On Wed, 12 Sep 2001 12:17:37 -0700 (PDT), "Jesse C. Chang"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jose M. Sanchez wrote:
>
> > God are you full of yourself...
>
> Like civileme said previously (I think it was him), both sides have a
> kernel of truth in them. He (Sridhar) is not entirely off-base. What
> Americans percieve as an act of evil might very well be considered a
> blow against evil by many Muslims, much like the Crusades were by the
> Christians of the Middle Ages. It's pretty ridiculous the way people
> can justify the atrocities they commit as being in the name of their
> God (I'm not saying that is definitely the case here, but it is a
> possiblity).
Exactly. It depends on how you see things. For example, the motives (and hence
the root of the problem) of the Taliban (or whoever did it) _cannot_ be
understood with standard Western neoliberal thinking. They are _not_ Western,
and they are certainly _not_ neoliberal.
> However, I have to agree that his attitude leaves something to be
> desired. But it's something that every teenager goes through. I know
> I've been there, thinking I am somehow more knowledgeable than most
> everyone else just because I learned something new. In a few years,
> real world experience will give him a wake-up call, and he'll realize
> that, as he becomes older and wiser, just how much he doesn't know.
Perhaps this _is_ just "something that every teenager goes through". I have
never really disputed that, and I never will. However, I _did_ provide evidence
in support, and I believe it is quite ridiculous when someone posts the
equivalent of "you're a moron", without saying why. I never expected everyone to
agree with me. I merely intended to offer an alternate viewpoint from the
standard one put forward by much of the media and by many governments worldwide.
If one disagrees after actually _considering_ it with an open mind, then fine.
But if somebody says "I'm older than you, I have more experience, you're wrong"
without giving a real reason, I only get the impression that this person has no
independent thought whatsoever, and that they are reacting simply based on
emotion, not on independent thought or reason.
> And I mean beyond just saying, "I don't claim to know everything,"
> which is absolutely meaningless, especially when immediately followed
> by, "but I know more than most people."
Most people don't specialise in government and international relations. Most
people don't read books, articles and journals on these topics very often, if at
all. Therefore, it is difficult for most people to gain a real grasp of the
situation. _This_ is the simple point I was trying to make. Would you argue with
a doctor over medical treatments? No, because doctors generally know much more
than the average person in the field of medicine, due to training.
> Jesse
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
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