[Vision2020] Bush's Primitive Warrior Ethics

Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Sun Mar 25 07:43:13 PDT 2007


I think that Steve Sack summed it up rather appropriately on March 19th -

http://www.tomandrodna.com/Steve_Sack_031907.gif

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"What does that mean, 'outrages upon human dignity'? That's a statement that
is wide open to interpretation."

-- George W. Bush

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-----Original Message-----

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 11:03 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Bush's Primitive Warrior Ethics

nickgier at adelphia.net wrote:

>Dear Visionaries:
>
>For those who don't want to read the entire piece, here three of the final
paragraphs:
>
>For example, a clear sign of progress in Western society is that one does
not need to argue against rape: it is "dogmatically" clear to everyone that
rape is wrong. If someone were to advocate the legitimacy of rape, he would
appear so ridiculous as to disqualify himself from any further
consideration. And the same should hold for torture. .  .
>
>Are we aware that the last time such things were part of public discourse
was back in the late Middle Ages, when torture was still a public spectacle,
an honorable way to test a captured enemy who might gain the admiration of
the crowd if he bore the pain with dignity? Do we really want to return to
this kind of primitive warrior ethics?
>
>This is why, in the end, the greatest victims of torture-as-usual are the
rest of us, the informed public. A precious part of our collective identity
has been irretrievably lost. We are in the middle of a process of moral
corruption: those in power are literally trying to break a part of our
ethical backbone, to dampen and undo what is arguably our civilization's
greatest achievement, the growth of our spontaneous moral sensitivity.
>
>March 24, 2007, The New York Times
>Op-Ed Contributor
>Knight of the Living Dead
>By SLAVOJ ZIZEK
>  
>

Exactly.  This was what I was trying to say (not nearly as eloquently) 
back when the Viz was having this discussion.  I was having a hard time 
getting across my incredulity at having to actually voice *why* 
torturing somebody was bad.  It was surreal.

Paul

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