THE DIOGENES REPORT
The Wit, Wisdom & Wituperation of Emanuel L. Strunin
“a few steps ahead of the curve”
July 2004, VOL. IV, # 21
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DETERMINISM AND FREE WILL REVISITED

A book review and an article describing some on-going “scientific” experiments that I read recently have given support to my philosophy about the underlying causes for human “thinking” and behavior related to societal issues.

The book reviewed is A Terrible Love of War by James Hillman, who is an eminent psychologist and best-selling author. Hillman, who was the director of the Jung Institute in Zurich and the originator of post-Jungian “archetypal psychology” is a practicing Jungian analyst. He is the author or editor of almost 30 books. 

Hillman believes that this “terrible” love of war, this magnetic attraction to war is in the hearts, minds and loins of mankind. It can even be found in our mythic gods. Ever since Mars/Ares (the god of war) fell in love and carried on an illicit affair with Venus/Aphrodite (the goddess of love), mankind has been under the sway of war. As Hill man puts it, “Achilles was in Viet Nam and the U.S. Marines were in Troy. The normalcy of war’s madness does not change. All wars are the same war because war is always going on.

A war and emotion connection

To me it is very interesting that Hillman connects the god of war with the god of love—a connection with a powerful emotional characteristic.

According to the reviewer, Hillman wants his readers to recognize that war is not abnormal and somehow “curable.” As evidence of war’s normality, he cites its “constancy throughout human history and its ubiquity around the globe. No societies, no peoples, no nations, no historical epochs have ever been exempt from it. During 5,600 years of written history, there have been 14,600 recorded wars, or nearly three per year.”

Peace is a false concept

He writes, that because war is “normal” and “immortal,” “peace” is a lie. “Peace is the beginning of forgetting. I will not march for peace, nor will I pray for it, because it falsifies all it touches. It is a cover-up, a curse. Peace is simply a bad word.”

“When people are praying for peace they’re really praying for victory. Do people ever pray for surrender? Unconditional surrender would bring immediate peace.”

Hillman also claims that the United States may be one of the most warlike nations in history and lists the large number of nations we have warred against in our 200-year existence. But this is outside of my interest in his thesis which is that humanity’s will to war may be innate or, at least, a strong element in people’s emotional make-up.

The MRI: a tool for social research

The article that I’m relating to Hillman’s book is titled “Whose Life Would You Save?” by Carl Zimmer, which appeared in Discover in April 2004. Zimmer describes tests, which are being conducted at Princeton University in which volunteers, who are encased in an MRI, are presented with moral dilemmas while their brains are being scanned.

What Joshua Greene, the researcher conducting the studies has discovered can be unsettling according the article, which states: “Most of us would like to believe that when we say something is right or wrong, we are using our powers of reason alone. But Greene argues that our emotions also play a powerful role in our moral judgments, triggering instinctive responses that are the product of millions of years of evolution.”

Are we free or hard-wired?

“A lot of our deeply felt moral convictions may be quirks of our evolutionary history,” he says. He further notes that we are using our brains to make decisions that evolution hasn’t wired us up for. The MRI scans show the parts of the brain used to make various decisions and the time involved in making the decision—important factors in determining whether the decision is pre-determined. Some researchers believe that by the time we become adults, we’re wired with emotional responses that guide our judgments for the rest of our lives.

While this research is still in its pioneering stage, early indications are that our behavior, judgments and outlooks in general are more a function of “determinism” than “free will.” So Professor Hillman’s belief that people have a will to war rather than to peace may be hard-wired into humanity. This brain research has the potential of overturning religious, social and political concepts that have influenced mankind for thousands of years.



MAKE NO MISTAKE, HE’S STILL “UNCLE TOM”

Just because Thomas Friedman occasionally flirts with the truth-- ideas that are seemingly realistic about the Middle East, some readers of The New York Times believe that he has become a friend of Israel. Make no mistake about it; although he is subtler than previously he is still the same “Uncle Tom” he always was through his support of policies that can only lead to the destruction of the State.

It was only a throwaway line in his June 17 column but it highlights where his heart and mind are. The sage of 43rd Street explains to the Arabs that they have to stop fighting their enemies in order to start an internal debate if they want to prepare for entering the modern world. As a non sequitur example of an “internal debate,” he proposes that: “The new historians in Israel only emerged during Oslo.” 

