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Edited on Sun Jun-05-05 05:20 AM by impeachdubya
or my couch, for that matter.
Beyond that, well, I'm the wrong person to ask because, um, I find the veneration of symbolic representations over the abstract ideas they are meant to represent a weird psychosis depressingly common to hairless, domesticated primates, i.e. humans.
Like when people get bent out of shape over flag-burning.. to the extent that they are willing to destroy the ideas that the flag represents, i.e. the freedom to engage in unpopular speech, like flag-burning.
It's like walking into a restaurant and eating the menu.
Things get even weirder when you talk about symbolic representations of ideas that are what I consider extremely abstract or subjective concepts (I will refrain, here, from using the word 'imaginary'), i.e. the "word" of "God". Now, yes, I DO understand that Muslims consider each and every Koran to be the specific, actual word of God, much as Catholics believe the eucharist to be the specific, actual body of Christ. I'm not technically religious so I'm not gonna get into that- except to say that when you get to a point where you are valuing a book -paper, ink- more than a human being, well, I personally do think you again have got your priorities more than a little funky.
That said, the practicalities of the situation are such that I don't believe high quality intelligence work is being done at Gitmo, I don't believe secret gulags and infinite detention without recourse to legal systems is decent American or Human behavior, and as such I'm hardly defending urine-splashing or toilet flushing or any of the other weirdness that may have gone down or is still going down there. Saying "which is worse?" is relevant but I think the real, pressing question is, "What the fuck are we doing over there and why are we involved with any of this in the first place?"
But as far as which is worse... Everyone is entitled to their own belief system, but I would be lying if I didn't mention my own belief that extremist interpretations of ALL the major religions, particularly when they progress into rigid fundamentalism, seem to have a tendency to warp many people's priorities into what I consider to be a pretty fucked up place.
I think it's screwed up to consider a book more important than a human life. I also think it's screwed up to consider a cheap tank of gas more important than a human life.
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