A Plague on All Our Ideological Culture Warriors
The coining of the concept of 'ideology' apparently dates back to the late 18th or early 19th century and originally meant simply a system of ideas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology
However, since at least the critique of capitalism by Marx-Engels in The German Ideology of 1845 (of which any and all should read at least Part I), 'ideology' has taken on the overtones of a false or distorted interpretation of historical events.
I recall getting a persuasive book back during the all too brief Kennedy presidency that suggested that the U.S. was almost unique in not having a national ideology.
Whatever -- one is bothered by the current uses of the term as though the truth depended upon proving that one's own ideology -- right wing neocon to radical Islamist -- is the only correct view of reality and that advocates must do battle to overwhelm their 'evil' competitors. In such a no holds barred war of ideologies any reinterpretation of the facts or their interconnections is to be accepted -- whether true or false -- so long as it supports one's own vision of things. Any sort of lying or vilification of one's enemies is fully justified by a slick modern version of 'all things are fair in (love) and war'.
One must be particularly bothered by crude sloganeering such as Bush's "axis of evil," which designated whole nations as enemies and which has been used to justify brutally destructive measures directed against too many innocent people, e.g. the "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, which directly echoed Hitler's Blitzkrieg!
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/blitzkrieg.htm
Anything goes against one's "evil" enemies and, thus, the deaths of innocents has been excused away as merely "collateral damage." The London (which I love as a former resident there) has lost as many as 100 cruelly killed by an ideology. But how many of us recall that as many were killed in Fallujah (50 to 300?) when a single British guided missile strayed into a crowded market place during the first Gulf war?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah
When I hear a Bush or a Blair sounding the rallying cry for a war against 'terrorists', I cringe because such a 'war' is likely going to be directed blindly against people assumed to be 'terrorists', assumed to be friends of 'terrorists', assumed to be hosts of 'terrorists', or simply living in the vicinity of 'terrorists' -- any of whom may be be killed, maimed, imprisoned without legal or moral or restraints.
This anti terrorist mind set is an ideological mirror image of the terrorist mentality that it opposes -- and roughly 3 to 10 times as deadly to judge by the relative body counts engendered by our "Coalition of the Willing." The Biblical injunction in Matthew warns: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?". We must at least take cognizance of what we are doing and what others whom we have designated as our enemies are experiencing us doing to them!
What each side forgets is that we are all frail human beings trying to survive in an all too hazardous world. Today the Brits (God save the Queen!) are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 in which a goodly number of the 200 million humans died who were slaughtered during our 20th century parade of brutal massacres and wars. I well remember WW2 as a scared young kid -- nevertheless enthusiastically doing my part for the war effort from manning our backyard aircraft warning station to collecting scrap paper and even milkweed pods to be used for life jackets.
I view our arm chair culture warriors as ideological 'mass murderers' -- my preferred term to the inflated one of 'terrorist', which carries with it romanticized overtones of heroism. And liberal democracies do not torture, kill, and maim in kind. They respect the standards hard won over the centuries of the Rule of Law and the rights formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and also the conventions providing standards for the treatment of civilians and captives in wartime. Those who are determined to live by the sword are destined in these days of WMD to risk not only their own lives, but all of us facing the threats posed by modern weapons and hazardous substances and sites. Anyone who has read the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) reports on NYC is all too aware where the dangers lie and how terribly vulnerable we are. The London atrocities were minor in consequence as to what might have happened there -- or in Birmingham or in whatever city lies down wind from a nuclear or chemical plant.
More dangerous, then, than 'terrorists' are those on both sides who would use inflated language to justify their own murderous acts while piously condemning those of their enemies. A plague on all our ideological culture warriors!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.legendgames.net/blognews.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology
However, since at least the critique of capitalism by Marx-Engels in The German Ideology of 1845 (of which any and all should read at least Part I), 'ideology' has taken on the overtones of a false or distorted interpretation of historical events.
I recall getting a persuasive book back during the all too brief Kennedy presidency that suggested that the U.S. was almost unique in not having a national ideology.
Whatever -- one is bothered by the current uses of the term as though the truth depended upon proving that one's own ideology -- right wing neocon to radical Islamist -- is the only correct view of reality and that advocates must do battle to overwhelm their 'evil' competitors. In such a no holds barred war of ideologies any reinterpretation of the facts or their interconnections is to be accepted -- whether true or false -- so long as it supports one's own vision of things. Any sort of lying or vilification of one's enemies is fully justified by a slick modern version of 'all things are fair in (love) and war'.
One must be particularly bothered by crude sloganeering such as Bush's "axis of evil," which designated whole nations as enemies and which has been used to justify brutally destructive measures directed against too many innocent people, e.g. the "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, which directly echoed Hitler's Blitzkrieg!
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/blitzkrieg.htm
Anything goes against one's "evil" enemies and, thus, the deaths of innocents has been excused away as merely "collateral damage." The London (which I love as a former resident there) has lost as many as 100 cruelly killed by an ideology. But how many of us recall that as many were killed in Fallujah (50 to 300?) when a single British guided missile strayed into a crowded market place during the first Gulf war?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah
When I hear a Bush or a Blair sounding the rallying cry for a war against 'terrorists', I cringe because such a 'war' is likely going to be directed blindly against people assumed to be 'terrorists', assumed to be friends of 'terrorists', assumed to be hosts of 'terrorists', or simply living in the vicinity of 'terrorists' -- any of whom may be be killed, maimed, imprisoned without legal or moral or restraints.
This anti terrorist mind set is an ideological mirror image of the terrorist mentality that it opposes -- and roughly 3 to 10 times as deadly to judge by the relative body counts engendered by our "Coalition of the Willing." The Biblical injunction in Matthew warns: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?". We must at least take cognizance of what we are doing and what others whom we have designated as our enemies are experiencing us doing to them!
What each side forgets is that we are all frail human beings trying to survive in an all too hazardous world. Today the Brits (God save the Queen!) are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 in which a goodly number of the 200 million humans died who were slaughtered during our 20th century parade of brutal massacres and wars. I well remember WW2 as a scared young kid -- nevertheless enthusiastically doing my part for the war effort from manning our backyard aircraft warning station to collecting scrap paper and even milkweed pods to be used for life jackets.
I view our arm chair culture warriors as ideological 'mass murderers' -- my preferred term to the inflated one of 'terrorist', which carries with it romanticized overtones of heroism. And liberal democracies do not torture, kill, and maim in kind. They respect the standards hard won over the centuries of the Rule of Law and the rights formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and also the conventions providing standards for the treatment of civilians and captives in wartime. Those who are determined to live by the sword are destined in these days of WMD to risk not only their own lives, but all of us facing the threats posed by modern weapons and hazardous substances and sites. Anyone who has read the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) reports on NYC is all too aware where the dangers lie and how terribly vulnerable we are. The London atrocities were minor in consequence as to what might have happened there -- or in Birmingham or in whatever city lies down wind from a nuclear or chemical plant.
More dangerous, then, than 'terrorists' are those on both sides who would use inflated language to justify their own murderous acts while piously condemning those of their enemies. A plague on all our ideological culture warriors!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.legendgames.net/blognews.asp
posted by Ed Kent at 2:50 PM
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