Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 19:44:58 -0800
From: "Senex R. Rupicapra" <olgoat-AT-kdsi.net>
Subject: Screwing the Pooch--a mixed reply to Unka


as much as it pains me i'm gonna hafta sit long enow
to address this, although ys might not wanna sit long enow to
read it.  whilst i be in the midst o the "Attack of the Killer
Haemorrhoids" i nevertheless find it impossible to ignore the 
atrocities (being committed on this list)--the most ignoble 
being the defamation and daemonisation of them what disagree.  
hot damn but a lot o the bandwidth creates much heat, but very
little light.  i guess i might as well put my oar in. (although
i'm using Senex Bartus' post as my template i aint shooting
at him cuz we agree more than not. these be general comments.)

Senex Bartus writes:
 
> Brother Dave raised two points that I'm going to blather
> a bit about here. One is a point of fundamentally skewed
> logic, the other a matter of perspective. 
[SNIP]
> The first point is the one I've been waiting to see.  The
> argument that "no one did anything (alternatively, raised
> a stink) about Rwanda (or fill in your favorite saddle burr
> here), so why should we get our shorts in a knot over the
> current genocide?"
> 
> Now you may phrase that any way you like, but this is what
> it boils down to:  "If we can't solve all the worlds problems,
> why should we try to solve any?"
> 
> Does that actually *need* an answer?
> 
> I'm not going to point out that the Rwanda genocide, being
> a tribal matter, was not the sort of thing that western
> governments are very well equipped to deal with; nor will I
> mention that I'm as pissed at the lovely Klinton for his 
> brain-deat approach to Iraq as I am at him for the bombing
> of Serbia, either.
> 
> But in the yuglosalv situation, you can say all you like
> about the problems with the solution being tried (and for
> that matter, I've said a few things about it myself, mainly
> that it won't accomplish the stated goal) but the indisputable
> fact is that *someone* is doing *something.*  And when
> genocide is the problem in need of being addressed, it is
> my view that doing something is infinitely preferable to
> doing *nothing!*
> 
> Further, from what I see, the voices echoing this sentiment
> are reaching a much louder volume here in the estados.  I
> am beginning to believe that ground forces, in *sufficient*
> strength to accomplish the task, are very likely to be
> introduced.  When they are, their mission will be to *destroy*
> the serb army and occupy yugoslavia for long enough to change
> attitudes.
> At least a generation.  That this worked in Germany can be
> debated, but I believe that it did.

	ok, br'er Slowgun be a bad dude, but without a lotta 
help from his fiends he just one butt-ugly voice crying in the
wilderness.  i dunno, if anybody's noticed but y no sooner get 
rid o one o them assholes (ouch!) and another one pops out.
[please excuse any haemorrhoid allusions--i keep being reminded].
to say that one evil outfit oughta screw with the workings o
another evil outfit cuz they dont like what #2 does to itself
or other third parties is really screwing the pooch.  There be
evil folk in the world, so we gotta get together and kill'em so
as to make room for the next wave o evil folk which--if we play 
our cards right--might as well be us (at least it'll keep us on
top for a while, mebbe a long while).
	when i first got here to the -AT--list i, or someotherbody
--i disremember which--recoined the phrase "human nature" and 
us what accepted it as a valid concept got stomped on like a
tub o Napa Valley grapes.  "no such thing!" shouted them o the
purple feet.  "immaterial!" quoth those o the purple mouths.
as a newcomer i was loath to get into a big magilla over the
definition o terms whilst getting my butt (ouch!) kicked by
the list heavyweights.  i correctly figgered what comes around
does so cyclically.  it does and it has.
	here goes.  the human nature is to accumulate power 
and thence to abuse it.  dont believe me? read history--it's 
in there.  govt aint the root o all evil it's the manifestation
o the dark angels o human nature.  e.g., we aint evil cuz we
got govt; we got govt cuz we be evil.  fortunately, tho, the 
unremittantly evil human bean be exceedingly a rare critter.
most o our dark angels be puny enow not to wanna fly off and
scorch earth without a lotta company.  there not only be safety
in numbers--there be mischief also.  the Jugos just happen
to be the villains o the month that our domestic (NATO) baddies
be using to enhance their own iniquitous reprobacy--all in the
name o peace, justice, and brotherhood, o course.

