Ref D. Pipes and To my friend D. Pipes.

Submitted by E.Visconti (France), Sep 17, 2010 at 02:02

It is becoming increasingly clear that a grotesquely weak, emotionally charged and dangerous, almost Aristotelian logic process, has taken over the once tolerant and imaginative minds of people. Emotional condemnation based upon thoughts of revenge and hatred completely contradict the essence and the principles of those values for which the United States is champion.

Americans have been responsible for countless unnecessary deaths both on the fields of battle and in other areas too. If one is in a particular situation, especially a dangerous one, from time to time things go wrong, people make mistakes and nasty consequences inevitably ensue. Friendly fire is a particularly dreadful mistake in the field of battle and it is with certainty that, those whose mistake it is, pay a high price for same, at an emotional level et. al. Having said this, it would be idiotic and ridiculous to judge a nation's people upon these occurrences. No peoples in the world deserve to be castigated for mistakes or the wrong-doings of a few individuals. We need to remind ourselves of the power of forgiveness, the true makings of our purported civilized status.

Dogs bite, I was bitten, it was a dog.

This is a very simple formula and allows one to dispense with the other two neurons one would normally use in one's everyday thought processes. We could, of course, go on a canine culling rampage and so on until we have received bites/stings from every species on the planet, in this way we can be absolutely certain to "get them all" .

The discussions which gravitate around religions, fanatics, cults and other non-conformist or even violent sectors of society, such as terrorists, always seem to lead to huge debates about religion when, to the contrary, pure religion has nothing at all to do with it.
What does religious-moderate-or-non-moderate/fundamentalist mean?

There are no such associated terms applicable to religions, that gods have different titles/names, as do numerous religions of the world, is neither here nor there. Extremist-like-fundamentalist religions do not really exist but extremist/confused and dangerous alibi seeking people do and they are quite ill and, in no way religious. In every mental asylum you will find, at least one sane person.

There are the bigots, the mob rouser, the dangerous of mind, the confused, the demented and the 'I really do not know what to do so I shall follow the one I like most types'.

It has to be said that the above, at times, are Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Church of England and so on. These are the lost souls of life and as is rightly pointed out, find themselves bamboozled, mislead and in many cases brain-washed/indoctrinated by equally lost and confused individuals, pushed into beliefs and actions which must not be interpreted as a reflection upon the whole. That these persons use holy books as alibis or tools with ridiculous interpretations to justify their criminal or political ambitions should not be seen as anything else but the smoke screen it really is, a smoke screen created by a week set of people destined to self extinguish. Eventually, there will be an ultimate/the last suicide bomber because there will be nobody else left, terrorists will dwindle to the zero which they clearly represent, they are a glitch in history along our developmental path into true civilization.

Religions are serious philosophical peace-loving and caring subjects, believed or not, however, respected as such, even by the atheist community. One does not have to be religious to be kind, considerate or have a kindred spirit and a general respect toward one's fellow man. Philosophically it is possible to be a true Christian in spirit without a belief of that doctrine, at any level, this applies to other religions and atheists, too.

Following that most dreadful of days on 9/11 Muslims have had a poor shake but it has to be said that the various police forces in the United States, in the vast majority of cases, did a superb job in responding to and dealing with many ethnic/racially motivated knee-jerk incidents. One of the biggest contributing reasons for these incidents was the painting of all Muslims with the same Islamic fundamentalist brush.

This latter issue was jingoistic and misinformation bandied around by Governments, the press and every fanatical and racially prejudiced group in the world. It was not just the United States on that bandwagon but indeed most of the western world.

Once again an association was made between Islamic fundamentalist/extremists, Islam and the Muslim faith. The former has nothing to do with any religion in the world and the latter is a warm and loving religion with hundreds of millions of followers throughout the world, caring and loving people who were as devastated with the events of 9/11 as the rest of the world's peoples were. Naturally the Muslim community are angry with this association, however, they have remained quite restrained and respectful in light of the gravity of that dreadful day, they have shown the true magnanimous nature of their religion and it is certain the the people of the United States will see this in the long run and, as is the nature of that Country's people, when the grieving is over and closure a little nearer, the peoples, with all their religious, ethnic and political differences will come together in only a way the Americans can. They shall, once again, show the spirit upon which the nation was built.

The fever pitch of an angry mob is a dreadful and dangerous thing and if we are not careful in our handling of the emotions, which are omnipresent with revenge culture, then we risk a backlash with a modus operandi akin to the very subject/object of our rage, we might easily become our own worst enemy.

It is certain that there are factions within all countries of the world, factions that hold fundamentalist and extremist values under the smoke screen of religion. America has hundreds of such groups as does Ireland, England, Pakistan and every other county in the world. The vast majority of the peoples of these Countries are delightful, caring and generous in spirit as are the vast majority of the peoples of the world.

If the world truly desires to fulfil its current boast of 'Civilization' then we have to stop painting people with the same brushes, putting all peoples into the Orwellian box. If not, then I suppose we shall have to continue killing people, in a civilized manner of course, when a faction steps out of line.

It is probably a difficult statistic to calculate, nevertheless, probably quite true that there are as many per capita dangerous extremists/criminals/fundamentalists in every country in the world.

It is highly unlikely that the United states would go on a killing rampage of New Yorkers because of the presence of criminal gangland culture in some parts of that city. I truly believe that the rhetoric and the political mileage brigades will finally be defeated by the true, caring and magnanimous spirit of the American people who let's face it, were all foreigners in the Americas but a short time ago, their pioneering spirit and tolerance thresh-holds will carry the United States into a next phase, and it will be a better place.

So there can be no misunderstanding in my comments I would just like to state that I do not believe in the existence of a religion anywhere in the world that could possibly promote murder, terrorist actions or the harming of another fellow human being. Even if I only used one neuron I should be able to distinguish the difference between a parable and its true meaning, consequently, I do not put literal translation to any of the stories/fables written in so many religious teachings/books. I also have no problem with one being prepared to fight and stand up for one's values, live and let live is not such a poor expression, unless you are in the large cooking pot awaiting the arrival of the dining party and are clearly on the menu.

Me thinks I would protest!

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