[MD] Barbarians & Hippies

[Platt Holden]

Good morning Arlo, 

> [Arlo]
> As with anything else, I find some of the causes and messages of these
> groups to have value. And I disagree with them over points too. To keep
> "balance", what rightist groups do you "properly peg" as radical?

Glad to know you sanction the "fair and balanced" ideology of Fox News. 
On the right, I'd peg the the militia groups as radical. 

> [Platt]
> As for CND. a pressure group that rejects societal self-defense is not
> only radical, it's wacko.
> 
> [Arlo]
> I'm not sure I know much about the CND, but I'd be surprised if it
> rejected "societal self-defense", only that enacting that self-defense
> through the detonation of nuclear weapons amounts to the
> mass-destruction of civilian human beings to achieve a military
> objective. It amounts to killing everyone in your neighbor's family
> because your neighbor threatened you. "Society" has survived for
> thousands and thousands of years without "needing" nuclear bombs, I
> think it continue to do so. The trouble is, as long as they are made,
> our enemies will seek them out. And these enemies won't be deterred by
> us using ours in retaliation. Of course, the modern theatre is so ladden
> with "distrust" and politically manipulated tensions that disarmament
> will not be possible. I sadly believe that it will only be after a
> nuclear exchange that people will demand, and ensure, that there will be
> "no nukes". Take a look at Japan's very "staunch" stand against nuclear
> weapons. They know. We, on the otherhand... well, we'll know too
> someday. And the Japanese (and the f&^king kangaroos) will just shake
> their heads.

Do you consider atomic weapons in the hands of Iran to be a threat to 
Israel and the West? I do. 

> [Platt]
> I don't oppose the formation of pressure groups on the left, right, or 
> anywhere else. Those who join such groups, however, can hardly be held 
> out as models of people who "think for themselves."
 
> [Arlo]
> As with anything else, it depends on whether your blindly accept or
> blindly reject everything a group advocates. Since in this complex world
> people will always vary to a degree, no "group" could ever be composed
> exclusively of those who share all your opinions. Although many want you
> to think that, and this is achieved through top-down pressure to conform
> (exerted mostly via propaganda).
> 
> So, to clarify, the people who join Greenpeace or the NRA, CND or
> American Family Association are not models of people who think for
> themselves?

Right. As Groucho Marx put it, " I don't want to belong to any club 
that would accept me as a member." :-) 

Platt