Let's hear it for the purple fingers of Iraq
Others are covering the news in great depth (I recommend, in particular, the entire front page of Mudville Gazette for a good roundup and links; as well as the horse's mouth, the one and only Iraq the Model).
But I have to add a word to express my own pleasure at watching the proceedings. I saw a bit on TV, and once again, the happy faces were a great joy. My hope is that stability and a democracy that preserves human rights will come as soon as possible to that long-suffering country.
Some time after the first post-invasion Iraqi election, I wrote a piece in which I reflected as follows:
When the authors of the Declaration of Independence wrote "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." it was more an article of faith than anything else, because the right of liberty (and the desire for it) was not all that self-evident to most of the world. But the framers turned out to be prescient, because here is evidence that is so strong that I think it amounts to proof: human beings want and value liberty and self-determination. Even though these things are abstractions compared to basic needs such as food and water, they seem to represent another basic need, one of the human spirit.
It seems just as true today.
posted by neo-neocon @ 3:10 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
of course when they said "all men are created equal" they weren't necessarily talking about their slaves or the indians.We can only hope the Shia majority and Kurds have a more magnamonous outlook and allow the Sunni to share in the wealth.Then we will be asked to pay for the rebuilding and to leave,we will have to bid against China for oil contracts and Iran will be in a greatly strengthened position.Thats certainly one way to get rid of a dictator, even if it is the most inept and expensive way one could have possibly devised.I knew there would be some purple finger waving over here now lets hope they can govern.
Give troutsky a lemon meringue pie and he makes lemonade.
Indeed. I think we can let collectivism's glowing human rights record speak for itself.
Kudos to the Iraqis for the way they are handling this. And all my hopes.
Peace and Christmas. Is it a dream?
The Dali Lama laughs at human tragedy and says, "It will take eons, eons." Living in the moment is not the same as living in the media. Do intelligent, educated people actually think that great progress is yielded by great violence or greater force to suppress that violence for a short time? Purple fingers today will be on metal triggers tomorrow in a society based in violence. That goes for Iraq and America equally. Children are killing each other with guns here in the great democracy that neo-cons hail. Obsessing on the problems in Iraq, New Orleans or Manhattan (as in 9/11) is the refuge of those who do not wish to concentrate on the horror and injustice in their own communities, or even their own life. Perhaps neo-cons are those who admire purple fingers on others but do not want to get their own soiled. Perhaps. Only they can answer. But I think the neo-cons in the streets of Iraq are there to profit from the invasion, not to radiate peace and good will.
Do intelligent, educated people really think that great process is yielded by great violence"
Maybe the Lama should stop laughing at all the dead monks in Tibet, or all the dead non-muslims in Darfur, or all the dead North Koreans or the dead gays hanged in the Tehran public square or the hundreds of millions of females living dead simply because they were born female. Is the intelligent and educated Lama laughing along side honor killings, the hangings, the stonings, the beheadings?
Maybe Lama can recognized in his own self that human tragedy exists when self-serving narcissism overtakes the free will of the human spirit. In other words, when good people sit around doing nothing but indulging in the quest to satisify the needs of a simple stupid moment while great violence is perpetuated upon all his surrounding neighbors.
On Dec 15, 2005, it is the Iraqis who are laughing the loudest and I share in their great joy and honor those soldiers who rose above their own needs in order to help achieve the needs of others.
Yesterday was a huge victory for freedom and democracy in Iraq. It was also vindication for a beleaguered Bush Administration, and for our military.
As for all you who begrudge Americans this hard-fought win, what exactly is it you hope for? Our failure?
To all the pessimists:
The enemy of good is perfect.
We do not hope for America's failure, for America has failed already. We only wish that more people would recognize the depths of America's failure, so it can be put out of its misery and make way for a truly enlightened and progressive society.
America has committed dire crimes, the worst of which is an abject failure to be perfect. For this crime, it must die, so a new, multicultural, pacifist, egalitarian, and truly perfect social system may take its place.
