You are currently browsing the Terminus Est weblog archives for the day January 23, 2007.
January 23, 2007 by mr_flood.
Check out Goldstein for a great hypothetical on how long a leash we should give the Maliki government. His article touches on something I’ve often thought about: what societies are and what are the fundamentals of their existance? Webster describes a society as
2 : a voluntary association of individuals for common ends; especially : an organized group working together or periodically meeting because of common interests, beliefs, or profession.
Individuals for common ends. What happens when a geographical location, what may be a nation, contains two distinct groups of individuals with opposing interests? Can you still call it a society? Can you call Iraq a society?
The Thirteen Colonies, in the beginning, were a society of Brits. As time passed a group of individuals decided that they disliked being British and decided to form a new society, an American one. Remember though, it wasn’t all of them that decided this, just the more passionate, the one’s willing to take up arms. Was it wrong for these impassioned rebels to force their will upon those who would chose to stay British? Was it wrong to force them to conform or leave? To force them to live by new laws that they didn’t necessarily agree with? To quash their voices? To label them traitors? I don’t think so.
I don’t think it would be wrong for the advocates of democracy to completely and utterly quash the voices of those who oppose them. To declare even the slightest affront to the current government as treason. To say to them ‘We wish to form the bonds of a new society, if you don’t like it, leave or die’. To make a bill of rights that only applies to those who wish to be members of the new way and to strip away the rights of those who stand against it. Are you evil or have you lost your way if you choose to protect your people, your society, without regard for the rights of your enemies? I don’t think so.
Isn’t it a bit insane that we condone the killing of those that fire lead bullets at government forces but consider those who fire liturgical bullets to be untouchable?
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