2006-09-15
Two Brothers
The tale of two brothers from Australia. The eldest brother is named Ben, and is currently in Iraq, helping bring freedom to the Iraqi people. Here is what he had to say:
"Support your Australian soldiers and their deployment to Iraq - don't buy the populist crap Beazley spews into the media."
Note that Kim Beazley is the head of the left-wing/anti-war Labor Party, which is fortunately currently in opposition, as usual by a razor-thin margin (1% or whatever).
And here is his brother Joel, who has this to say:
"My older brother Ben has been sent to Iraq to help clean up George Bush's mess. ... You'll quickly see that Ben and I have very different points of view, politically and socially."
Basically this war has people split right down the middle, even family members with the same upbringing in the same country have fallen into diametrically opposite camps.
Why do we have this stunning split? I believe the reason is that we are not teaching people to "fight subjugation" directly. People only pick it up by osmosis. Some people live in freedom, but simply don't have the concept of giving that same freedom to others. As "thinker" told me, for someone to be an anti-subjugator, they need to understand both what it's like to be subjugated, and what it's like to not be subjugated. The West only knows the latter, the Middle East only knows the former. I was brought up under authoritarian parents, so know what it's like to be (attempted anyway) subjugated. I watched my watch as I turned 18 and jumped for joy as I suddenly gained my human rights. I incorrectly assumed that the Iraqis would all jump for joy when they suddenly acquired their human rights too. I still believe that to end this war we urgently need to spread the simple message:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species - do you?
I have already tried asking Joel his reaction to this question, to see if it is enough to get him to change his mind, but he didn't reply to me.
Another thing we need to do is impart critical thinking skills to the Iraqis. They have basically missed out on the benefits of the Enlightenment.
The solutions are all there. It's just a matter of spreading them. Before the Republicans lose office!
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"Support your Australian soldiers and their deployment to Iraq - don't buy the populist crap Beazley spews into the media."
Note that Kim Beazley is the head of the left-wing/anti-war Labor Party, which is fortunately currently in opposition, as usual by a razor-thin margin (1% or whatever).
And here is his brother Joel, who has this to say:
"My older brother Ben has been sent to Iraq to help clean up George Bush's mess. ... You'll quickly see that Ben and I have very different points of view, politically and socially."
Basically this war has people split right down the middle, even family members with the same upbringing in the same country have fallen into diametrically opposite camps.
Why do we have this stunning split? I believe the reason is that we are not teaching people to "fight subjugation" directly. People only pick it up by osmosis. Some people live in freedom, but simply don't have the concept of giving that same freedom to others. As "thinker" told me, for someone to be an anti-subjugator, they need to understand both what it's like to be subjugated, and what it's like to not be subjugated. The West only knows the latter, the Middle East only knows the former. I was brought up under authoritarian parents, so know what it's like to be (attempted anyway) subjugated. I watched my watch as I turned 18 and jumped for joy as I suddenly gained my human rights. I incorrectly assumed that the Iraqis would all jump for joy when they suddenly acquired their human rights too. I still believe that to end this war we urgently need to spread the simple message:
I pledge allegiance to use my brain to fight subjugation of my species - do you?
I have already tried asking Joel his reaction to this question, to see if it is enough to get him to change his mind, but he didn't reply to me.
Another thing we need to do is impart critical thinking skills to the Iraqis. They have basically missed out on the benefits of the Enlightenment.
The solutions are all there. It's just a matter of spreading them. Before the Republicans lose office!
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 16:02 
2006-09-11
Deception
The Prophet Mohammed taught us an important lesson - about deceiving your enemy. If you are in a weak state, you should sign a truce, but as soon as you are strong enough, you should restart the war. It is this teaching that will ultimately win the war. E.g. China is currently passive. But if we allow the Chinese dictatorship to grow strong, it will eventually be in a position to conquer the world, and it will do so. We need to change China's state ideology/religion before that happens. Hitler also adopted Mohammed's teachings, and signed pieces of paper with both Russia and Britain "guaranteeing" peace. What more evidence do we need that pieces of paper are meaningless?
Which brings us to the ultimate deception - the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The Treaty of Westphalia said that each nation-state would be able to set its own state religion and that no-one would invade another state because they didn't like the state religion. It was a good idea at the time, as we hadn't decided which religion was correct, and no religion was able to dominate the others. However, centuries later, the equation has changed. North America and Europe have settled on a common state religion - Mu'tazilah, aka secular capitalist liberal democracy. We are now in a position where we can spread Mu'tazilah to the rest of the world, as Prophet Mohammed proscribed. And this is exactly what we should do.
The other sects of Islam are doing the same thing. Waiting till they are strong. Egypt will drive the Jews into the sea the moment it is able to. The peace treaty is completely meaningless. The other sects of Islam are also trying to win with demographics. It is vital that these other sects of Islam do not become dominant. They will plunge the world into oblivion. We need to ensure that it is the Mu'tazilah sect that engulfs the world. We need to be as crafty as the other sects. Anyone who ignores what the Prophet Mohammed taught us is a fool who will end up a slave.
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Which brings us to the ultimate deception - the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The Treaty of Westphalia said that each nation-state would be able to set its own state religion and that no-one would invade another state because they didn't like the state religion. It was a good idea at the time, as we hadn't decided which religion was correct, and no religion was able to dominate the others. However, centuries later, the equation has changed. North America and Europe have settled on a common state religion - Mu'tazilah, aka secular capitalist liberal democracy. We are now in a position where we can spread Mu'tazilah to the rest of the world, as Prophet Mohammed proscribed. And this is exactly what we should do.
The other sects of Islam are doing the same thing. Waiting till they are strong. Egypt will drive the Jews into the sea the moment it is able to. The peace treaty is completely meaningless. The other sects of Islam are also trying to win with demographics. It is vital that these other sects of Islam do not become dominant. They will plunge the world into oblivion. We need to ensure that it is the Mu'tazilah sect that engulfs the world. We need to be as crafty as the other sects. Anyone who ignores what the Prophet Mohammed taught us is a fool who will end up a slave.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 11:59
