Dostoevsky at the movies
"Who notices?" A cabdriver and a hit man who's forcing him to drive argue about the meaning of life en route to yet another murder and come to the logical conclusion in a 2004 movie dialogue.
From Collateral.
The cabdriver, played by Jamie Foxx realizes that the flip side of Tom Cruise's hitman nihilism is the freedom to do good and not to care about the costs. And the question is whether there is still an argument for ramming the taxi into the barrier, even if you didn't hope to rescue the next victim as happens in the movie? And oh, Hamas has "placed children on rooftops as human shields preventing Israeli attack on Qassam workshops and warehouses". Why not, why the hell not?
The amazing thing about "religious fundamentalism" is how much it resembles, not faith, but nihilism. In both cases the earth is stripped of sanctity; and both the hitman and the militant become laws unto themselves. Maybe the fundamentalist concept of Allah is really a placeholder for his denial.
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posted by wretchardthecat at 3/04/2008 10:54:00 AM
10 Comments:
How many leaflets does Hamas drop On Israeli Cities before they let fly the rockets? There is a point about which the enemy terrorists use the conventions of civilized men as a weapon against other civilized men. Knowing this is the case, How are we to respond? Democracy is not a suicide pact. As long as we flinch at the killing of their children they will continue to slaughter ours. It is a vile and loathsome decision they force us to make, but having made the decision which ever one is made, do it with precision, do it completely and without mercy. Mercy is not Hamas' to grant. Mercy is not for the mothers of the children to ask, or grant. Mercy is the right of all the dead children, Israeli and Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani, alike to grant. Some how I do not think they will look favorably on the actions of Hamas, or Al Qaeda, or Hezbollah or FARC. Nor will they grant dispensation to our hesitation.
Israel should target the Iranian factory that makes the missiles that Iran supplies to Hamas.
THAT would send a message. I don't think the UN would have the guts to protest.
Peter Grynch
The UN will have the "guts to protest." That is exactly what they have the guts to do.
If the missiles are being smuggled in via Egypt, why doesn't Israel target Egypt, too?
I would love to send Mubarek a little love note via the Israeli's to let him know how much we appreciate the way he's spending all the American tax dollars we've been giving him for decades.
Qassam rockets are home made.
W: Brilliant.
Spengler at the Asian Times has noted that Islam is closer to Atheism
Why do Muslim apostates gravitate towards atheism? That is not true of other religions. Many Jewish converts achieved prominence in 20th-century Christianity - for example, the recently deceased Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the martyred Carmelite nun Edith Stein (now canonized), and the great Protestant theologian Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy. But the name of no prominent Muslim convert to Christianity (much less to Judaism) comes to mind.
It is easy to change what we think, but very hard to change how we think. Contrary to superficial impressions, Islam is much closer in character to atheism than to Christianity or Judaism. Although the "what" of Muslim and atheistic thinking of course are very different, I shall endeavor below to prove that the "how" is very similar.
What 'God' loves misery, torture, maiming, sexual debauchery, deception, and pedophilia among other ills. Man as God.
Interesting development: Israeli civilians are now making rockets to fire back at Gaza!
Unfortunately, I lost the link...
On the possible identity of nihilism and Islamist terrorism, Hassan Mneimneh and Kanan Makiya -- "Manual for a 'Raid'" -- make a similar argument.
Jeffery Hodges
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