West and East
If you think about the current conflict in ideas, ideals and arms in the current mideast, a stark contrast shows itself. It is not just a clash of arms, but a clash of culture. We ask why the Americans are in the mideast. "To protect our interests." Why does the Mohammedan lash out against the West? "To protect our ideology." Shouldn't we rather put it as, "to protect our Idol?" Isn't this brand of terrorism - sacrifice? Isn't sacrifice - power? In a war between interest and idol, between concern and passion, between filling gas tanks and filling paradise, there will be a victor. It will be interesting to note how the concern of the West grows when our sacrifice is required -
oooooh...nifty new colors.
oooooh...a completely meaningless comment.
Argued by
Anonymous |
9:14 PM
I work so hard on being pithy and somewhat relevant, and here, a comment on the appearances. . . alas O man what have we come to?
Argued by
beitiathustra |
10:16 PM
Interest and concern--I like your focus on those words.
I am currently reading through the anti-federalists paying close attention to the words they use concerning the common good. I will then go through the Federalist Papers doing the same thing.
Common interest, public interest, common good, public good.
All these terms have a slightly different shade of nuance.
(with these older 'Mericans, you gotta throw in general welfare, common welfare, and public welfare for good measure.)
The use of the word interest is related to economics and newish philosophy in a substantive way. The use of the word Good is...heh. [SEE PLATO]
I think you are right that we are fighting mainly for interests now. (That reduces the Iraq war and such to two questions, neither of which I care to argue about--1)is it ok to fight any war for "mere" interest; and 2) if so, will fighting this war actually help our interest.)
I think though, that regardless of these political issues, when it comes to the word and what it signifies, interest rightly understood means something like self-preservation, which is simply the low side of the fulfillment of self. In other words, interest actually rises straight through in an unbroken line to our highest good. The way we mostly see things, however, that line is broken and we are left with apparent goods and selfishness instead of our true interest, which would lead us to happiness.
Argued by
Anonymous |
12:27 AM
Point taken, point taken. I was trying to highlight, with this and the last post, the variation between the economic and religious principles in the conflict. If you take what is said about the mideast in light of what is "religious" at least as I outlined it, the contrast becomes more stark. I am trying to see this war as not 'Merica vs. Iraq, but rather in light of modern Western culture [with its goods and ills] and the over-grasping, all-encompassing, world-conquering ideals of Islam.
Oh, and, basically, that we are going to lose.
Argued by
beitiathustra |
11:12 AM