Discussion Forums for the Dialogue Paper

Security

Thank you for participating in the Dialogue on Foreign Policy. The interactive web site is now closed. The Minister's report will appear on this web site once it is released.

This Forum is bilingual, and participants post messages in their language of choice.

Previous Topic | All Topics |

Start Topic | Next Topic

The Role of Memory

Contributor: Fleabag

Date: 2003-03-08 22:24:26

I am for Siddhartha Guatama. It seems that GW Bush is the one giving us the choice between Hitler and Stalin. Or, more to the point, Neitzsche and Lenin. I don't like either of those options, but at least Neitzsche made me think.

Reply to this message

Show in topic

The Role of Memory

Contributor: Vox

Date: 2003-03-10 22:50:01

It is good that you also choose to be enlightened.

Nietsche may not have been an optimist but his vision of man's challenge was not that of Hitler's "superman". He was not a Nazi even though his sister was pretty mixed up. Nietsche was also a theorist, a thinker. Hitler was a practitioner.

I chose to use "practitioners" as examples instead of "theorists" for a good reason. Since you claim to be a follower of the middle way you must also realize that the world of the "practitioners" is of a less enlightened level and functions in a more basic way. What matters above all is the protection of life as a process so that it may be perpetuated. As a Buddhist you must agree with it.

The desire to use WMD will destroy all life and the physical means to prevent that is to allow its natural reaction to eradicate it. America is the natural reactionary force. The role of the enlightened is to keep it focused and in check.

Vox Canadiana

Reply to this message

The Role of Memory

Contributor: Fleabag

Date: 2003-03-13 22:48:20

I agree with 99% of what you say. I can only disagree with 'America is the natural reaction' and with the words 'keep it focused and in check'.
I am not a Buddhist by subscription, just by loose theory. I started to write a book, called "What and Why: Policy, The Manifestation of Attitude'
and in it, I suggest that all things act for purpose, and only in humans is the result of action above neccesity.
As Aristotle once wrote, (I am qutoing this from a reference by Albert Speer) "Only through pursuit of excess does Man commit injustice, it is never commited when driven by neccesity"
The US is an unnatural force acting on another unnatural force( unless you believe in the 'will to power' and the twisted 'the strong survive, the weak submit' philosophies.
I believe the role of the 'enlightened' is to eradicate 'that which causes non-existence'. I also believe that theory is the writing on our 'blank slate' and as human computers we can only translate 'the action input' of others according to who or what did the programming.

Reply to this message

The Role of Memory

Contributor: jwitt

Date: 2003-03-14 17:37:21

Fleabag,

Question: just out of personal interest, was Speer's quote from Aristotle taken out of Inside the third Reich (the memoirs he wrote in prison)? If so, can you give me the page number? I'm just interested in the context in which he used it.

cheers

Reply to this message

The Role of Memory

Contributor: Vox

Date: 2003-03-14 22:41:22

"Only through pursuit of excess does Man commit injustice, it is never committed when driven by necessity"

I cannot agree with this because I believe "necessity" is a subjective measure and hence naturally invites disagreement and conflict (of interest).

"...all things act for purpose, and only in humans is the result of action above necessity."

Again, I believe hat one person's necessity is (often) another person's excess or "poverty of spirit".

"... The US is an unnatural force acting on another unnatural force( unless you believe in the 'will to power' and the twisted 'the strong survive, the weak submit' philosophies. I believe the role of the 'enlightened' is to eradicate 'that which causes non-existence'."

The force(s) that want to use WMD have designed their methods (currently) towards the destruction of the US and "its allies". While I do not have a problem with people(s) who want to challenge the US using peaceful methods, the use of WMD is against the process of life and cannot be permitted. Because the US is currently the prime target and the most physically formidable opponent I view the US as the natural reaction that can most effectively neutralize the abomination of life that "rogue entities" represent.

It has nothing to do with my views on the lifestyles or moral values of American popular culture. I think I have made clear those opinions elsewhere on these forums. The US allows people to express their visions in peaceful ways and that currently makes the US a suitable agent for life. At the same time, the US is a spiritually immature country (I am not speaking of religion) and that is why its actions need to be tempered.

"... that theory is the writing on our 'blank slate' and as human computers we
can only translate 'the action input' of others according to who or what did the programming."

I follow a different view of existence. In the framework of this belief, the "slate" is actually already fully occupied and has always been. What prevents us from "reading from it" is, as you call it, our "programming" and our limited mental powers. It is enlightenment which helps us read from "the slate" from time-to-time. This is why we are inherently "the same".

Vox Canadiana

Reply to this message

Previous Topic | All Topics |

Start Topic | Next Topic