The Friday-morning Philosophy Breakfast crew has been rather subdued for the past few weeks. It's hard to know what to say when someone sitting next to you at the table has just lost a brother in the World Trade Center attack. But out of our shared fear, and anger, and grief, some flashes of mindfulness (and, believe it or not, humor):

• "It's not Afghanistan, stupid!"
• "Know your enemy; read the Koran." ... "What's an 'enemy'?" ... "Humans are enemies of all things." ... "I have to become the enemy."
• What's the difference between cowardice and rashness? ... [see comment in a letter to the New Yorker re Plato and the meaning of "rash behavior"]
• "Terrorism comes from weakness." ... "Great countries resist retaliation and revenge."
• Monotheism — could it be the root of the problem? ... "It's all this 'God' stuff!" ... Is monotheism intrinsically a healthy concept? ... What are the sources of fanaticism? ... Religious terrorists don't do it for other people: "God is their audience." ... They're not highly emotional either: "Emotional people get caught, or they do something small."
• [an observation by a female participant:] "There's more fear among women than among men about coming in to work every morning." ... [she has noted an increasing temptation to stay home, be with one's family]
• Is it true that "everything has changed"? ... "I don't think that anything is different today than it was before." ... "The half-life of public interest is about a month; I had thought it was going to be six months, but it's not."
• "In war, to survive you cannot be afraid, but you must be conscious" ... aware, observant, ready to act ...
• "We're going to do a whole bunch of things, but they won't be the right things." ... [compare with: "The Americans usually do the right thing once they have tried all the alternatives," attributed to Winston Churchill]
• "You can't fool us — we're not paying attention!" [comment by a legendary football coach]
• The key problem with Islam today: "There's no authority that will interpose itself between the faithful and the crazies."
• "Nuke 'em!" [but said with a smile?]

(thanks, once more, to BD, JJ, LJR, RS, BW, et al. for insight and fellowship)

TopicSociety - TopicPhilosophy - 2001-10-11

_"Terrorism comes from weakness." ... "Great countries resist retaliation and revenge." Hmmm. Seems that great countries might be defined as those that last long enough to write history books that say that they are great countries. That would have nothing to do with resisting retaliation and revenge.

Tnx! — good thought ... and note that Philo B'fast comments are made by different people, often during point/counterpoint discussions, so they are not necessarily consistent one with another ... - MarkZimmermann -

(correlates: Comments on HinduVsBuddhist, WhyWorry, JimHoward, ...)