Re: The monster of atomic war is upon us, again...
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:22 pm
Interesting facts garyb.
Eugenics / social Darwinism never died then!
Afaik, Galton (early proponent of Eugenics) was a cousin of Darwin's.
And of course, Davenport in the US held sway, funding, power, and even a social register as part of his organisation to back up the Eugenics theorem with statistics.
There was surprisingly universal acceptance among eminent politicians, philosophers, economists, authors, and scientists in that period that eventually culminated in racial and ethnic cleansing in Nazism. And since the horrors of WWII, it's just gone underground and underhanded...
For me tho, my thoughts tend to be introspective - I do attempt to be aware of my own self-perpetuating self-reinforcing story telling. I do feel that it is thru honest self-awareness of the narrative that we can escape from ourselves a little, to see ourselves not as participants in the story but as narrators. For me, it's liberating, and can open doors to enlightenment and change.
I'll return to the topic tho, of Syria, Iran, Israel et al., and of the current nuclear threat... Until there is a will to change and to engage in dialog (appeasement resulting in reconciliation), then there will continue to be unrest. There are so many parties involved, entrenched position, and a considerable history, its difficult to see how any one group of people can synthesise the conditions for change in the many.
I used to believe that the US, in their arms deals with allies (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), only contributed to the threat of total-war. And that its pursuit of democratic ideals and of 'freedom and the American way' were thinly-shrouded guises wrapping self-preservation and access to resources beyond its national boundaries. Now it does appear that the aftermath of the cold war and the futility of mutual annihilation has resulted in a useful approach to peace-keeping. But, that is very different to conflict resolution, unfortunately...
Lets hope the whole of the international community can encourage the parties to the table, and not let our collective apathy be their benefit.
For me, if you can help others to detach themselves from their personal narrative surrounding the world of objects and facts, then that might be an approach. If that means whistling Bobby McFerrin's track, then I've already started....
Eugenics / social Darwinism never died then!
Afaik, Galton (early proponent of Eugenics) was a cousin of Darwin's.
And of course, Davenport in the US held sway, funding, power, and even a social register as part of his organisation to back up the Eugenics theorem with statistics.
There was surprisingly universal acceptance among eminent politicians, philosophers, economists, authors, and scientists in that period that eventually culminated in racial and ethnic cleansing in Nazism. And since the horrors of WWII, it's just gone underground and underhanded...
For me tho, my thoughts tend to be introspective - I do attempt to be aware of my own self-perpetuating self-reinforcing story telling. I do feel that it is thru honest self-awareness of the narrative that we can escape from ourselves a little, to see ourselves not as participants in the story but as narrators. For me, it's liberating, and can open doors to enlightenment and change.
I'll return to the topic tho, of Syria, Iran, Israel et al., and of the current nuclear threat... Until there is a will to change and to engage in dialog (appeasement resulting in reconciliation), then there will continue to be unrest. There are so many parties involved, entrenched position, and a considerable history, its difficult to see how any one group of people can synthesise the conditions for change in the many.
I used to believe that the US, in their arms deals with allies (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), only contributed to the threat of total-war. And that its pursuit of democratic ideals and of 'freedom and the American way' were thinly-shrouded guises wrapping self-preservation and access to resources beyond its national boundaries. Now it does appear that the aftermath of the cold war and the futility of mutual annihilation has resulted in a useful approach to peace-keeping. But, that is very different to conflict resolution, unfortunately...
Lets hope the whole of the international community can encourage the parties to the table, and not let our collective apathy be their benefit.
For me, if you can help others to detach themselves from their personal narrative surrounding the world of objects and facts, then that might be an approach. If that means whistling Bobby McFerrin's track, then I've already started....