Post a Comment On: the war against error

First of all: Keep the last post in mind.

The linked article is from a German paper, writing about experiences the two French journalist who were held in Iraq for a couple months made during their captivity. (Side note: Yes, of course that's a warped view! The French stink and made money with the Oil-for-Food Program - Chirac personally bought a Porsche with the cash -, and the Germans are weasels with ties to too many Arabs anyway. Oh, and they sell Porsches to Frenchmen. And if you believe this, you are brainwashed to begin with and need to see these people from Scientology for some cleansing treatment. So spare me your 'helpful hints'. I don't need them. And yes, I am bitter, but that's because people like you suck and steal too much of my attention. Sorry to anyone else for having to read this.)
Now what the journalists have to say is quite illuminating. Just remember all the people you recently talked to that explained to you why 'terrorists' do what they do. ("Because they hate freedom!" is my favourite. What the heck is that supposed to mean?) No one of them ever saw, or even talked to one. I see and talk to a lot of people every day, yet it takes a little more than just a conversation to find out how people think and why they do what they do. Yet there we are, believing we could long-distance-psycho-analyze terrorists, understand their rationale (or, more to the liking of the hawks: their evilness) and act accordingly. Since no one really talked to terrorists (and as far as intelligence people go, I am somewhat sceptical as to how appropriate torture-a-la-Guatanamo is to *understand*), the mind processes we attribute to 'terrorists', i.e. the way we believe they think, is actually modelled after ourselves. In other words, we create an image of 'them' as a variation of 'us'.
Sadly, then, these evil guys Bush is fighting against are modelled after himself. With all the uncomforting consequences (just think of the inability to let himself be corrected by reality). Which would make the journalist's belief that the war will not end anytime soon even more convincing.
God, if you're there, could you please have mercy and let some brain rain? Thanks.