[958] in peace2
Re: Give Peace A Chance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Donovan)
Wed Sep 12 17:24:38 2001
Message-ID: <3B9FD282.32443374@lcs.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 22:24:18 +0100
From: Alan Donovan <adonovan@lcs.mit.edu>
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Daniel Collins wrote:
>
> > We should be ready to react to the xenophobia, military attacks,
> > increased militarism, lynch-mob mentality, infringements of civil
> > liberties, etc that will no doubt arise from these terrible events.
>
> Indeed these responses are in themselves 'bad'. But are there any 'good'
> responses? Some people in this world, be they in business, government, or
> religion, appear to consider death good. How is this stopped (assuming it
> should)? Should we do nothing, and in so doing permit further similar
> atrocities? Decision-makers have a difficult road ahead of them, for they must
> be responsible yet realistic. Perhaps one must choose the least of multiple
> evils, even if this is in itself 'bad'.
>
> "Give peace a chance" is an empty slogan thats says nothing on _how_ peace is
> to be obtained. Instead of denouncing pessimistically-expected tacks, should
> we not wonder what _should_ be done?
Absolutely. A writer in the UK (Jeremy Hardy) remarked of the
bombing of Serbia, that many people had said, in response to the
suggestion that bombing would make things worse, "well have you
any better ideas?". He replied, "yes: not making things worse".
I know I didn't propose a "positive" plan: in fact I don't yet
have one; we need to have a debate, and arm ourselves with facts.
I'm going to the meeting (see below) in a few minutes.
alan
> On Wednesday, September 12th, from 5:00-6:30pm, MIT's Center for
> International Studies will hold an open forum on Tuesday's events,
> in an effort to help the community make sense of what has happened,
> and where today's tragic events may take us.
>
> Among the speakers will be Political Science Professors Stephen Van
> Evera and Barry Posen, both of whom bring to the table considerable
> expertise on national security matters. Questions and comments from
> the audience will be welcome.
>
> Please join us if you can.
>
> CIS is located in MIT building E38 (next to the Kendall T stop, in
> the same building as the MIT Press bookstore). The event will be
> held in our 7th floor
> conference room. (Take the elevator to the 6th floor and then a
> short flight of stairs to the 7th).
--
Alan Donovan, MIT Lab. for Computer Science | adonovan@lcs.mit.edu
