Monday, August 21, 2006
Another point of view
In order to get my response here, you first have to read Jay's comments HERE.
Jay offers some good points about the fact that these "liquid bombers" were, in all likelihood, successful in their attempts. he suggests that the plot was probably to just cause harm in causing more panic and hysteria (etc) than in actually blowing up a plane. the reasons are spelled out in his post, but basically boil down to the complications, time, and energy involved in actually making such a bomb.
i think jay has some good points. however, jay is (evidently) also much more hopeful in people's competancy and intelligence and i am. his rather well thought out post suggests that these are very smart people and they have manipulated us into hysteria by making it look like they would blow stuff up.
i am not of this view, and knowing me in any way, you will know that i generally think people are stupid. i mean, come on, these are people that believe that if they cause harm and perform evil acts of murder (and murder is murder no matter what cause its for), they will be REWARDED by allah in heaven with virgins beckoning to their whims. does that sound in any way logical?
so, i'm thinking, they are so consuming in figuring out new ways of sneaking stuff on planes to blow them up, that they didn't even get to the point of figuring out that it would be time consuming, complicated, would take a lot of it to cause any serious damage, and actaully work. this stuff is so combustible that they would probably blow just themselves up, or at least give themselves some serious burns.
so, i guess it depends on what you think of the nature of people. are people mostly smart or are they mostly just stupid (especially when you throw in some religious fanaticism)?
Jay offers some good points about the fact that these "liquid bombers" were, in all likelihood, successful in their attempts. he suggests that the plot was probably to just cause harm in causing more panic and hysteria (etc) than in actually blowing up a plane. the reasons are spelled out in his post, but basically boil down to the complications, time, and energy involved in actually making such a bomb.
i think jay has some good points. however, jay is (evidently) also much more hopeful in people's competancy and intelligence and i am. his rather well thought out post suggests that these are very smart people and they have manipulated us into hysteria by making it look like they would blow stuff up.
i am not of this view, and knowing me in any way, you will know that i generally think people are stupid. i mean, come on, these are people that believe that if they cause harm and perform evil acts of murder (and murder is murder no matter what cause its for), they will be REWARDED by allah in heaven with virgins beckoning to their whims. does that sound in any way logical?
so, i'm thinking, they are so consuming in figuring out new ways of sneaking stuff on planes to blow them up, that they didn't even get to the point of figuring out that it would be time consuming, complicated, would take a lot of it to cause any serious damage, and actaully work. this stuff is so combustible that they would probably blow just themselves up, or at least give themselves some serious burns.
so, i guess it depends on what you think of the nature of people. are people mostly smart or are they mostly just stupid (especially when you throw in some religious fanaticism)?
The End of Privacy - Whitaker