Again and again and again
I have beat this drum before. I will beat it now. Doubtless, I will beat it again in days to come.
Iraqis are blowing up Iraqis by the trainload. If not exploding cars, then there are exploding suicidists. What in the hell are the Iraqis doing about it? The answer from my perch in the USA is: Nothing.
Years ago, Al Capp, creator of Li'l' Abner cartoons, created the Schmoo. This was a small animal that lived to sacrifice itself for others. It did people's bidding, including becoming their meals. It did so in total happiness because it was living its job description. The parody capitalized on the beliefs of the right and the left that self-sacrificial service to others was the moral ideal, and it addressed the fantasies of the right and left who think people should be ecstatic to be sacrificial lambs.
Iraqis act like Schmoos, but without any of their positives. They congregate to provide obliging targets, and they go on as though nothing happened when, say, 55 of them die because some other self-sacrificing Muslim blew himself up in their midst. Life seems to go on just as if nothing happened.
Why are they not providing their own equivalent of the Neighborhood Watches? Their vigilance could catch many of these perpetrators before detonation. Why are they not vigilant to strangers and all other of the nefarious in their midst? These bad guys do not exist in a vacuum. They are fellow countrymen--at least the ones the foreigners cull into being human bombs. Iraqis know Iraqis. Don't these people get pissed off at this stuff?
If people tried that crap over here, they would be in for untold misery. We would spy on them, rat them out, and take them out before the "authorities" could arrive. Bubbas in pickups with Confederate flags flying would become formidable. Only liberals would run either to appease and surrender or hide. (Their clustering together would increase their target value, I am afraid.)
If Iraqis were stupid, like Schmoos, then I could perhaps better understand. But, they are not. Without that damned Islam deforming their minds, they could be an entirely positive and productive Arab culture of the future, becoming rich on oil and manufacturing. They are just as intelligent as other humans.
But, why do they not get mad? I would be so mad that I would be ready to sandpaper my shins over this kind of stuff they just seem to take as though it had no significance. Other than the stuff Islam programs them to be enraged at, such as us, what do they get angry about? What does it take for them to turn on these "insurgents" and make them high-tail it back to Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran?
They are acting out an ethics of self-sacrifice of the most horrible kind. Of course, Islam teaches that ethic. That raises a big question in my mind: Are there independent minds any longer in Iraq, ones that can think outside the Islamic box?
Iraqis are blowing up Iraqis by the trainload. If not exploding cars, then there are exploding suicidists. What in the hell are the Iraqis doing about it? The answer from my perch in the USA is: Nothing.
Years ago, Al Capp, creator of Li'l' Abner cartoons, created the Schmoo. This was a small animal that lived to sacrifice itself for others. It did people's bidding, including becoming their meals. It did so in total happiness because it was living its job description. The parody capitalized on the beliefs of the right and the left that self-sacrificial service to others was the moral ideal, and it addressed the fantasies of the right and left who think people should be ecstatic to be sacrificial lambs.
Iraqis act like Schmoos, but without any of their positives. They congregate to provide obliging targets, and they go on as though nothing happened when, say, 55 of them die because some other self-sacrificing Muslim blew himself up in their midst. Life seems to go on just as if nothing happened.
Why are they not providing their own equivalent of the Neighborhood Watches? Their vigilance could catch many of these perpetrators before detonation. Why are they not vigilant to strangers and all other of the nefarious in their midst? These bad guys do not exist in a vacuum. They are fellow countrymen--at least the ones the foreigners cull into being human bombs. Iraqis know Iraqis. Don't these people get pissed off at this stuff?
If people tried that crap over here, they would be in for untold misery. We would spy on them, rat them out, and take them out before the "authorities" could arrive. Bubbas in pickups with Confederate flags flying would become formidable. Only liberals would run either to appease and surrender or hide. (Their clustering together would increase their target value, I am afraid.)
If Iraqis were stupid, like Schmoos, then I could perhaps better understand. But, they are not. Without that damned Islam deforming their minds, they could be an entirely positive and productive Arab culture of the future, becoming rich on oil and manufacturing. They are just as intelligent as other humans.
But, why do they not get mad? I would be so mad that I would be ready to sandpaper my shins over this kind of stuff they just seem to take as though it had no significance. Other than the stuff Islam programs them to be enraged at, such as us, what do they get angry about? What does it take for them to turn on these "insurgents" and make them high-tail it back to Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran?
They are acting out an ethics of self-sacrifice of the most horrible kind. Of course, Islam teaches that ethic. That raises a big question in my mind: Are there independent minds any longer in Iraq, ones that can think outside the Islamic box?
posted by George Mason @ 2/20/2005 11:50:00 AM
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