Global Jihad vs Islam Enlightenment
A religion is to a great extent a construct of its adherents. It consists of the beliefs, values, priorities, assumptions, and expectations shared by those adherents and reinforced by their culture and institutions. Academics arguing that particular acts of violence and repression are not condoned by the Koran do not negate the fact that millions of Muslims still believe they are.
I cannot agree that emotions are good or bad, like facts they are. As you say, and I agree with, what you do based on them is what counts (and is the basic point from the QL quote - it is rational to feel fear when walking past a dark alley, particularly in NYC and similar, and so you should swing wide around them instead of walking near the opening - that is rational action based on the feeling of fear).
As to the success of your business (congratulations, by the way), your failures were not necessarily in creating a business, but in areas like negotiating, interpersonal interactions, vendor selection, etc. I firmly believe that if you've never failed, then you've never really pushed yourself and played things too safe.
Lastly, fear is only debilitating if you let it be. As a soldier, I was more encouraged by a fellow soldier who was afraid, but harnessed that fear and overcame. Much better than those who were "fearless" as they often were also careless, not having a rational sense of fear to keep them cognizant of the danger and therefore to prepare appropriately. Having gone to jump school, there's a reason that they make the chute packers jump with a randomly chosen chute on a regular basis. If you have a reasonable fear of a bad outcome, you pay closer attention to what you do. I wouldn't let a chute packer who said they weren't afraid to die to continue packing.
I have two problems with what you say.
On my moral scale, hate and envy are bad and love and courage are good (e.g.). These things used to be called vices and virtues. Of course political correctness police will not let you utter them in reference to anybody. "We are all equal!" Yah, I heard that before. The virtues and vices, in my opinion, are "emotions" based on "feelings" and by definition not products of Reason. How you judge and act, presumably based on Reason, is the only thing that counts in the end.
Queen Latifah may be a great philosopher, I do not know. Never heard of her, to be truthful. But, " ... anyone who has had success has failed before." is a preposterous overgeneralization and, in fact, false. Years ago, on my first try, I started a business (technical services to manufacturers and users of very high reliability equipment). In 20 years, it grew about 9-fold in revenue. I call that a success. There was no failure before. I was employed. At the same time, you can look at any mistake as a "failure". All my adult life, I called it a good day if I made less than 100 mistakes.
Do you now see why that is a preposterous overgeneralization?
By the way, I call fear a debilitating poison of the human mind.
With all due deference to the wise and noble Yoda, fear is only the path to the dark side if you allow it to be. It is how you react to the fear which is the path, not the fear itself.
As the great philosopher, Queen Latifah has said: "Fear can be good when you're walking past an alley at night or when you need to check the locks on your doors before you go to bed, but it's not good when you have a goal and you're fearful of obstacles. We often get trapped by our fears, but anyone who has had success has failed before."
I think the underlying premise in your comments is that I am asserting that emotions are bad or undesirable. I do not wish to assert any such thing. Emotions are helpful - to a point. Force of conviction arises from emotion and spurs us to greater acts of service and heroism than we might have otherwise entertained. Emotional connections to friends, spouse, or children can all be very positive things. But we must beware of the power of negative emotions such as anger and hate, because those lead to detrimental consequences.
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
- Yoda
I worked with some Iranians in Cyprus who were seeking asylum. The woman one day had gone out her doors with makeup on. Some boys - not even teens - rode by on bicycles and slashed her face with razor blades held between their knuckles as a "punishment". The family said that they wanted to abandon Islam because of this and many other things. So I still hold out hope that there are some who live in Muslim nations who - if given the opportunity - would abandon it.
I, too, have read the Qu'ran and I agree with you - it is an evil book. It can not be reconciled with freedom because it openly calls for slavery of many kinds. I would like to seek out and provide asylum for those who wish to embrace freedom, but I freely admit that this means abandoning Islam. I can not reconcile the Islamic faith with a support for the Constitution of the principles of liberty.
As to how to prevent these massacres? Unless we are willing to call a spade a spade and stop pandering to Islam in general, the killings will not stop. Bullies don't stop until you bloody their proverbial noses with a resolved response. But I do not see that happening anywhere in the world, and until the world wakes up and is willing to confront the demon before them, they will continue to lose their lunch money.
patterns of behavior between one group exploiting
sex and another group exploiting avarice. . I agree
completely with your analysis. -- j
You did not answer my question: what actions we choose right now to prevent massacres?
Friends as always.
To me, it is the generational institutionalization of their way of life that is what needs to be overcome. They won't embrace capitalism or Western ideas until they realize that they are free to think for themselves. To them, the mullahs are the ultimate authority which can not be challenged, regardless the lack of logic, decency, etc. displayed. There needs to be some event that completely undermines the authority of the mullahs in order for large-scale change to be effected.
to exploit sex like capitalism exploits self-interest (or
avarice) -- muslims exploit sex-related-things to
take over the world by extravagant reproduction, as
capitalism exploits self-interest to take over the
world by physical advancements ... if there were
an example of capitalism to watch....... -- j
Where can I read about the French gov't telling Jewish people to close their businesses and declaring Martial law?
Seems to be a path to the stone age
That's because they have big lobbying groups backed by lots of money, lots of politicians, and a biased media. It's still an ideological battle, but those doing the reporting aren't going to out themselves.
I can think of a lot more constructive field trips to spend money on, like to a natural history museum, a factory... Good grief, the choices are abundant.
women like they do, is wrong. -- j
Salman Rushdie and Carly Fiorina go at it with Bill Maher and another guy... Fun discussion!
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