Black and white thinking is a dangerous path to go down. Not because there is necessarily something wrong with thinking in absolutes, well there is but that's besides the point. I put people who are prone to black and white thinking on a low level on a scale of empathy. Why? Because it shows a distinct lack of the ability to put yourself in other peoples shoes.
The question "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?" has been used by many people as a way to force people who believe murder is always wrong to admit that maybe in rare cases its justified or for the betterment of the world. However they fail to take everything else into consideration. If Hitler had been killed in 1918 or something before he rose to power in the Nazi party and before he took control of Germany, the course of history would have been radically different.
The Cold war came as a direct result of WW2, the growth of the Soviet Union came as a result of WW2. The Hippies, the greasers, even 1980's hairbands came as a result of WW2. Great developments in computer technology, rockets, man on the moon all comes as a result of WW2.
So answering yes and no is making the question way to easy, since every choice has secondary effects. People also underestimate cultural influence, there is little doubt in my mind that if your average Christian had been born in Yemen or Saudi-Arabia they would be a Muslim, just like if a few hardcore Muslims were born in the US they would most likely be Christians.
One needs to be open minded but at the same time look at things in perspective. In the Nuremberg trial following WW2 the former heads of state of Germany were convicted on conspiracy to wage offensive war, take the land, the valuables and people of other nations, in addition to the extermination of the Jews.
Now isn't this roughly what America did with the invasion of Iraq? I mean with Afghanistan there was a reason to enter the country, it was and still is a breeding ground for extremists. In Iraq there really was no justifiable reason to attack the country, and there was no declaration of war, just an invasion.
That strikes me as being very similar to what the German high command were convicted of following WW2, waging war and invading sovereign nations without a declaration of war.
I was for going into Iraq when it was believed they had weapons of mass destruction but they didn't did they?
In addition atrocities like abu-graib comes to light, the behavior of Blackwater towards civilians, the clear exploitation of the situation by Hallie-Burton and countless other American companies, the complicity of Dick Cheney in the exploitation of Iraqi resources and the way the war was waged and I think a Nuremburg trial would have no choice but to convict the republicans in charge of this war.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Religion
A friend linked me this Eddie Izzard clip the other day and it started me thinking. Isn't religion a case of cake or death as well? Think about the Bible for instance, the vengeful wrathful God of the old testament, and his hippie of a son Jesus. Now I say hippie in that he promoted tolerance and love over clear threats of a horrible death like his "father", then there is the Holy spirit but I haven't figured out if he's a messenger/servant for the 2 others or just a weaker distinct personality.
Now before people jump me, I'm not sure if there is a God or not, I'm not sure if I'm a manifestation of a mind within its own consciousness and that everyone else is another manifestation. I don't have all the answers, to be quite honest I have more questions than answers. I'm not arrogant enough to pretend or delude myself into thinking the Bible is the literal word of God or that I have the mental capacity to "understand" a being of such magnitude.
You are aware that if Creation is a reality, then we are talking about a being so powerful and knowledgeable its beyond any human imagination right? We are talking of a being capable of creating something out of nothing, of creating a "biosphere" capable of sustaining life, renew itself, balance itself through what means needed in order to keep the closed system of "Earth" alive.
We are talking about a being that created countless sources of energy for us to tap, countless technologies for us to explore. A being created the human brain, far more advanced than any computer we can currently make.
Of course this being also put the "home" of 3 major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) in the same place and then put a large amount of oil beneath it. A being that created a sun that will eventually destroy us all, jealously, hatred, anger, fear, and every negative emotion that exists. So I guess even God has a case of "The Mondays"
Well back to the original intent of this rant. Currently major religion is not really a choice, either paradise or eternal torment, heaven or hell, for good days or for bad days, and its for eternity. I have no doubt in my mind after reading The Bible and Qur'an that God and Allah are both fully capable of this type of organized torture. So if you believe in your heart that there is a God by all means worship him, I would too just to be on the safe side. I'd rather be chilling in heaven with a tumbler of nice single malt and a cuban cigar, than spend eternity nailed to a wall in hell being tortured.
Would you like this piece of cake, or should I stab you in the jugular with this fork?
Now before people jump me, I'm not sure if there is a God or not, I'm not sure if I'm a manifestation of a mind within its own consciousness and that everyone else is another manifestation. I don't have all the answers, to be quite honest I have more questions than answers. I'm not arrogant enough to pretend or delude myself into thinking the Bible is the literal word of God or that I have the mental capacity to "understand" a being of such magnitude.
You are aware that if Creation is a reality, then we are talking about a being so powerful and knowledgeable its beyond any human imagination right? We are talking of a being capable of creating something out of nothing, of creating a "biosphere" capable of sustaining life, renew itself, balance itself through what means needed in order to keep the closed system of "Earth" alive.
We are talking about a being that created countless sources of energy for us to tap, countless technologies for us to explore. A being created the human brain, far more advanced than any computer we can currently make.
Of course this being also put the "home" of 3 major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) in the same place and then put a large amount of oil beneath it. A being that created a sun that will eventually destroy us all, jealously, hatred, anger, fear, and every negative emotion that exists. So I guess even God has a case of "The Mondays"
Well back to the original intent of this rant. Currently major religion is not really a choice, either paradise or eternal torment, heaven or hell, for good days or for bad days, and its for eternity. I have no doubt in my mind after reading The Bible and Qur'an that God and Allah are both fully capable of this type of organized torture. So if you believe in your heart that there is a God by all means worship him, I would too just to be on the safe side. I'd rather be chilling in heaven with a tumbler of nice single malt and a cuban cigar, than spend eternity nailed to a wall in hell being tortured.
