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To: chomsky@mit.edu From: Scott Sinnock ssinnock@netzero.com, 11:31pm, February 24, 2013 Subject: Knock, Knock From Wikipedia, “Noam Chomsky” Regarding the death of Osama bin Laden, Chomsky stated: We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden's, and he is not a 'suspect' but uncontroversially the 'decider' who gave the orders to commit the 'supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole' (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, [and] the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region." Knock, Knock Please excuse my impertinence for intruding upon your time, thus your mind (sin 1), but, you see, I have desires to control your behavior thus also your mind (sin 2, deeper). I have just encountered you, but only needed a Wikipedia quote about bin Laden and George W. to know you know. “Why hasn't some DA somewhere charged Obama with murder?” Along that same line, a DA perhaps from the district where Obama lives or works, or where Anwar al-Awlaki lived or worked or perhaps from any number of other districts that could claim legal jurisdiction. The question is just an attention grabber. Not only do I think you know, I think you know you know, and that is even rarer. So, how do I want to control you? Validation is what I request, for as you must know, it can get pretty lonely out here. So your thought, that most precious of your possessions is what I seek. Validation of what? Other than the above “crazy” idea as an example, (which I think if not “self-evident” at least not self-contradictory), I only introduce myself here with, first, a little thing I quite arrogantly (sin 3) wrote just yesterday, even before I met you, to welcome some Mormons who were so kind as to give me a free copy of their book and asked to come talk with me. Come in, come in, my friends; Let us talk of gods and men. But I must warn you: I ride the dragon Confucius cannot tame; I sail upon the wind the Buddha cannot calm; I folic upon Jesus’ throne as I peer upon mankind from Olympus’ high, but view Olympus from an eternity of time and cause whose whence and why I cannot know. So come in my friends. Let us talk of gods and men. If you come to teach and learn, come in, come in; else go away so as to not waste my time with god. | By the way, I don't believe in God, but I find the language quite useful. I prefer the dragon ride of Lao Tzu, the stoic peace of Epictetus, but most find that language quite confusing. I am a retired scientist, with highly honed observational skills, not so much of math, that too of course, but more of the world I see with my eyes, not the one I see only on paper. I am a retired geologist and thus an historian. I sense, as I suspect you do too, deep, deep, deep contradiction in much “good intention”. I encountered your name yesterday reading about the egregious R2P policies of NATO (basically the group of Roman Christian nations, minus Australia, not even the Byzantines, except one), and your cautions, or shall I say, warnings, 10 years ago. He who has ears, let him hear (again, nice language). I take many “classes” for retired folk at the local community college, and our “group” probably represents the very best of citizenship this county and perhaps any other has to offer: educated, experienced, informed, engaged, alert, caring people all. Yet when I suggested our president be arrested for murder, I was almost physically evicted from this place of “higher learning”. I was not, and that does speak well of America, but the nearly unanimous belief in that room that the president took and should take such "necessary" actions to "protect our security" (redundancy noted) concerns me, especially since the same group almost all endorse R2P as similarly necessary for “their” freedom and democracy (read our profit and consent is obtained). Marius, the Roman general was re-elected consul, first time ever, then again and again and again as republic slipped into empire for security’s sake. You seem to have been here long before I, so, about that classroom “common opinion” ........ Why? ..... W hat’s going on here? ..... Do you know? I babble, babble, babble. I read Wikipedia about your “controversies”. I can't believe there is or ever was any dispute about whether our “body”, that corruptible “physical” DNA (reminding me of the early Gnostic debates during the canonization process of the new testament), that delude able, fool able, imperfect “physical” has anything to do with “higher” human, many say “God-given” glories of language, thought, morality, justice, or any other derived attribute or imagining of man, oops, sorry ladies, humans, oops, that contains “hu” + “man” so, sorry again ladies, “people”. OF COURSE it does. Come on man, gimme a break. Perhaps all we get are Plato’s shadows from our own flickering fires. I suspect the light outside the cave is but a dreadful promise that can't be delivered, though many pretenders loudly claim to see the light in fear others might see they don't; the emperor’s clothes, and we certainly have an emperor now, and her R2P name might be “common human decency”. Knock, Knock, are you still there? If not, where, teacher? |