Chuck wrote:

> IMO, small closed minds parroting jingoist propaganda defeat rather than
promote freedom.

Exactly, I'm glad somebody at least seems to have picked up what I was
trying to get across! Sadly, we are condemned to repeat history again and
again, because jingoist propaganda allows us to take a comfortably narrow
view of the world, thus freeing us from difficult and troubling thought
processes that might reveal entrenched weaknesses in ourselves or our
systems.

And so, for example, we currently relish every defeat and every death
visited upon the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and for a damned good reason. Nobody
applauds this more than me.

But there must be a parallel process whereby each of us analyzes what is
going on on a more fundamental level, and asks painful questions. Thus, the
thinking observer takes note that, 225 years ago, the Founding Fathers would
have been on the receiving end of the onslaught, and the world would have
applauded. In the 50's, Menachem Begin was wanted by the British as a
terrorist. He went on to not only become leader of his country, but also to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

And so, the thinking observer balances his bloodlust and enthusiasm with the
knowledge that there are few constants in this world.

Exactly as you say, Chuck, if we don't temper our reactions with
introspective analysis, we are in fact a threat to freedom ourselves. Only
people who have stopped asking provocative questions can be enslaved and
fooled. They are the ones that end up in the "militia", then graduate to
terrorism (Hamas, Hezbollah), or jackboots (you know who).

Bjorn