Lumpism

About: Jihadi Chic: Ideology isn't everything

source: Jonah Goldberg in the National Review

Today, Marxism has lost its oomph. Yuppies drinking five-dollar lattes put Che Guevara t-shirts on their private-school toddlers.

And because nobody thinks Marxists are scary anymore, radicals consumed with hatred for the status quo " for America, for Western civilization or for the plain old dreariness of their boring lives " don

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Mark de LA says

Al-Qaedism is a being. You will get a lot farther in your study if you grok that. You don't have to get into metaphysics to do so. If you are congruent in your thoughts & feelings with a certain way of being you will DO the things which that kind of being demands. You can just as well explain it as memes & social consciousness. You don't have to have external connections in organizations to have congruence with particular ways of being; sympathy & empathy do the job nicely. Radicalization will do the job as well! If you don't know where your will comes from, most people are unconscious of it, then your sympathies & antipathies & the way of being that support such will give you something to do - possibly including blowing yourself up to kill those who have different feelings & sympathies.
Consciousness is the primary answer. The Golden Rule is the Ultimate Answer - it builds an organ of perception that tells you when you are going off the deep end. You can still go there if you want, though.

Mark de LA says

Yes! The Golden Rule is a being as well. &, so is the RWG.

Seth says

M 2007-05-12 08:34:12 7209

Al-Qaedism is a being. You will get a lot farther in your study if you grok that.

I don't know, what is and what is not a "being" is pretty much just a semantic issue. To me it's all process ... certainly Al-Qaedism is a process ... you support it or abhoar it. The left and the pacifists like me do not aligh themselves with the Al Quaeda process. Implying that the left is in collusion with the Ql Qaeda is just wrong.

Mark de LA says

seth 2007-05-14 11:23:18 7209

M 2007-05-12 08:34:12 7209

Al-Qaedism is a being. You will get a lot farther in your study if you grok that.

There is some truth in the oft expressed idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Being is what Zen & ontology study; no need to consult metaphysics. I measure processes by their results; nothing being of value if it produces no results. The means (processes) & the results have to be true, beautiful & good & congruent with each other otherwise mischief & evil result, IMHO. The end does NOT justify the means! Doing & acting are the external manifestations of being. Being is like the wind which you cannot see but only know is there because the trees & grasses are moving. Look at the results of the left-wing. Are the results helping or hindering the United States & her troops in harm's way? Or, is it just assuaging the tired Egos of a bunch of aging hippies?

Mark de LA says

Sorry, this cartoon is so appropriate today for this subject.

Seth says

M 2007-05-14 13:04:16 7209

I have no idea how you think "that" (whatever "that" is) flys in the face of anything ...so i have no idea what you are saying. I explicitidly dealt with the threats, loosley tagged 9-11, as real by saying "AlQaedaism is agressive and exports terror and is the enemy of both Muslim factions ... some kind of defensive action is necessary" ... so how with any kind of honest diagogue can you come back with "You still seem to have forgotten 9-11" ?

It seems to me that you totally missed (or ignored) the real innovative statagy to solving the Iraq problem. It is somewhat hinted at in the ISG but here i presented it more pointedly. The US should ally itself with both the Sunni and Shea factions fighting AlQaedaism ... a unified Muslim initiative in the ME. There is sufficient will on the part of the Sunni already, nobody wants these thugs around least of all Saudi Arabia. What the US needs to do is to quit picking fights with Iran so that they can relax and fight those thugs in iraq without worrying about also fighting US agression in the region.

Seth says

source: M above
There is some truth in the oft expressed idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

... well i don't see all that very much truth there ... the situation in the Middle East is far too complex for that kind of simplicity ... especially since there are 4 players on the stage, not 3 ... you need to get out of a binary flip flop to grok it.

Neither "enemy" alone is easy to live with ... neither radical Persians, nor radical Arabs ... what works better is both balancing each other. The Saudi family itself is pretty hard to consider moderate, yet the US aligns with them. Seems to me that alighning also with radical Persians would tend to balance things better. AlQaedaism is agressive and exports terror and is the enemy of both Muslim factions. Some kind of defensive action is necessary. But should it be balanced by an equally agressive US presence ... or rather by a unified Muslim opposition. A pacifist, like myself, does not align with any fighting faction ... rather we lobby to stop all aggression. If our agression in the ME is removed, then that region will seek a new balance ... and it will find it.

Mark de LA says

All that seems to fly in the face of thousands of years of wars & conquests to the contrary; the riches of oil now withstanding. You still seem to have forgotten 9-11 as if it was something that the good old USA caused. I heard of a recent poll that 30% of the Democrat party still believes that Bush caused 9-11 & knew of it before it happened. Are you one of those kooks ?

Seth says

M 2007-05-14 14:03:23 7209

FYI, "it' refers to the U.S. getting out of the Middle East & then everything will be all nice!

I suppose you could think of "it" like that ... but thinking of it in my terms will go further ... your very terms are gettin in the way of understanding. I coded it as "If our agression in the ME is removed, then that region will seek a new balance ... and it will find it" ... try thinking of it in those terms. Nothing is going to be "nice", nor am i saying "get out of the Middle East". I am saying stop the balligerant agression there ... stop trying to liberate people at the point of a gun ... stop trying to spread our democratic way of life ... instead support the legitimate forces that are already operating in the region. Those forces want the AlQuaedaism thugs eliminated too. If the stratagy is flawed, then please uncover the flaw, but don't twist it to mean something different because it is easier to argue against.

Lumpism

About: Jihadi Chic: Ideology isn't everything

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