Comments on: Breaking the Cycle of Terror

By: Stancje

Stancje — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:24:25 +0000

It works both ways. Many atheist can’t accept that people can belive in things they don’t belive in. Many christians have a hard time accepting people might not belive what they do. It’s a vicious circle.

By: Geyser of PishPosh

Geyser of PishPosh — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:13:33 +0000

^AT* the originary EvEnT of reason…

By: Geyser of PishPosh

Geyser of PishPosh — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:12:36 +0000

that should have read of course ‘the *originary” event of Reason

By: Geyser of PishPosh

Geyser of PishPosh — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:59:06 +0000

hearking right on back upthread to Quester, what does he/she think about how proselytied we might be if in fact we were convinced our motivation was ‘rational’? At what precise historical point do you reckon that believers of any stripe stood back and thought ‘ dang, gang, we gonna just have to hand them reigns of proselytization right on over to them rational boys there, who plainly have a much better idea of what to do’ .. anyone conversant in mimetic theory, indeed, had best believe that this is a point like no other before in human time, when we stand mutually accused of the very thing that founds/grounds our assumed traction-and-claim to be personarly present at the event of Reason! (just a start y’all)

By: neece

neece — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:00:09 +0000

LeoPardus, I agree with you. While the vocal extremists “seem” more vocal and more extreme than ever, my casual study of history shows that it’s really always been this way. There are a lot of moderates out there. Hopefully the extremes will cancel themselves out, like you said.
Those of us who are in the middle can do our best to be rational.

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:34:55 +0000

oh.. and that’s what you and writerdd are both talking about.. ending the fear without dehumanizing the “opposition.”

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:34:21 +0000

@ AAChuck: Girard states that the “truth that was laid before the foundation of the earth” is that humanity is all about retributive violence.

what this means is that we humans somehow get to thinking that “if we only get rid of the Christians/Atheists/Agnostics/LeoParisues our world would be perfect!” this is done through the scapegoat mechanism, namely the slaying of the innocent for the good of the whole. only the whole will end up adopting the ideal the innocent was living for.. think Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr, and other prophets of change.

that’s Girard in a nutshell… but i’d recommend Violence and the Sacred.. it’s a great read.

By: Lucian

Lucian — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:56:27 +0000

If anyone ever figures out some way in which Lucian is useful for ANYTHING, let me know.

Spoken like a true utilitarian! 8) — That’s the American spirit!

DD,

my idea was that it is not the sleep of reason that births monsters, but the wake of reason in the absence of other equally-important parts of our humanity. (Hitler’s speeches were very well articulated, You know…)

By: LeoPardus

LeoPardus — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:06:24 +0000

If anyone ever figures out some way in which Lucian is useful for ANYTHING, let me know.

By: writerdd

writerdd — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:57:59 +0000

Lucian, last time I checked Romania was part of Eastern Europe. I’m sure it’s a very nice country. I’ve never been there but I have a couple of friends who live in Romania and I’d love to visit some day. And you’ve basically just said “We Romanians are not like those nasty Serbs” which does not exactly back up your suggestion that Romanians are not nationalistic and don’t care about ethnicity.

I actually do think the topic I’ve written about in this post is a particular American problem these days, but American problems tend to spread so…