What If ... ?
December 8, 2005
12:09 p.m., MT

I know it's a coupla days old, but I still want to point out Butler Shaffer's latest essay, Is Mankind a Mistake? -- primarily for the person who visited this blog and commented, "People are no damned good in the first place!". (The comment itself appears to have been deleted, but if you look down the comments on that post, you'll see where Wolf DeVoon quotes it and gives its author what he or she deserves.) As usual, Butler breaks it down clearly:

Our dispositions toward our neighbors tend to be peaceful, cooperative, and respectful, at least as long as we regard them as neighbors, rather than as abstractions defined for us, by state authorities, as our "enemies." The capacity to recognize - and to act upon - such distinctions lies within the mind of each of us, if we will but take the responsibility to do so, and to understand the consequences if we do not.

If we are prepared to explore our own thinking, and to follow the movement of our own thought, we may be able to transcend our institutionalized conditioning by discovering that, because "war is the health of the state," our best strategy for survival - both as individuals and as a species - is to never allow ourselves to become politically organized.

I've not forgotten my long-ago tease about interviewing Butler Shaffer ... can't say more'n that right now, though. (Ain't I evil?)

Sunni

Comments: 1 person has added a thought or two ...

On Thursday, December 8th, at approximately 11:44 p.m. Mountain time, Aakash said:

Just came across your site, via a link from a link from a link (or something like that) via Antiwar.com's blog.

You have a nice-looking weblog; I'm unsure, right now though, as to its prevailing ideology. From a cursory glance, it looks libertarian (or thereabouts) to me. If it wasn't for Finals [and a ton of overdue work, that I shoulda gotten done today], I might stay and look around more. I hope to be back soon.

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