[MD] MOQ and the Future: An Inquiry into Usefulness

[plattholden at gmail.com]

On 4 Nov 2009 at 19:26, Andre Broersen wrote:

> Platt to marksmith:
> 
> You are right to worry. Reason has been used to justify horrible
> dictatorships. One only need look at Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba
> for current examples.As Ben Franklin said: "So convenient a thing it is be a
> rational creature, since it enables us to find a reason for everything one
> has a mind to do."
> 
> Andre:
> Hi Platt, up to your right-wing antics yet again. I have taken the
> opportunity to peruse the archives whilst I am awaiting the completion of
> the arrangements of my work in China.
> I am surprised to note you left out China in your list of dictatorships. Any
> special reason??

Hi Andre,  I will gladly add China to the list per your request.

> You did forget your own country though. Of course I am observing from a
> distance  (and therefore you can easily shoot me down) but what the
> neo-cons, money and the Fox- inspired media are doing is a kind of
> dictatorial imposition of views as well...with the resultant mass hypnosis
> (fed on fear, which is the mother of violence [Peter Gabriel] ). Is this the
> type of rationality you subscribe to?
> 
> All I am suggesting is to look in your own back yard. I am doing so as well,
> A MoQ rationality is nowhere is sight: SOM and money reign.

Last time I looked the U.S. was still a democratic republic. As for social 
interaction between citizens I'll take money over guns any day. 

 
> Platt:
> I also see some hope in the connection between the rational MOQ and the
> generally accepted morality of caring, compassion and consideration of
> others represented by Christianity and Buddhism. Both stem from the same
> belief  -- the world as a moral order -- the former derived from a rational
> inquiry into the phenomenon of direct everyday experience, the latter based
> on mystic revelation.
> 
> Andre:
> This is strange Platt, Christians being caring, compassionate and
> considering others?? Has the recent American Christian  leadership, of for
> example, a Bush, Johnston,Nixon, Bush Sr, Clinton, shown this?? Please do
> not confuse 'rationality' (in the MoQ sense) with Christianity. They are
> opposites.
> Have you already forgotten Korea, Vietnam,Chile,El Salvador, Argentine,
> Mexico, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Balkan?

Aren't you confusing Christianity with government, and freedom with 
tyranny?

> My own experience, as a little boy in church (every Sunday), and living in
> this so called Roman Catholic village filled me with a sense of horror and
> hypocracy towards these self same Christian fellow human beings who behaved
> quite differently on the other days of the week...or to be more precise:
> they behaved differently in church and were their self same hypocritical,
> ego-centric mother little chauvinistic bastards outside of it: business as
> usual.

The record of charitable giving and good works by Christians belies your 
unfortunate childhood.  
 
> PLatt:
> (I'm thinking of some women who exhibit an extraordinary
> harmony of sense and sensitivity.)
> 
> Andre:
> Phffffffffff
> 
> 'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make' (Lennon&
> McCartney).
 
Hmmm. Now there's a creative idea: "Make love, not war." Oh, wait a 
minute. Wasn't that the profound manifesto of 60's Hippies?  

Glad your posting again, Andre. 

Platt