Karma my ass!

[The Great Quail]

Barbara writes,

>America must have an enormous karmic debt to pay. Let's just pay it and
>learn our lessons.

>I'm not the pervert who linked "karmic" and "debt" together. 
>Actually, I stole it from Gary Zukav. I think they go together well. 
>And I stand behind my statement.  Sorry if you find it insensitive, 
>but I believe America does have a karmic debt to pay.

I was actually hoping you would just sort of quietly disown that 
statement, which I find the single most offensive thing stated on the 
P-List since September 11. The very fact that you would use a 
religious/philosophical concept pulled from Buddhism to *justify* the 
death of thousands of multinational non-combatants is appalling to me 
in the extreme. And lets not mince words -- you *are* justifying it. 
The notion of paying a debt and then moving on is a justification 
bordering on *approval,* and as applied to this case, points to a 
philosophy I simply must abjure.

It is this kind of thinking, which focuses solely on the ills 
perpetuated by American society, all the while ignoring the other 
numerous factors in the equation; this kind of feckless and 
irresponsible thinking which leads one to state something so 
appalling in such a *blithe* and uncaring fashion.... I can't even 
fathom a response from me that would make any sense to you. I found 
your statement to be so arrogant, thoughtless, ignorant, and cruel 
that I had just hoped it was the product of a sudden mental lapse, 
something you would rather bury, if not apologize for.

And also, the fact that your statement suggests that we should 
essentially just *accept* that American deserved this, and then *move 
on,* to offer no response whatsoever and allow the Jihad to 
continually expand and attack the West -- ? Are you stupid? Ignorant 
of the situation? Or just appallingly naive? Have you looked into 
this situation at all? Even the most rabid leftists and apologists 
don't think that the Jihad is going to "just go away." Even if we 
withdrew all support from Israel and abandoned our petroleum 
interests, the Middle East would become a bloodbath -- and no doubt 
we would be blamed for that, too. And who would step in to start 
offering support for various regimes in order to access the resources 
of the Middle East...? Russia? Pakistan? China? Oh, boy, sign me up 
for that! I mean, we have surely supported some bastards in that 
region -- Muhammed Reza Shah, Menachem Begin, Sadat and Mubarak, the 
Saudis, Yasir Arafat -- but their opponents don't offer a whole hell 
of a lot of attraction. I would rather have continual US pressure on 
Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia than to see the region become another 
Lebanon, Afghanistan, or the puppets of other "imperial" interests 
with worse human rights records than the US.

But back to your statement....

What about "karmic debt" for the production of the Bill of Rights, 
the idea of political checks and balances, the emancipation of women, 
the secularization of politics, the protection of Europe, the 
liberation of concentration camps, the fall of the Soviet Union? What 
about karmic debt for the production of some of the greatest 
scientists, writers, artists and musicians of the last two centuries? 
What about the "karmic debt" of the Middle East, who have not only 
brought us 1400 years of art, music, mathematics, astronomy and 
philosophy, but also a wonderful tradition of intolerance, hatred, 
institutionalized bigotry, imperialism, corruption, genocidal 
holocaust, assassination, holy war, and brutal repression of human 
rights? I suppose that they are free from the wheel of karma?

I have no problem with the *acts* of American criticism that flow 
from the keyboards of P-Listers like Barbara and Doug. America has 
done much wrong, and should be called to account for our atrocities 
and misdeeds. But what about balance? Why must it be so consistently 
one-sided, narrow-minded, arrogant, and mean-spirited?

For those of you that would gloat in the fall of the United States 
from the status of a  world power, ask yourself, just what do you 
think will replace it? And let's not kid ourselves -- the likes of 
Barbara and Doug would crow with delight to see the USA get the shit 
beaten out of it. I think the rest of us "war mongers" have a better 
sense of balance, and understand that, while profoundly flawed like 
all large nation states, and while subject to numerous horrible 
mis-steps, the United States has been leading the West in the 
evolution of Enlightenment ideals for quite a long time. So while 
some of us will roundly protest such things as Vietnam, policies in 
Central America, corporate mendacity, and the support of dictatorial 
regimes; at least we have a sense of a nation as being something more 
complex than Barbara's idea of a single-minded entity solely and 
exclusively held accountable to the *negative* karma  of our misdeeds.

To recap: To state that thousands of "innocent" people of *all* 
nationalities *deserved* their deaths on account of the so-called 
"sins" of America is the shittiest thing I have ever heard on this 
List.

Flailing my arms wildly,

--Quail

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth:
http://www.TheModernWord.com

"All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each
event -- in the living act, the undoubted deed -- there, some unknown
but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from
behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!
How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?"
      --Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"