Re: Re[2]: Al'Qaeda's fantasy ideology:  Policy Review no. 114 On Sat, Aug 17, 2002 at 01:51:25AM -0400, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:
> Hate-lit

By choosing that term you are certainly attempting to frame the debate by
choosing a fear-charged word.

> What if they operate by the same neural-annealing Maxima-Minima
> gratification mechanisms as you or I and every other creature on this
> planet?  

If somebody maximizes their gratification by slaughtering people, we
shouldn't just try to understand them. We should try to stop them. You
seem to have forgotten this in your moral relativism. Everybody is
justified in their own head. This doesn't mean we forgive mass murders,
or ignore their acts. They are still guilty and abhorrent. We do
understand them better when we see them as a flawed human being, like
any one of us.

> When both sides can call the other "evil" to the cheers of their local
> public and media, you can bet something's rotten in the state of Denmark.

Calling "the other side" evil is a time-honored tradition. It is less 
of a stepping point for an analysis of the situation than it is for an
analysis of human nature in general.

> I guess that's why I live in the woods.  Bears and racoons I
> understand, but I really just don't 'get' people.

People require a touch more effort.

-- 
njl
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