-
vergniaud commented on the blog post Late Night: Thinking Through the Consequences
Since we’re talking about torture — what’s behind the door to room 101 in 1984 is “the worst thing in the world” — I think you have to state the proposition more forcefully:
a government based on rationality, as opposed to irrational sado/masochism, must be prevented at all costs!
Put this way, perhaps it’s not quite correct to say that “the-powers-that- be on the right see the theoretical consequences of their political stances” because there’s nothing particularly theoretical about it. Rather the stances and rhetoric never make much rational sense. They merely serve to dress up a very primitive us-vs-them construct.
Which is why a republican voter can be for strong constitutionalism for gun ownership, but support unrestricted wiretapping because “we” have nothing to hide. It’s why they can be staunchly behind “small government” in the context of a social safety net for everyone — which must inevitable include those with a darker skin complexion than the white republican “us” — but see no problem with an endlessly expanding national security state. Etc.
And, of course, when the logical consequences of their positions are followed to the points where they begin to contradict each other — say, if it is suggested that members of pro-life organizations that support the murder of abortion doctors should be classed as terrorists — they scream, “that’s ridiculous! Can’t you see the difference!” That is, the shifting, and never rational, difference between us and them to the mind of the right winger.
-
vergniaud commented on the blog post Jeh Johnson’s Full Remarks at Pentagon on Martin Luther King and Afghanistan
The core principle of non-violence is not just to turn the other cheek, but to love your enemy! Even as s/he strikes you. For most of us this is difficult even to imagine, let alone to practice, but it has to be possible or there is no end to the spiral of violence in human history. That’s the idea of non-violence.
So, I guess according to Johnson we’re just showing our love to those Afghans with cluster bombs and hellfire missiles, how`could King or Gandhi complain about that? I’m sure they’d be all for it.
Just absurd.