We have the knowledge and technology to create a real life utopia. All we lack is the rights we have earned through our intellect, the right to make the rest of the world obey us. A right that America has stolen, and desperately guards like the bitter old bandit it is.
We wish that right would be peacefully surrendered to those with the intellect to use it, but the warmongering neocons have dashed that hope. So we will warn you instead: we will seize that right from America by force if we must.
Anonymous wants America to die so it can "make way for a truly enlightened and progressive society" and goes on warn that "we (who exactly are "we"?) will seize that right from America by force if we must." Well. Lenin and the comrades were all hot for that truly enlightened and progressive society. That didn't work out too well, did it, anonymous? Regarding your threats, oh enlightened and pacifistic one, tell it to the Marines. (And if by chance you were posting a brilliantly satirical take on the usual Bolshevik drivel we've come to expect from some of the more unhinged among us, please accept my apologies for taking you seriously. I fear, however, that you really mean it.)
I think--perhaps--that anonymous is indulging in a form of satire. His/her statements seem to be a parody to me.
If not, well then--they are extraordinarily ignorant.
But I vote for parody.
Really; I thought this whole site was a parody from the beggining.
Heaven's sakes, if that isn't parody, I don't know what is.
"pacifism" and "seizing by force" ... an interesting conundrum. Could it be that Anonymous' glorious "multicultural" society is incapable of tolerating and living alongside ours? Perhaps the all-knowing Dalai Lama can help us sort that one out...
"So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
'The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light.'
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw..."
-- Rush, "The Trees"
Neo-neocon: other than cowardice and lack of answers, what does your silence to my e-mail mean?
Are you going to keep insulting us New Yorkers and the tragedy that happened in our city using 9/11 as your pathetic excuse for a middle-age personal crisis and change of beliefs?
New Yorker: I don't reply to people who write what I consider hate mail, who are clearly interested in neither dialogue nor listening, but rather in venting their own rather considerable spleen. Nearly every sentence of your e-mail indicated an attitude that was so closed and so filled with misconceptions and contempt that I felt there was no need to reply, and no point to replying.
that maybe you are not worth responding to?
seems bad taste and immature to post an insult inorder to solicit a response.
of course when they said "all men are created equal" they weren't necessarily talking about their slaves or the indians.
Actually they were, but unlike the fools crystalized from the Stalin, Lenin, French, and Trotsky revolutions, our founding fathers actually had a brain to go with their gutsy balls.
The Founding Fathers recognized that it requires more than banners and slogans and idealistic ideals to improve the human condition, it required pragmatism, planning, knowledge, and above all else, Power.
The power to do things, and to acquire power, one must take things as they are, not as the French or the Communists wanted them. And things are the way they are because of human nature, to take things as they are, first one must recognize human nature. That's something Trotsky overlooked, leading to his purge by Stalin.
Anyone who is dumb enough to actually get killed by their compatriots, isn't smart enough or wise enough to come up with any "human plan" for civilization. That's how it is, and anyone that denies the truth of that, ain't never going to get any power cause I can take it away from them as easily as candy from a baby.
The elements of pragmatism, power, knowledge, and planning are present in Iraq. That is why they will succede where the Russians, EUropeans, Imperial Japan, and Chinese have failed.
Anyone can produce victory, even if it is fake, but power cannot be reproduced synthetically. And that is the one gap that will never be overcome by words or ideals. Power comes from the people, and the people's power comes from adapting to reality, not the fantasies of socialism, terrorism, jihadism, or human stupidity.
The sooner someone recognizes that fact and gets on the side of the winners, the US that is, the sooner they will get to prosperity.
For those not in the know, the Dali Lama is a puppet hostage of China. That tends to happen when you're on the other side of a power gap.
One of the ways you can recognize satire is that the Left never uses force. They use words, propaganda, and lies. Power resides solely in the people, and the Left will never win over the United States citizenry without resorting to violence. But they can't resort to violence without power... hrm interesting stalemate.
Their only hope is to gain control of government and to somehow invalidate enough elections to stay in power to bend the people to their will. As has happened in Europe. Break the people, and you will acquire the power of the people.
