>> ^rougy:
I hate to say it, but there is no way in hell to discusss Palestinian terrorism without addressing the odious conditions that they are forced to live in by Israel.
You can't treat people like animals for three or four generations and expect them to behave in any other manner.


Agreed, but you need to go one step further. There is no way in hell to discuss the plight of the Palestinian people without addressing the policies of the surrounding Arab nations for the last 4 generations as well. Iran and Syria currently aid the Palestinians by training them to blow themselves up and giving them weapons and explosives with which to do so. Historically, Israel's aggressive foreign policy that is causing the Palestinian's troubles has resulted from a continual effort by their neighbors to annihilate them.

>> ^Smugglarn:
>> ^videosiftbannedme:
>>
; ^quantumushroom:
Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.
islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.

Hey, how about:
islamofacism Intellectually-retarded bigots must die for the civilized world to survive.

Hmm, how about:
Cultural relativists thinks we're all friends, until they get blown up while on holiday.


How about you stay out of my shit and Ill stay out of your shit? Sound fucking fair? Fine now get out of my headspace. <just adding to the crazy argument>

>> ^videosiftbannedme:
>> ^quantumushroom:
Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.
islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.

Hey, how about:
islamofacism Intellectually-retarded bigots must die for the civilized world to survive.


Hmm, how about:
Cultural relativists thinks we're all friends, until they get blown up while on holiday.

>> ^quantumushroom:
Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.
islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.


Hey, how about:
islamofacism Intellectually-retarded bigots must die for the civilized world to survive.

>> ^rougy:

When western powers start leaving the Middle East alone, the Middle East will have less reason to "terrorize" the West.
Almost all of the so-called terrorists in Iraq aren't out to destroy America, they are out to remove the American occupation from their homeland.
We must try to imagine our roles reversed. Imagine your city or town controlled by Iraqi soldiers who suspected you of murder and neither understood, nor really cared to understand, your language or culture.


absolutely.
but terrorism/jihad has been a tool long before we invaded iraq. infact iraqis were not really players in the terror game until we invaded. so yes, in the case of the insurgents in iraq, its certainly a "get the fuck out of our country you american pig". but outside of that and long before that its been a tool to exploit the poor to do the bidding of the fanatical. and its worldwide. like an al queda cell attacked a small fishing village in the phillipines (that my friends wife and baby live in) and decapitated 4 people about 2 months ago. ... and speaking of propaganda machines.. why dont we hear about this in the us?

but you are right, we need to get of their country, rethink our position on israel, denounce the war on terror as an excuse for abuse after extensive abuse, and focus our efforts towards a war on poverty... or maybe not a war... maybe a... "poverty conflict" or... "military social agenda"? .. ah fuck it.. wed just screw it up anyway.

>> ^rougy:
^ All of those things come into play, I'm sure.
To me, the obvious rub is not religious but regional.
When western powers start leaving the Middle East alone, the Middle East will have less reason to "terrorize" the West.
Almost all of the so-called terrorists in Iraq aren't out to destroy America, they are out to remove the American occupation from their homeland.
We must try to imagine our roles reversed. Imagine your city or town controlled by Iraqi soldiers who suspected you of murder and neither understood, nor really cared to understand, your language or culture.

I think you're dead-on about the "terrorist insurgents" in Iraq.

And as to your supposition that it's regional as opposed to religious, I think you're pretty close to the truth there as well. You only have to look at peaceful Muslims of the western world to see that Islam isn't the source of terrorism, but rather a tool used by villains to exploit people into doing their dirty work. It's far easier to convince the faithful that they are giving their life for their god, rather than trying to convince them to do it because your US buddies screwed you over after you fought so hard to prevent the Russians from stealing their heroin harvest.

>> ^quantumushroom:
Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.
islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.

Replace "islamofacism" with "religious fanaticism", and I'll say you're on to something.

>> ^quantumushroom:
Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.
islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.


man, you're not even trying

Random Observations pertaining to 9/11 by Malcolm Gladwell Daniel Pearl.

islamofacism must die for the civilized world to survive.

>> ^rougy:
>> ^Raaagh:
I think the increased severity due to increasing commonality of hatred directed at the USA, and the fact that the people who are planning and carrying out the attacks are hardened warriors with dehumanising religious motivations.

What do you think is causing that hatred?


this is an interesting question. i asked a good friend of mine who studies islam and the middle east and has spent alot of time in the region..
"what do they want?"
his answer was about how at one time there was the persian empire, the ottoman empire, the arab world was rich in trade, philosophy, intellect, cultural and a serious world power. now, they live in caves and squalor. his answer was they just dont want to be poor anymore. most of them are illiterate, desperate and highly religious. so.. they cant actually read the qaran, but someone who can comes to the village and tells them what it says. or what his interpretation would be. and basically tells an entire village of otherwise ignorant people that they once were kings and now they live in squalor and they live in squalor because of oppression and the perversion of the western world. the exports of western culture to the middle east are brittany spears and lindsay lohan which is highly offensive in its own right, but especially offensive if youre highly religious and live in poverty. you cant blame anyone for seeing that and thinking we are all pigs. you add what they see of our culture and what they see from our leaders. they see we side with israel and most of us are completely ignorant to the details of the conflict, they see we side with india, another conflict we are ignorant of... they also have an excellent propaganda machine and we give them plenty to hate. but basically they just dont want to be poor anymore, blame the us, and are told the qaran demands jihad and that jihad will restore their people to glory.

also, another aspect that makes these ideas spread like wild fire through islamic cultures is that islam has no religous hierarchy. there is no one authority that says "this is what we think about this" or "no, blowing ourselves up wont solve anything"

>> ^Raaagh:
I think the increased severity due to increasing commonality of hatred directed at the USA, and the fact that the people who are planning and carrying out the attacks are hardened warriors with dehumanising religious motivations.


What do you think is causing that hatred?

cosmic. malcolm gladwells genius, as well as his 'fro, have been haunting my dreams for about week now. which leads me to conclude that his genius and the size of his righteous 'fro are directly proportional. using mathmatics to analyze history and history to analyze the present and the present to analyze the future makes me extremely happy. and also extremely irritated that math and history have been bastardized by public education. and that infact, history was introduced into public education under completely bastardized pretenses.... adlfjadslkjfaldskj!

Also awesome and in this video: Malcolm Gladwell on "The Tipping Point," his book about the "anatomy" of trends. Begins at about the 38 minute mark.

Enzoblue, I think his argument is that the singularity advocates are proposing large modifications to humanity based on the assumption that it will amplify every positive aspect of the human condition and stretch it out over eternity. He challenges this assumption through thought experiments that suggest the singularity might not make us happy; in fact it might make us miserable by robbing us of our most cherished sources of transcendence. At the very least, he argues, we don't know what the new human experience might be like after the singularity because it will be so alien to the current human experience.

I don't think he is saying that all advancement should be targeted towards making us happier. But if a piece of technology's appeal is based on its promise to make us happier we should take the time to think through its ramifications (especially in cases like this which can shake everything to the core) because we certainly have difficulty predicting what will make us happy (e.g.,
http://www.videosift.com/video/Malcolm-Gladwell-on-spaghetti-sauce-happiness-TED-talk http://www.videosift.com/video/The-misguided-Pursuit-of-Happiness--Dan-Gilbert-TEDTalks).

He is championing the case for restraint before we smash the atom so to speak. I also think his usage of the word 'happiness' encapsulates more than the pedestrian need to maximize our individual dopamine levels; it also encapsulates notions of transcendence, meaning, altruism to the extent that our selfish genes will allow us to derive happiness from these 'higher' ideals.