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> On Wed, 7 Apr 2004, Wesley Parish wrote:
> > I would of course like to ask her if she has fallen into the trap of the
> > "good, righteous Jew" stereotype in declaring "There is NEVER a
> > reasonable excuse for the use of terror. When you explain and find
> > plausible reasons for terror, you help to perpetrate its use."
<snip>
The subject line of this thread as well as the two sentences in the quote
above bring up the matter of reason and excuse. Although they are often used
interchangeably, they are not the same. For an issue such as terrorism, the
switch can be very misleading and confusing.
Reason can mean perceived reasons (for which there are many in regards to
terrorism), tactical and strategic reasons (again, the same), historical and
contextual reasons, (ditto), etc. Excuse calls fro a legal or moral judgement
for the reasons and actions. That's what gets stormy and messy. It is also
why so many people get infuriated when they hear even a suggestion that
there's a reason for a terrorist act or terrorism overall. Existence of a
reason or reasons is interpreted as permission, justification, or even
sanctification of the actions. In such a confusion, it would seem that moral
people should be cheering on a suicide bomber as she goes towards an Israeli
pizzaria.
No, such confusion leads to very bad conclusions. It makes it harder to look
at what's happening and trying to understand the problems in hope of fixing
things (Tikkun HaOlam). It also leads to acceptance of a polarized thinking
that encourages conditions promoting terrorism, conditions such as let do
more shock & awe of more countries, "kill 'em all and let G~d sort 'em out"
slogan approaches, ignoring the things that destroy hope among many peoples
around the world (a very significant factor), etc.
I run into the confusion problem in other venues, ones dealing with info
security, cybercrime, etc. and it is difficult to speak on such points
because it is too easy to be perceived as the "enemy" or a "sympathizer".
Shades of pinko, fellow traveller, and useful fool labels of another nasty
era in USA history. (Or just that we are going through a continuation of the
same era with its volume turned up again.)
J.D. Abolins
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