Oliver Stone (was:Pauper and Sweatshop Fallacies)

[Michael Bailey]

>  Henry M wrote:
>> Okay.  Here's a dilemma that is unfortuneately not theoretical.  Soldiers of
>> a mass-murdering tyrant, one who has killed women and children, surrounding
>> themselves with women and children who function as "human shields."
>>
>>

but let's say the situation is a different one, bin Laden, for
instance - there's a lot of guys who stand ready to go in blazing
gunfire and pretty good at avoiding non-combatants in general

there's a lot of people inspired by that idea

in all seriousness, i hypothetically wouldn't howl too many
imprecations from the afterlife if i were, say, a valet or waiter who
got accidentally blown up by the same suitcase bomb that killed Hitler
for instance - in all likelihood i've gotta go myself sometime anyway
(my dad passing in 2012 was a strong reminder of that probability)

it's just that i'm not personally inspired by that idea, but much more
by peaceful alternatives.

you say, hey what peaceful alternative is gonna stop a heavily armed
tyrant heck-bent on mayhem?

by ceaseless labor and occasional inspiration and hearty support
donated by or mulcted from millions over millenia, the military now
has the capability of almost miraculous acts of destruction!

even if i were so inclined, they don't need my nose on that
grindstone...plenty of takers...

obvious thought experiment, what if the same amount of time and energy
were spent on something else instead?

working on something else...yeah that's the ticket...somewhere,
there's a cubic yard not being used for arms manufacture or target
practice, i'm'a go sit there and think about peace...ways to practice
it without making the warmakers even more upset...go to market with
little harmless sweetnesses even the gnarliest warmaker might want,
and for that brief second do something different besides act out the
proverbial "idiot with a penknife" on the world's canvas