Subject:
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Jerry Falwell has more in common with the Taliban than you think
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:04:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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202 times
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In fact, the bombing is all about our commitment to secular values. It is
our secular values--love of pleasure, self-reliance, reason, material
wealth, technology, freedom, capitalism--that mark the fundamental
difference in philosophy between our nation and terror.
Secular values ARE the root of enmity between the West and the countries
breeding our current enemies. It can be dramatically observed as far back as
Ibn-Sina (Avicenna, a great benefactor of the West's secular heritage and
Renaissance) and his opponent, al-Ghazali, representing the drive to make
the world safe for religion by destroying worldly philosophy. In his time,
Ibn-Sina was persecuted in Iran for his then-liberal views and use of
secular Greek philosophers, and we are the stronger today for his emigration.
Jerry Falwell has more in common with the Taliban than he realizes, because
all of these secular things offend him too. It's no accident that Reagan,
who invited close ties between federal government and religion (Falwell *in
particular*) chose to support the Muhajideen in Afghanistan (who are now
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda). It was done because the terrorists' religious
values were held to be closer to ours than the Soviet's "secular " values.
(albeit based on Allah not Jehavoah, Mohammed not Jesus, just another name.)
(as for the Soviets, Marxism-Leninism is a poor scion of German idealism,
itself an attempt to save religion from reason.)
I don't mean any violence toward anyone. Everything I say is directed at
discovering *fundamental* convictions underlying today's scene.
Did no one heed the progressive warnings coming out of Afghanistan? Sure,
destroy the Buddha statues--even the Torah supports that. The ban on
kite-flying and presumably all other toys? And every pleasure in between?
The conviction of 8 Christian aid workers for passing out evangelical
pamphlets? They will be sentenced to death, along with any Muslims who read
those pamphlets.
I am sick of our intellectuals apologizing for the philosophies that cause
these events. There is a void, an utter lack of leadership in our
universities today, because I dare say that our intellectuals know they have
more values in common with religious dictatorships than they care to admit.
(Start with a rejection of objective truth in favor of whatever alternative,
God or dialectic materialism or analysis ) and an ethics of altruism and duty.)
But because of the intellectual leadership we get in America, our national
policies are a mish-mash of compromise and futile self-sacrifice. The end
result is appeasement of our enemies--and their taking advantage of the
situation to force their world-view on our lives. You can make desperate
jibes at the right-wing clowns in government if that is how you see them,
but think twice why they are so empty-headed.
To those who will poo-poo my views as simplistic, I am not a philosopher, or
an intellectual. I'm just an engineer. I gave up on a liberal arts career
after observing how conformist, how hopeless and dry academia is today. If
this state of terrorism wipes out my livelihood--and my business IS in
danger of being triggered into liquidation this week as a result--perhaps I
shall retire to the woods with my books and strengthen my
My Hindu friend made a sobering remark at lunch one day as we were eating
with our Pakistani friend who is a sincere and peace-loving Muslim. "There
would be less violence in the world if religion were to disappear tomorrow."
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