Would you like this piece of cake, or should I stab you in the jugular with this fork?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Something new
A few years ago I visited Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz 1 and 2. We arrived in Germany one morning and continued the busride towards the camp. The camp of Bergen-Belsen we were told was originally a Stalag, or prisoner of war camp, until 1943 when it was turned into a concentration camp.
The area itself was covered by memorials to the countless people who lost their lives in the camp. Despite the staggering amounts of people who lost their lives in the camp, it was not actually a "Death camp" like Sobibor, Treblinka and the camp I was going to see later on. As we arrived and stepped out of the bus I noticed the cold and gusty weather, quite suitable for the location I thought considering its history.
Where the camp stood there is a museum and memorials today, no trace of what was once here can be seen, apart from a few suspicious land formations where the camp used to be. When the camp was liberated it was the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history according to the British who liberated it. Roughly 55000 prisoners in various stages of emancipation and decay, walking, laying, sitting and eating in filth, most wearing only flimsy rags, some naked.
The bodies of prisoners that had died, some only hours and minutes before the liberation lay around the whole camp, some of them stacked in piles and others lay across the grounds where the poor soul had fallen.
After being allowed time to walk around the exhibit and take a look at the pictures taken at the time of liberation and the humanitarian aid to the British. Reading the testimonies about what went on there, which I'd mostly read before. It was a new experience to be this close to where it all happened though. It was a bit surreal as the sun came up and a rainbow stretched across what had once been the apellplatz where so many people had stood and wondered if that day would be their last, if an SS man would just pull them out of line and have them murdered, for no other reason than that they could.
When the camp was liberated by British and Canadian troops most inmates were so starved that they couldn't eat the regular rations the troops had as their digestive systems couldn't handle the heavy food after long term starvation. The result being that they died due to the heavy food and overconsumption of nutrients. They then tried skimmed milk, which was better then finally famine mixture.
A guide showed my group into the little cinema in the museum and we got to see the famous video from the camp. Including bodies being buried and tanks with mounted flamethrowers incinerating the camp. The 50 or so people sat there in complete silence as the movie played, and as the lights came on I looked across the faces of my classmates, the few other people there and the guides.
My eyes got stuck on this little Chinese girl in my class, the arms of one of her friends wrapped around her as tears slowly ran down her face. She shivered in her arms, the image of something fragile and I felt this strange feeling of emptiness, because I felt nothing. Was it that due to my interest in the subject of concentration camps? was it that I had seen this footage before? Could it be that a lifetime of violent games and TV had desensitized me? Or was it that I'm just cold?
To be continued.
The area itself was covered by memorials to the countless people who lost their lives in the camp. Despite the staggering amounts of people who lost their lives in the camp, it was not actually a "Death camp" like Sobibor, Treblinka and the camp I was going to see later on. As we arrived and stepped out of the bus I noticed the cold and gusty weather, quite suitable for the location I thought considering its history.
Where the camp stood there is a museum and memorials today, no trace of what was once here can be seen, apart from a few suspicious land formations where the camp used to be. When the camp was liberated it was the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history according to the British who liberated it. Roughly 55000 prisoners in various stages of emancipation and decay, walking, laying, sitting and eating in filth, most wearing only flimsy rags, some naked.
The bodies of prisoners that had died, some only hours and minutes before the liberation lay around the whole camp, some of them stacked in piles and others lay across the grounds where the poor soul had fallen.
After being allowed time to walk around the exhibit and take a look at the pictures taken at the time of liberation and the humanitarian aid to the British. Reading the testimonies about what went on there, which I'd mostly read before. It was a new experience to be this close to where it all happened though. It was a bit surreal as the sun came up and a rainbow stretched across what had once been the apellplatz where so many people had stood and wondered if that day would be their last, if an SS man would just pull them out of line and have them murdered, for no other reason than that they could.
When the camp was liberated by British and Canadian troops most inmates were so starved that they couldn't eat the regular rations the troops had as their digestive systems couldn't handle the heavy food after long term starvation. The result being that they died due to the heavy food and overconsumption of nutrients. They then tried skimmed milk, which was better then finally famine mixture.
A guide showed my group into the little cinema in the museum and we got to see the famous video from the camp. Including bodies being buried and tanks with mounted flamethrowers incinerating the camp. The 50 or so people sat there in complete silence as the movie played, and as the lights came on I looked across the faces of my classmates, the few other people there and the guides.
My eyes got stuck on this little Chinese girl in my class, the arms of one of her friends wrapped around her as tears slowly ran down her face. She shivered in her arms, the image of something fragile and I felt this strange feeling of emptiness, because I felt nothing. Was it that due to my interest in the subject of concentration camps? was it that I had seen this footage before? Could it be that a lifetime of violent games and TV had desensitized me? Or was it that I'm just cold?
To be continued.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
My latest project
After suffering from fiction-writers block, I got inspired a few nights ago and have been working pretty hard on a sci-fi type project. I'm not sure about the overall direction yet, but so far it seems to tie into a lot of interesting areas.
It goes by fringe science, human experimentation, alien life and a few other things, perhaps there is a conspiracy somewhere to just to have some fun with that.
It goes by fringe science, human experimentation, alien life and a few other things, perhaps there is a conspiracy somewhere to just to have some fun with that.
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