Breaking Americans is easier said than done, simply because of the safeguards of the Constitution. And it isn't a safeguard on paper either, but in the soul.
Are you going to keep insulting us New Yorkers and the tragedy that happened in our city using 9/11 as your pathetic excuse for a middle-age personal crisis and change of beliefs?
If she won't, I will. New Yorkers need to understand that they aren't a nation, that their power derives from the power of the other 49 states who have our own interests.
It is in our country. Funny how nationalism is not reflected in bitter people's thoughts, but clannish and affinity for cities are present.
FOr those who don't know what that is, it is called factionalism and it is what brought the ROman Empire down. Maybe that's the point.
Hey, I'm a New Yorker who lost twelve friends and neighbors in the Towers. Neo's doing a great job.
If the hatemongers can't keep it civil, they should post to Kos, where their profane, illiterate buddies reside.
"Are you going to keep insulting us New Yorkers and the tragedy that happened in our city using 9/11 as your pathetic excuse for a middle-age personal crisis and change of beliefs?"
I know I always hated how my grandfather used Pearl Harbor as a pathetic excuse for a middle-age personal crisis and change of his beliefs. He should have just left those Hawaiians alone and minded his own business.
Yep, it's parody... I'm the Anonymous from 11:46 AM, and the lines are almost verbatim Trotsky, especially the "we have the technology" line.
Still, had I not placed such an emphasis on the unrealistic goal of "perfection" (and used one of several leftist euphamisms for it instead) it could almost pass for a blog entry on Juan Cole's website.
By the way, as any lefty could tell you, "force" and "pacifism" aren't incompatible. When the left says "force," they mean "the mystical power of the moral high ground that all people MUST respect, because we said so." Fantasies within fantasies, basically.
As an addendum to power, people must recognize that freedom has peculiar consequences. And one of those consequences is straight out of the Book of Humanity. Which consists of bodily needs, mental needs, spiritual needs, and social needs.
THe President acts as a focus for the people, exercising their power in as efficient a way as possible. Without debate, arguments, or UN corruption.
But the President does not use his own personal power, and therefore he cannot generate more of it on demand. He can only borrow more, and he cannot borrow more than the American people have.
Now we get to the specifics of power, how each person has an amount of power directly linked to his humanity. The power of the people is not really the vote, when all is said and done. The power of the people is their minds, their bodies, their conscience, and their souls.
To acquire the loyalty of a mind, one must provide some ideal or philosophy. Communism provided one, the Catholic Church the same, but it is not enough. Because it only fills in 1/4th of the requirements.
The other one is the requirement of the body. Fullfill that, take care of their families, their medical bills, food, children, and you will acquire the loyalty of the body in relation to the people. That loyalty has its own inherent power.
The last two requirements for full focusing of the power of a human, is almost interchangeable. It is the requirement of the soul and of the conscience, a personal view of right and wrong. And that is fullfilled by liberty. In a way, a person is happy if he acts in a way that his loved ones view as correct. A person is unhappy if he is forced to act contrary to the wishes of his social setting, his loved ones, his family, etc. This sometimes comes into conflict with mental loyalty, loyalty to ideals etc. All in all, mental trumps social and conscience. Look at the Nazis, they got children to spy on their parents. Obviously mental trumps conscience if a person is young and pliable.
Liberty is good for the soul as well as for the social/individual conscience. Because it makes it so that everyone is working together, and not at each other's throats as in a dictatorship. This prevents people from having to choose to protect themselves and their families, from protecting their neighbors and what not.
Now the soul, which is personal satisfaction. A person is not satisfied unless he can climb the social ladder, not just make right and wrong decisions.
If you are able to give a human a philosophy that he can fight for, a philosophy that is greater than himself. If you can provide for that human means of self-sufficiency and basic necessities. If you can provide for that human a way that his conscience can be clear about his actions, and if you can provide that human with social elevation through opportunity and liberty, then you will have harnessed the maximum potential of that human.
Multiply by 300 million, and you have a force to be reckoned with. If not the preeminent force on the Earth.
Those are the basic traits, but the combinations are almost endless.
