"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

my how we've grown
August 01, 2002 - 5:07 pm

danke to the feedbacker. anyone have some?

i read an article at work today, ok i read many many articles at work today, about the usa wanting to invade iraq and topple sadam. on the face it the argument seems pretty clear. he's a 'bad guy' and he wants to do 'bad' things. americans like the simple view, the view that any true american would take. clearly if someone, anyone, doesn't like us then they must be in league with the devil and therefore fit to destroy....well as soon as we can find an acceptable policital spin.

i don't doubt that sadam would like to very nasty things to people all over the world if he could. of course, my opinion is based on the pretty biased news i've heard about how he runs his country. wether he is 'bad' or 'deserving' of getting toppled isn't for me to decide.

i got mired into a slightly different facet of the question. should we do it? is it 'morally' right to do? is sending troops over there and waging a war that will kill quite a few folks (i don't care if they are in the military or civilian, i don't see a distinction) just to remove one guy from a political office, probably to end his life?

where does this moral argument come from? are morals universal? is there really such a thing as 'good' and 'evil'? do we take actions that by the themselves are meaningless and assign values to them based on how we precieve them to be?

where do we get the power to do this? american is basically a christian nation, so do we get our moral laws from the bible? doesn't the bible say 'thou shalt not kill (or murder some would interpert the word)?' even if the correct translation is murder, does that matter? is it not murder when a soldier kills another soldier? he did it on purpose, with intent and would probably do it again. i don't recall reading anywhere in the bible that it's ok to kill sometimes. i don't recall reading anything about justification or any little astrick that was carved into the tablets.

people, in general and myself included, like to see a situation they don't like and rationalize what should be done. clearly it couldn't be a sin to kill someone who is as bad as sadam and his supporters. clearly it's the right thing to do.

i'd wager that more people have died in the name of a religion that has 'thou shalt not kill' as one of it tenants than for any other cause. at the very least it's in the top five.

i'm not bashing religion. i think religions can do a lot of good for society. the problem no...no one ever hardly follows them.

here's a neat page i just found while doing a search on the ten commandments: http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm

anyway how many commandents did you break today? did you take the lords name in vain (goddamn it!), did you look at the jones's and want something they had? did you see some sexy person and 'want' them? did you lie? even a little fib?

life would be nice, very nice indeed if people actaully took the basic points of religions and followed them. for sure there's some crazy things in any book, but i'm talking it's basics, the core. we don't. we just can't seem to. every day on the news there's story of some business lied about this, someone stole that, someone killed someone else, someone was having an affair...

there's a song by a little known (but i like them a lot) band called Guadalcanal Diary. they have a song called 'Ten Laws'. it goes:

These words won't do anymore

Ideas outgrown, my how we've grown

The laws of old world cannot serve another

Words of old world cannot touch these troubles

Ten laws to break, ten laws broken

My how we've grown

We built temples high, to house the spirit

Fought the good war for the just

Changed the minds of countless millions

Trampled them to dust

We sound the trumpet, the heavens open

Ten laws to break, ten laws broken

The righteous fight is hardly over

Just begun in the minds of some

These words have long been squeezed of meaning

But still they fall from many tongues

This is not God's voice, the song's of angels

But only man's work done and done

Ten laws to break, ten laws broken

Broken every one

My how we've grown

Ten laws to break, ten laws broken

My how we've grown

i really got rambling and totaly off my point. oh well, what the hell.