thom space

So I was in spain then I went to Iowa then montana, now new york then back to iowa and on to chicago. By the end I should be graduated from college and have the job of my dreams. I hope things go that way. But for the time being I am content to go to the city and see my oldest and dearest friends, it should be a very good time. I hope I don’t get SARS because that would suck.

“On the contrary, we keep learning how well educated these people are, how many of them come from the upper class, how wealthy they are. And there is no reason for us to be surprised. These people are in possession of a powerful philosophy, which is Sayyid Qutb’s. They are in possession of a gigantic work of literature, which is his ”In the Shade of the Qur’an.” These people feel that, by consulting their own doctrines, they can explain the unhappiness of the world. They feel that, with an intense study of the Koran, as directed by Qutb and his fellow thinkers, they can make sense of thousands of years of theological error. They feel that, in Qutb’s notion of shariah, they command the principles of a perfect society.

These people believe that, in the entire world, they alone are preserving Islam from extinction. They feel they are benefiting the world, even if they are committing random massacres. They are certainly not worried about death. Qutb gave these people a reason to yearn for death. Wisdom, piety, death and immortality are, in his vision of the world, the same. For a pious life is a life of struggle or jihad for Islam, and struggle means martyrdom. We may think: those are creepy ideas. And yes, the ideas are creepy. But there is, in Qutb’s presentation, a weird allure in those ideas.

It would be nice to think that, in the war against terror, our side, too, speaks of deep philosophical ideas — it would be nice to think that someone is arguing with the terrorists and with the readers of Sayyid Qutb. But here I have my worries. The followers of Qutb speak, in their wild fashion, of enormous human problems, and they urge one another to death and to murder. But the enemies of these people speak of what? The political leaders speak of United Nations resolutions, of unilateralism, of multilateralism, of weapons inspectors, of coercion and noncoercion. This is no answer to the terrorists. The terrorists speak insanely of deep things. The antiterrorists had better speak sanely of equally deep things. Presidents will not do this. Presidents will dispatch armies, or decline to dispatch armies, for better and for worse.

But who will speak of the sacred and the secular, of the physical world and the spiritual world? Who will defend liberal ideas against the enemies of liberal ideas? Who will defend liberal principles in spite of liberal society’s every failure? President George W. Bush, in his speech to Congress a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, announced that he was going to wage a war of ideas. He has done no such thing. He is not the man for that.

Philosophers and religious leaders will have to do this on their own. Are they doing so? Armies are in motion, but are the philosophers and religious leaders, the liberal thinkers, likewise in motion? There is something to worry about here, an aspect of the war that liberal society seems to have trouble understanding — one more worry, on top of all the others, and possibly the greatest worry of all.”
from here

My degree may end up being worth something afterall, maybe I should think about joining up with the state department.

my contact form now works so I guess this means I can now be contacted.

damn

MY summer of canvasing is still paying off.

I read here that U.S. officers instructed their troops to remove American flags from their vehicles to avoid the impression that they were an occupying army. I think that the Iraqis will have a pretty good idea about who are driveing the tanks into their houses, but I understand how removeing the flags is still a good idea which means I bet it was not bushies.

What follows is the text of Bush telling the world what he’s up to… the end is near. No… wait… this is just the beginning. Doh!
Read more »

I can hardly comprehend what it must be like to be in a city that is about to be invaded by the U.S. Army.
My head is spinning.

It is interesting for me to think about what it would be like to travel to a place like Iraq. The lonely planet is saying it might not be a good idea (not to mention the state departments travel warning) but with a history like the one they have it seems like a little risk would be worth it. It’s not like they do not have a legal constitution but then again who cares about constitutions and legalities these days anyway.

But really the best place to get information on iraq is from the iraqis themselves. I wonder who runs the Iraq Foundation.

Scott Carrier is bad ass and Running After Antelope proves it.

and why have I not been aware of Pacifica Radio until today? 50 years as an american alternative media is a long time.