Take the Left and the Defeatists, they seem to think that if you just provide basic necessities and a brain washing philosophy, that is enough. But the government dole makes people's consciences go bad, they feel pitiful. And their souls suffer because they feel like a parasite. Sort of counterproductive you know.
They ally themselves with the terroists precisely because the terroists provide the same human needs as the Left does. A philosophy, a fanatical religion of faith and belief, and basic necessities. That's what Hamas does with European charity funds, provide basic services, food, medical care in addition to their religious jihad. Mental and physical, simple eh?
Sound familiar to welfare and political correctness anyone?
Those who use the same means, will obviously tend to ally with themselves, regardless of the differences in their mental ideology. Because REMEMBER mental ideology is only one FOURTH of the human requirement for focusing power. All in all, it doesn't matter nearly as much as the end result.
In Iraq, people complain about basic necessities. What they don't seem to get is that we have all the other 3 factors covered in gold gilded silk. We have their mental loyalty. We have their conscience, they fight terroists to the death to protect their families and we encourage them to do so without sacrificing their families. We have their souls covered even, as they fight in the service of themselves, elevating themselves and their future children in a country truly their own now.
If the Roman Empire or even the British Empire was in Iraq, it would slightly different. Because the Roman Empire would have gave them civilization, thus covered their basic necessities far better than the AMerican Imperium of ideology and "get it strack yourself" philosophy.
However, Rome would also have gave them some ideology to fight for, the greater glory of Rome. What Rome could not provide as easily as we can, is the conscience and the soul.
They would have pitted patriots against other patriots in Iraq, sparking god knows what. Pacification through crucifixion and staking would have been required to make them see that it truly is better under the Roman Empire. Of course, it produces bad harmonics in people's consciences as they decide to fight for Rome or for their country, or some mix of the two. THen their souls are disrupted, as they see the differences between the two factions. It would take decades to pacify. And in those decades, Rome could not fully harness the potential human power of the Iraqi province.
The American way is different. In some ways it is a lot more effective even.
It is far more gentle, true, but its effectiveness lies in making a weakness a strength. If our weakness is that we don't like casualties, then we should use that to convince the Iraqis to be on our side.
Iraq is now almost fully convinced. Whomever goes with the insurgency now, is either acting out of fear (terroists acquired their basic necessities) or some kind of human greed, malevolence, and stupidity.
Hey, I didn't say that every human had the same potential in focusing their personal power. Some people have more, others have less. Some people are dumb, and others are smart. That's just human nature. So it would make sense that those who can only be harnessed by ideology and basic necessities will go with the terroists.
It makes sense in America too. The people who just wants the government dole and a philosophy to ease their consciences, are on the Left. Those who want a better soul, a better conscience, who want to do the right thing tend to be on the Right. Then there are those like NN Con that wants to have it all, and only lacks the knowledge of how to do so.
As everyone knows, the Book of Humanity takes all sorts of people to read. Write, read? Nevermind.
Clarification, true liberals such as NN Con wants everything in these terms. They don't want people to starve or die early because of the lack of medicine and technology. They want something greater to fight for. And they also want progress for human rights/dignity, as well as knowing that they are doing the RIGHT thing not just the convenient thing.
Most of the specifics for the Book of Humanity is misleading. Because if you say that basic necessities are covered by government dole, that's just an example that also tends to affect the other 3 parts of humanity.
Since each human is unique, it is very to make general impressions or statements about either side, Republican or Democrat. Some Republicans want to do the right thing, but doesn't believe in the same mental philosophy as the rest of us. Some don't want to do the right thing, they just want to be left alone, basic necessity version. Isolationist Republican.
This is why there is politics, to classify people based upon their policies, and not based upon their humanity or patriotism.
It gets really confusing when you start classifying Republicans and Democrats based upon human traits. Cause they're all human. Some are just better than others.
And better or worse is greater than the sum of its parts.
Good job, Anon 11:46--that's so close to some of the stuff that I've heard coming out of the left that I couldn't tell it was parody.
Haha! You suckered me in too! Chillingly well done, Anon.
Hey cool blog.
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