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Illusion of Justice
by Monolycus on Sep 20, 2002 - 01:28 AM
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Alone, I am only going to respond to this topic this one time in an attempt to derail a discussion that I can see no good coming from. I do have something that I would like to put forward, however. What you do with my thoughts is entirely up to you.
How could "justice" for the events we are discussing possibly be done? Would killing people make the pain of that event go away and bring the victims back to their families? Would passing draconian laws restricting our liberties and making suspicious people disappear forever make everything as it was before this event happened? What response could possibly correct this "injustice" and not simply cause more suffering...?
You say the thought of people smiling and dancing over this event makes you angry. Has it occured to you that these people have also felt angry, silenced, marginalised, voiceless, helpless and exploited by this country? Their expression, the one that makes you so angry, is equal to and opposite your own... Shall they be made to suffer so that you will no longer be angry?
Finally, and most importantly, is it wrong to kill people? There are no qualifiers here, whether you like them or not, a human being is still a human being. It is either wrong to kill other human beings or it is not... do not fall into the trap of rationalising things into the way you want them to be. It is either wrong or it is not. If it is wrong to kill people, then our raining death upon the citizens of Afghanistan has made us equally culpable in the game of terrorism. If it is not wrong to kill people, then the terrorists did nothing wrong on September 11, and there is nothing for us to take action against.
I have said this before and I will continue to say this. Violence begets only violence. Revenge resolves nothing... retaliation goes on and on while more and more victims and families of victims suffer, and more and more people have something to retaliate against. Stop this self-righteousness... we live in a world where people resort to atrocities because they feel they can not be heard otherwise. Raining bombs down in retaliation sends the message to the world that violence is acceptable if you have powerful enough weapons to get away it. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. PERIOD. Ad baculum arguments are ALWAYS wrong.
If you are genuine about wanting to see "justice" done, work on making the world a place where events like September 11 never happen... and that can never be done while the United States bullies the rest of the world. They will make themselves heard... give them recourse to do so peacefully instead of adding to their grievances. we need to stop marginalising groups of human beings until they are desperate enough to engage in those tactics.
Calm down. Think. There are no good guys or bad guys. We are all of us just human beings. Hatred, revenge, anger and insensitivity were what brought us to this problem in the first place. I am
profoundly sad.
~Monolycus.
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