"The Banter of Sociopaths" -- M. Ventura on Mideast rhetoric

[villager]

Children and cease-fires:

John R. Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the UN, calls the notion of a cease-fire "simplistic" (The New York Times, July 20, p.11). Bush says a cease-fire must be "real" and not just something "that will make us all feel better" (CNN, July 27). Condi Rice says that before there can be a cease-fire, "there have to be certain conditions." Nicholas Burns, third-ranking official in the State Department: "We want to avoid a situation where we essentially put a Band-Aid on something" (The New York Times, July 31, p.1). In spite of civilian casualties, Bush continues to resist a cease-fire while claiming that "they have a different tool to use than we do. ... They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives" (CNN, July 28). In blocking a cease-fire we are using the same terrorist "tool." Remember: "There are more children that have been killed than combatants" (CNN's Jim Clancy, Aug. 8).

Translate the formal statements on all sides into plain English. Hezbollah and Hamas: "We have good reasons for killing children and unarmed civilians." Israel and the United States: "We have better reasons for killing children and the unarmed, and we can kill more of 'em." Bush and Rice: "We see no 'real' reason not to kill children and the unarmed, unless we get what we want." Bolton: "It's 'simplistic' not to kill children and the unarmed." Hezbollah, Hamas, Israel, and the United States: "If they kill children, we gotta too."

Theirs is the banter of sociopaths. Dressing it up in diplomatic jargon makes it no less insane. No less cruel. Since July 24, the day we rejected an immediate cease-fire, civilian deaths have more than doubled. That cease-fire not "real"? It would have been real enough for them.

As of this writing, the killing continues.

<snip>

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oi...

[damntexdem]

1. And, of course, the sociopathic banter continues.

And is repeated by the MSM.

[The Magistrate]

2. The Unfortunate Truth, Sir, Disclosed By Deep Study Of History

Is that the natural state of human society consists in a herd of the chronically depressed, lorded over by a few energetic sociopaths, spiced with by ocassional psychopath who shocks even them.

The "translations" offered are not bad, as functional meanings....

[CollegeDUer]

3. Check out the ontology on that 'un

[IntiRaymi]

4. The deep study of history is always tinged by the official stance

Of the victors.
It is a mistake to just sit on one's hands, and wait a century to find out that an outrage has happened.

[The Magistrate]

5. Do You Really Think So, Sir?

Do you have any substantial quarrel with the summary presented?

[IntiRaymi]

6. It's your overall cynicism that I have a quarrel with.

Your post is permeated with it.

[The Magistrate]

8. Ah, Well, Sir

Mr. G. B. Shaw addressed that some years ago, saying, "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism...."

[villager]

7. The question then is why is the herd so chronically depressed?

I agree with your analysis -- when do we, collectively, start to un-depress and take the planet -- and its human created institutions -- back from the psychopaths?

[The Magistrate]

9. My Guess, Sir

Would the depression stems from a combination of awareness of the true circumstances of humans in the world, compounded by the calculated effects of actions by the sociopaths who remain active and interested despite it. Granted there is a "chicken or egg" quality to this....

"People who aren't depressed just aren't paying attention."

[pelsar]

10. actually its mere egotism...

for reasons unknown to me people think/believe we are somehow "above" the animals of the jungle, that we have overcome such basic needs as identity, self presevation over the "other" etc.

anyway its all a mute point, sooner or later some meterorite will smash in to the earth, the earth will tilt another degree and bring on the new ice age, or the sun will heat up a couple of degrees and turn super nova, some aliens will remove the earth for their superhighway...and all of this humanity will then disappear until some new life form appears...or doesnt.

[The Magistrate]

11. That Is A Good Point, Sir

To put it mildly, it is difficult to identify any clear division between us and the rest of the beastiary. Employment of symbol comes closest, but it is difficult to know the inner processes of minds without language and be certain.

Can it be safely taken, Sir, from your closing comment, that you are a devotee in some degree of Mr. Douglas Adams?

"Nor, in a perfect Universe, would the ceiling be quite that shade of turquoise."

[pelsar]

12. Caught!

I loved the book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the others. Yes I am one of those who dont really take this life so seriously and find all this arguing over a relatively unimpressive piece of earth (it aint switzerland....) rather absurd.