[mburbank]

Kev; you just argued that the 'dark ages' premiss of the peice is faulty since they used tech to disseminate terror.

I think the argument is self congratulatory and doesn't help anyone come to a better understanding of anything.

"Max, I know you don't see any difference between them and us."
-Kevin the Soul Gazer

I'm always intrigued when you 'know' things about me I don't. At the risk of disagreeing with you about me, I agree there are major differences between 'liberal' and 'closed' societies, if that's what you mean by 'them' and 'us'. I vastly prefer liberal societies, as you well know when you aren't posturing, else why would my main axe to grind be about our society becoming less 'liberal'? I generallly anjoy democracy, think our constitution and bnill of rights are amazing documents, and loathe religous extremism of every stripe. I think making women live in bags is reppelent and cutting off heads is worse. I don't think any of that means that I need to find our own use of weapons of mass destruction, and weapons likes land mines, cluster bombs and white phosphorus, all of which were designed to induce terror, is acceptable. I find it upsetting when open, liberal societies that pride themselves on how civilzed they are engage in barbarity, because I want the differences between 'us' and 'them' to be crystal clear.

I also think it's worth concidering the amount of extremely brutal killing our liberal open society has engaged in during the modern era. Jesus, perhaps my favorite political philosipher, once spoke of motes, beams and eyes. I do not think the way to peace lies along the road which is all about good (us) and evil (them).