One of the disappointments of the election of Labor in 2007 was its failure to do anything about the police-state anti-terrorism legislation left over from the Howard government, laws whose effect would inevitably bear mainly and discriminatingly against one community, the Muslims. We had the Haneef case and the Ul-Haq case, and there will no doubt be others, where the dangers of this legislation were revealed pretty clearly. The strengthening of the “sedition” legislation by H0ward a few years ago is a sleeper issue with concerning implications as well. The problem presumably is that no politician is game to seem “soft on terrorism”, even when that means trashing our civil rights. I keep wondering what the Labor Party actually stands for.
The Labor Party stands for Labor government, and subsequent control of public assets, just like all other parties do of themselves. I’d love to think that the Greens, or my vote du jour, the Australian Sex Party, stand for the public good, and in their own minds they probably do, but basically the sole justification for democracy is that those in authority will inevitably become corrupt, and when they do we can vote them out. What Labor does not stand for now, IMO, is anything remotely progressive. There are several reasons for this, I think. One is that they have catered to the religious in order to gain votes (or at least not scare the horses); think of Gillard refusing to support gay marriage! The other main reason is that Labor exists to provide a career path to union organisers (who very often, in my anecdotal experience, become union politicians in order to become political careerists in the wider context), and like the conservatives, who support Big Business, Labor exists now to support Big Unions. So the social agenda is lost in the interests of lobby groups. I call this lobbocracy; the rule of special interests. One reason why the current situation obtains in Australia is that whoever is in charge, there is a constant temptation towards demagoguery as a cheap way to keep being elected. Instead of a measured response by all responsible and sensible members in Parliament, we get the kneejerk reaction, just as we do with “Law ‘n Order”, immigration, refugees, funding billionaires in their desire to become even richer not taxing industries that live off social goods like the mining industry, and so on. So when something scares our little darlings, we cater to their worser angels. I have some hope that our hung parliament is a belated recognition that this is a bad idea, but I think that is a forlorn hope.
I don’t know whether the successful prosecution by those behind 9/11 necessarily means that TERRORISTS WIN. As in the aftermath of many tragedies, many in the U.S. came together in solidarity. Even amid the cries by the conservative, religious right to block the so-called “ground zero mosque”, and despite those who would burn the Koran to foment extremist Muslims’ rage and gain worldwide publicity, some have come forward with articulate, sensible responses to this craziness.
Propagandists’ most predictable trick is to accuse others of their own sins. Propaganda: “They hate our freedom.” -George W. Bush, March 18, 2002 “They hate our freedoms.” -John McCain, January 5, 2008 Reality: If hating freedom is Bush’s, McCain’s, and their type’s own sin, whose freedom is it that they hate? Ours! George (Jack Nicholson): You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it. Billy (Dennis Hopper): Huh. Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened, man. Hey, we can’t even get into like, uh, second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel. You dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or something, man. They’re scared, man. George: Oh, they’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em. Billy: Hey man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody needs a haircut. George: Oh no. What you represent to them is freedom. Billy: What the hell’s wrong with freedom, man? That’s what it’s all about. George: Oh yeah, that’s right, that’s what it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it – that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. ‘Course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em. Billy: Mmmm, well, that don’t make ‘em runnin’ scared. George: No, it makes ‘em dangerous. Nik, nik, nik, nik, nik, nik, nik, nik – Swamp. -Easy Rider, 1969 Poor Richard’s Almanack 2010
They haven’t won just yet, there are still a few of us who resist. I wish I had the words to have said this myself. Thank you. I was feeling a bit down before, but now… I still feel the same. But I’m not alone…
Poor Richard | September 13, 2010 at 3:51 pm | Reply “Propagandists’ most predictable trick is to accuse others of their own sins.” ————————- Do you mean something like “Bush did it” , sounds all to familiar. So what’s the propagandists’ trick to placing blame and not taking responsibility for their own actions….interesting indeed. No they haven’t won, have you changed your way of life yet?
I think you might know what tyranny and oppression are if they actually did win. No amount of blogging or reason would help you, and those of us who like to voice our opinion would be the first against the wall. Rethink.
Um, you’re not bankrupt, and a minuscule portion of your GDP has been spent on the Afghanistan adventure. It seems everyone’s a doomsday prophet nowadays.
Well done, clear and moving. One problem: What does scientifically ignorant Christians’ challenging evolution in Kansas, etc. the classroom have to do with 9/11? That has been going on long for over a hundred years, long before any concerns about Islamic terrorism.
I voted in favor of gay marriage. I’m okay allowing others to live thei lives. Gays encompass about 15% of the U.S. Population – but they are present in 65% of the media in what can only be referred to as religious fervor. That 15% will get a Christian kicked out of a good university, or segregated to another. That 15% actively worked to get shows cancelled in the late 90s. There is so much to this that is wrong that goes beyond sexual orientation. This is political control via media. Though none of you will be on the business end of their powerful guns, I can only hope you’ll stop swallowing the kool-aid they’re passing out. Start seeking the whole truth rather than ensconcing yourselves into a polarized point of view.