08-23-2003, 01:59 PM
Youth is wasted on the young, health on the healthy, and life on the living....
:)
But as some bright chap once said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do".
I agree that those volunteering to die with a crash of flames in a media spotlight are less noble to me than those who die humbly while trying to achieve a simpler humanistic goal. I can't fathom the 'suicide bomber' mentality at all - no hope of success, only massive pain and mainly to innocents. How can anyone fall for a line about virgins in paradise, or any other promise in the afterlife? How can they not say, "Well, Osama/whoever - if you think it's such a good idea why are you asking me to do it instead of going yourself?"
This conversation has reminded me one of PJ O'Rourke's stories. O'Rourke was a long-haired counter-culture drug-taking hippie liberal radical for a while during the 60s. Then he got out more and saw more of the world. He enjoys criticising radical liberal politics, especially the comfortably middle-class version. He pokes fun at those who feel they are saving the world with a sit in, especially these days, or who feel that wearing a rainbow tie-dyed t-shirt will save a whale.
In the piece I'm thinking of he asked, "Who is really saving the world?" and went through some of the sort of people Doc mentions. The doctors who work in third world countries for food and board when they could be making $100,000 a year back home. The kids who never imagine being a baseball player but live in hope of being able to walk a few steps before they die.
One of his favourites, and now one of mine, is the guy at the UN building, sharing half an office in some grey corridor, who arranges anti-diarrhoea tablets for African aid programs. Diarrhoea kills hundreds of thousands of people every year in Africa, from various illnesses and other causes, but taking one pill every week will stop it for most of those people. This guy spends his life arranging the buying, shipping and eventual delivering of those anti-diarrhoea tablets. O'Rourke worked out that he, along with the others in his program, had saved millions of lives.
No, it isn't colourful, loud, photogenic or romantic, but it's immensely important.
Mick.
:)
But as some bright chap once said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do".
I agree that those volunteering to die with a crash of flames in a media spotlight are less noble to me than those who die humbly while trying to achieve a simpler humanistic goal. I can't fathom the 'suicide bomber' mentality at all - no hope of success, only massive pain and mainly to innocents. How can anyone fall for a line about virgins in paradise, or any other promise in the afterlife? How can they not say, "Well, Osama/whoever - if you think it's such a good idea why are you asking me to do it instead of going yourself?"
This conversation has reminded me one of PJ O'Rourke's stories. O'Rourke was a long-haired counter-culture drug-taking hippie liberal radical for a while during the 60s. Then he got out more and saw more of the world. He enjoys criticising radical liberal politics, especially the comfortably middle-class version. He pokes fun at those who feel they are saving the world with a sit in, especially these days, or who feel that wearing a rainbow tie-dyed t-shirt will save a whale.
In the piece I'm thinking of he asked, "Who is really saving the world?" and went through some of the sort of people Doc mentions. The doctors who work in third world countries for food and board when they could be making $100,000 a year back home. The kids who never imagine being a baseball player but live in hope of being able to walk a few steps before they die.
One of his favourites, and now one of mine, is the guy at the UN building, sharing half an office in some grey corridor, who arranges anti-diarrhoea tablets for African aid programs. Diarrhoea kills hundreds of thousands of people every year in Africa, from various illnesses and other causes, but taking one pill every week will stop it for most of those people. This guy spends his life arranging the buying, shipping and eventual delivering of those anti-diarrhoea tablets. O'Rourke worked out that he, along with the others in his program, had saved millions of lives.
No, it isn't colourful, loud, photogenic or romantic, but it's immensely important.
Mick.