14 Nov
2015
14 Nov
'15
10:57 a.m.
For those sending their thoughts and sympathy to the
100 or so innocent
victims in Paris, whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time, perhaps you can find a drop of sympathy to spare for the
multiple thousands of innocents we have blown to pieces for exactly the
same crime. High explosive doesn't discriminate, and the fact that we
talk about "surgical" strikes and "precision" bombs is a grotesque
and
self-serving lie, as bad and as ridiculous as the one about the 72
virgins waiting in heaven. (For every militant killed by drone, an
average of 37 non-combatants, including women and children, is
also killed.)
This I have taken offence at because it is judgemental and attempts to make
people feel guillty. I feel for all innocent victims of any violence but I
don't have to express that personal grief in a mailing list everytime
something happens anywhere. I feel for the just under 300 who died in MH17,
I feel for the just over 200 who died in Sinai, I feel for the dozen babies
that have been found in Germany wrapped up in plastic bags in an apartment,
I feel for the Palestinians who are beaten and downtroden by a global
community who wont stand up for their human rights. I feel for innocent
African children who are forced into civil wars under threat of the death
of their families, I feel for the girls who are abducted by groups like
Boko Haram. I feel for the innocents caught up in a civil war in Syria
that should never have been let drag on for so long. I feel for all the
innocent people who have drowned in monsoons trying to get to Australia, I
feel for all the innocents who have died in the Mediterranean trying to
escape the madness of what is going on in their own countries. This is just
a minute percentage of what is going on. If I were to post what I feel for
every single person or group who is treated inhumanly I'd never get
anything done because there is just so much crap going on on this planet
that it would take all day everyday to post my thoughts. Just because I,
personally, haven't posted anything in this mailing list about all these
other horrendous events doesn't mean I don't care about others and for
someone like yourself to just assume I, or others, don't indicates more
about you than it does about anyone else.
On 14 November 2015 at 21:27, Steven D'Aprano <steve(a)pearwood.info> wrote:
On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 09:41:31AM +0100, Dr. Nikolaus
Klepp wrote:
Hosea 8:7
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" --
spoken of Israel's punishment for having turned away from the demands of
their petty and cruel god.
Whatever the sins of the French government, and there are many, or even
of individual French people, the victims did not deserve to be murdered
or injured like this. Two wrongs do not make a right, and I think that
it is contemptible to suggest that the victims in Paris deserved their
fate for turning away from god.
This sort of medieval religious hatred is one of the reasons we're in
this predicament: we blow them up, they blow us up, which gives us the
excuse we were looking for to blow them up some more.
I wish I could believe that the cycle of violence would end some day,
but I doubt it. So-called Homo sapiens is a nasty, violent, tribal
chimpanzee with pretentions of grandure, and greater power hasn't
brought on greater wisdom. We commit inexcusable acts with vengence and
retaliation for crimes (real or imaginary) as the excuse, but the real
reason is that "we" want something "they" have, be it oil or power
or
just the joy of seeing strangers dead for the unspeakable crime of
fighting back.
For those sending their thoughts and sympathy to the 100 or so innocent
victims in Paris, whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time, perhaps you can find a drop of sympathy to spare for the
multiple thousands of innocents we have blown to pieces for exactly the
same crime. High explosive doesn't discriminate, and the fact that we
talk about "surgical" strikes and "precision" bombs is a grotesque
and
self-serving lie, as bad and as ridiculous as the one about the 72
virgins waiting in heaven. (For every militant killed by drone, an
average of 37 non-combatants, including women and children, is
also killed.)
Until both sides are prepared to acknowledge their crimes, AND change
their behaviour, the cycle of violence will just continue.
--
Steve
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