|
| Thread: Attack Syria? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV |
|
bort
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Discarded foreskin of morality
|
posted May 21, 2003 07:35 PM |
|
|
Fron "The Log from the Sea of Cortez," by John Steinbeck
We have looked into the tide pools and seen the little animals feeding and reproducing and killing for food. We name them and describe them and, out of long watching, arrive at some conclusion about their habits so that we say, " This species typically does thus and so," but we do not objectively observe our own species as a species, although we know the individuals fairly well. When it seems that men may be kinder to men, that wars may not come again, we completely ignore the record of our species. If we used the same smug observation on ourselves that we do on hermit crabs we would be forced to say, with the information at hand, "It is one diagnostic trait of Homo sapiens that groups of individuals are periodically infected with a feverish nervousness which causes the individual to turn on and destroy, not only his own kind, but the works of his own kind. It is not known whether this be caused by a virus, some airborne spore, or whether it be a species reaction to some meteorological stimulus as yet undetermined." Hope, which is another species diagnostic trait -- the hope that this may not always be -- does not in the least change the observable past and present. When two crayfish meet, they usually fight. One would say that perhaps they might not at a future time, but without some mutation it is not likely that they will lose this trait. And perhaps our species is not likely to forgo war without some psychic mutation which at present, at least, does not seem imminent. And if one place the blame for killing and destroying on economic insecurity, on inequality, on injustice, he is simply stating the proposition in another way. We have what we are. Perhaps the crayfish feels the itch of jealousy, or perhaps he is sexually insecure. The effect is that he fights. When in the world there shall come twenty, thirty, fifty years without evidence of our murder trait, under whatever system of justice or economic security, then we may have a contrasting habit pattern to examine. So far there is no such situation. So far the murder trait of our species is as regular and observable as our various sexual habits.
So maybe that's it. Maybe we're just hardwired to be the -------- that we all are.
~Edit by Nidhgrin~
Tssk tssk, I'm not a cleaning lady  Please do some censoring yourself on words like this Bort, you know the CoC.
____________
Drive by posting.
|
|
Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
|
|
posted May 21, 2003 07:57 PM |
|
|
Steinbeck is, as the Gootch would say, "like wine..."
Bort, the human race fancies itself in being capable of manipulating its own existence through "self-awareness." Do you think Steinbeck's piece about human history suggests evidence that we might think ourselves more "capable" than we really are???
____________
I have menopause and a handgun. Any questions?
|
|
bort
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Discarded foreskin of morality
|
|
posted May 21, 2003 08:32 PM |
|
|
Absolutely love Steinbeck. 've read just about every one of his works.
I think that's the point Steinbeck was trying to make, though. I mean, you look through history and you see things like the Holocaust or Vlad the Impaler or the Conquistadors or the Trail of Tears or the Mongol conquest or Stalin's 5 year plan and so on and so forth and you try to say that we're more enlightened now, but you look to Rwanda or to Iraq or to Chechnya or Columbia or whatever and you see the exact same mentality working. Maybe we haven't had anything else on the same scale as the Holocaust, but that's a difference of degree, not type. It's hard to see anything more enlightened about current events than past ones.
____________
Drive by posting.
|
|
Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
|
|
posted May 21, 2003 08:37 PM |
|
|
Perhaps this is why I've been stomping my feet like a little kid, sounding inconsistent...
____________
I have menopause and a handgun. Any questions?
|
|
Khayman
Promising
Famous Hero
Underachiever
|
|
posted May 26, 2003 12:29 AM |
|
|
Couldn't resist
Quote:
Perhaps this is why I've been stomping my feet like a little kid, sounding inconsistent...
...or perhaps it is because you have PMS...and a handgun :::gulp::: oops, almost forgot about that part. Haha?
PM, you don't sound inconsistent, BTW. IMHO, the way you express yourself may vary, but your underlying beliefs always hold true. Glad to see Gootchie is back, too. 
____________
"You must gather your party before venturing forth."
|
| |
|
|
