File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_2003/heidegger.0302, message 172


From: "John Foster" <borealis-AT-mercuryspeed.com>
Subject: Re: Proof that New France is Old Europe
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:48:11 -0800




Subject: Re: Proof that New France is Old Europe


John Foster wrote:

>>>>The point should be obvious. There are serious social
issues in the US
>>>>which are more important than the foreign policy issues
which the US is
>>>>insisting on from a military perspective. It should be
obvious that
>>>>there are more Americans, murdered on a per capita basis
than are killed
>>>>by terrorists (eg. Oklahoma bomber, Unabomber, et
cetera).  The real war
>>>>on crime should begin in the US....

"By this reasoning, the current murder rate in America is
more serious than
the Nazi threat was, because there are more Americans
murdered on a per
capita basis than were ever killed by Nazis. Obviously, the
reasoning must
be flawed. And what is the flaw? It is the assumption that
the seriousness
of an issue is solely a function of the number of people who
die per capita.
Such a mathematization of social seriousness is at the heart
of the
mathematical scientific attitude that Heidegger was trying
to overcome."

Anthony Crifasi


John here,

So you are suggesting that I think this and agree with this
'inference'?

Not likely. Root is rot whether it is my house damaging the
walls or in your house. You are referring to the idea that
'calculative rationality' flawed as a 'form of judgement'.
Well this may or may not be true, depending on a range of
variables.

The answer to this is situated in "The Question Concerning
Technology" perhaps.

But there is a flaw in the thinking about what Anthony has
claimed. The Nazi SS are no longer killing people. It is the
American people who are being killed, serially, every day,
every hour by their own citizens. Instead of the US Federal
government focussing on the exceptionally high rate of
homicides (which on a per capita basis are 9 times greater
than in the United Kingdom), they focus on issues which are
more likely to be seen as 'popular' and 'consensus-based'.
The US government cares very little about serious
consequences which they themselves create for innocent kids
in other countries when they use bombers to 'smoke out'
terrorists.

Because drug use is very illegal in the US, it would be
devisive and politically difficult, if not impossible, to
deal with this horrible problem. If there was a system like
there is in Holland, or Denmark, where users of illegal
drugs, addicts, were able to obtain clean needles, and safer
drugs, and enter treatment programs, then then the problem
in the US would decline. Afterall it is active drug use,
pushers, and others who use drugs that get young people to
start using drugs. Stiff drugs laws which do not solve the
problem create the need to use guns, and other lethal
weapons by drug users, addicts, so as to prevent being
caught, and punished. The typical users needs to find a $100
bucks, so goes to a department store, buys a hand gun, then
simply enters a 7-11 or some other store, attempts to steal
a carton of cigarettes, often succeeds, but when the drug
user gets caught -sometimes this happens - they may panic
and pull of the hand gun and have a showdown.

You see the approach which readers of Heidegger take?
Anxiety as experienced by the addict is accentuated by the
physiological and pyschological need for the high, the rush
and the exstacy of the drug as well as the drug culture.
Imprisoning the drug addict is like putting a person in
handcuffs. It temporarily prevents the person from doing
what is harmful to innocent people, but eventually, the
handcuffs are removed, the prisoner is let out, and the
stigma of being a criminal remains. Most of 'criminals'
return to their social milieu without much money, or
material assets.

In "old Europe" therefore drug use is not exactly a 'crime'
because of the 'serious consequences' which occur for
society if the drug user is made a 'criminal'. Illegal drugs
are often very expensive.....which makes addicts become
criminals to maintain their habits... and that is one reason
why in "America" the "new world" there is a very high
homicide rate. There are other reasons why the homicide rate
there is greatest.

cheers

john foster








____________________________________________________________
_____
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963



     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---




     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005