> The second point involves "Hope."  Brother Dave accurately
> presented my view, that the "glorious anarchist revolution"
> will be heralded by the soft fluttering of avian swine; but
> he goes off the deep end when he equates that (realistic)
> assessment with a lack of Hope.  I do not believe that
> there is any lack of protents for Hope, and I see no reason
> not to keep it in one's heart at all times.

	depends on what y hopes for.  the other side o the
human nature coin is that there are also brighter angels in 
there.  as individuals, we be capable o recognising our own 
character defects as well as our strengths and, as individuals,
working toward improving our deportment.  the down side to 
this is the onliest way i can guarantee the improvement o my 
brother's deportment thru my efforts is to kill him.  i can
then guarantee he won't do no more bad stuff.  any other 
method is sure to fall short o the ideal and, therefore, will
require concerted efforts by me and thee.  (can y spell "govt"?  
how's about "coercion"?)
	ok, ok.  it's a imperfect world full o flawed folk
and we gotta do what we can to get along, right?  choosing
the lesser evil o a less rambunctious form o coercive 
power might have its temporary advantages, but, in the 
final analysis the lesser evil is evil.  there aint no
use in lying to ourselfs that the present setup be
perfectable.  it aint. it's stopgap, at best

> What I do *not* see is any likelihood of any form of
> revolution, if by that term one means "insurrection" or
> mass uprising of the workers (or the wankers either, for
> that matter, but I digress...) to establish ...
> ummmm... come to think about it, being anarchists, they
> wouldn't be *establishing* anything even if they did.  No
> mind, that ain't agonna happen.  Nope.  Sorry.

	what he said.  any meaningful "revolution" must begin
with me, inside me.  and thee, o course, but that's thy bidness.

> But what I *do* see is an explosion of "interconnectedness"
> among like-thinking folks that is making it *impossible* for
> a state to control what the populace can learn about what's
> going on.  While the significance of this in the recent
> dramatic changes in the face of greater Europe, the demise
> of the DDR and the CCCP, the disappearance of the Iron
> Curtain, and other stuff (your generalized, basic "stuff")
> is debateable, I believe that it played a small part.

	yep, this just might make survival a bit easier.
 
> There are youngsters here now who have no idea how
> fundamentally this changed the world, but most adults do. 
> We ain't talkin' cosmetics here, chillun'...

> We've been in the midst of a "revolution" (used in the same
> sense as "Industrial revolution') that will change the world,
> including states and governments, even more dramatically than
> the Industrial revolution.  It's been going on, noticably, for
> at least the last 30 years and I don't think we've seen
> anything yet.  

	this list be exemplary.  in the ago times there wasnt
much chance that international folk like us'ns could get together 
daily to discuss, debate, defame, and delight one another.  no 
borders, sports fans, no borders.  consider the possibilities.

[SNIP] 
> ... as long as people, faced with [genocide], throw up their 
> hands and say "If we can't solve everything, we shouldn't try
> to solve *anything*," you won't find [hope] either.
> {YKOUB]

	whilst i aint gung-ho on genocide, neither be i sanguine
about suicide.  there prolly aint many innocents in the balkans
over the age o 10 (much like it was in SEA). but, if i gotta fight 
the (sometimes unavoidable) good fight, i think i druther choose 
my ground as bestest i can; which aint perfectly but certainly be
better'n them teenaged mutants we got running the show (in the
USoA, anyways) at present.  y kill a snake easiest by cutting 
off its head, neh?  there be plenty of snakes to go around.
everbody grab yr knifes.

	 old goat.
	 No, my brother, say it loud,
	"I'm a redneck and I'm proud!"
	 ÐÏࡱá