His implication that there was something positive about Oslo ignores the fact that Oslo has led to more than five years of warfare and thousands of Israeli killed and maimed. It glosses over the evidence that Oslo has been an unmitigated disaster for Israel and that its supporters are the ultra left-wingers. Uncle Tom stands four square with these ultra left wingers who believe that Arab “rights” outweigh Israel’s survival.

The sage’s contention that the rise of the “new historians” is related to Oslo is either based on ignorance or is a purposeful lie to make a point. These so-called historians—all rabid left-wingers—have used outright lies, distortions misreading of documents to support their pre-conceived notions. Several of them already have atoned with mea culpa for their anti-historical writings. Too many people still remember Israel’s War for Independence to be taken in by the lies of the “new historians.” These “new historians” are merely the old self-hating Jews and Uncle Tom is subtly –or should I say squarely—in their camp.



AIRPORT PROFILING
Wisdom from the Internet
Please pause a moment, reflect back, and take the following multiple-choice test.... No need to keep score. The events are actual cuts from past history. They actually happened! Do you remember? Scroll to the end if you don't want to read all the questions so you can see the point that's being made:

1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Korbut
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzeneger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full l of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. During the 1980s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremist s mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against 
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Nope, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent upon killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, Secret gents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year-old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning former Governors, and leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 & 40 alone because of profiling.


HEADLINES AND COMMENTS
Headlines from the world’s press. Comments by Diogenes.

Islamic Group Shows Tape Of U. S. Hostage
It’s just the latest Muslim reality show

Southern Baptists Quit Worldwide Group
Are they joining the Muslims who also quit that worldwide group known as humanity?

PLO Executive Statement - Israeli Withdrawals Must Be Coordinated 
With PNA (Palestinian National Authority)
Real meaning: withdrawals must be coordinated with total withdrawal of Jews from the State of Israel.

Startech Wins Contract To Clean Up Waste In Poland
There goes Poland!

Study: Alcohol Abuse Up, Alcoholism Down
Americans are learning how to hold their liquor.

PM Sharon Speaks With UN Secy.-Gen. Annan
Wow! The telephone wires can carry two forked tongues.

Is This President Bush The Heir To Ronald Reagan’s Mantle?
Not unless he gets Rodney Dangerfield to teach him the art of quick one-liners.

Reagan Entombed In Underground Crypt
Will Geraldo try to make sure that he’s there.

Cassini Passes Saturn’s Moon
I’ll bet that hurts more than passing a kidney stone.

European Elections Continue
They must be waiting for the absentee ballots from Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Algeria

Short On Priests, U.S. Catholics Outsource Prayers To Indian Clergy 
Have they tried outsourcing abuse of altar boys?

‘Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Old Ways Of Protesting Have to Go’
Osama and his boys already know it.

Saudi Security Forces Search For A Missing American
The missing American is looking for the Saudi security forces.

Recruiters Try New Tactic To Sell Wartime Army
If the recruits are unhappy, they get a free ticket on an underground RR to Canada.

White House Reconsiders Its Policy On Crisis In Sudan
That’s mighty white of the Administration since the Arabs have already killed thousands of black Africans.

Should Doctors Help With Executions? No Easy Ethical Answer.
If it’s the execution of doctors who have committed egregious malpractice, I see no ethical problem.

Syria And Italy Scientific Research Cooperation
Are they reviving the old land a man on the sun project, but send him up at night so he won’t be burned to a crisp?

Kurds Are Reclaiming Land Held By Iraqi Arabs
One nation under Allah with liberty and justice for all.

Israelis Say They Have Foiled Planned Attacks By Militants
To some Israelis, foiled attacks mean the Arabs are their friends.

Dozens Of Injuries In Gush Katif [Arafat's Fatah Takes Credit]
Ariel Sharon deserves at least part of the credit.




QUOTES I LIKE
Diogenes considers them clever, not that he necessarily agrees with them.

Sharon's powerful argument that the Yom Kippur War resulted from 
ignoring Egyptian violation of cease-fire. Delivered 30 September 2001

How are the current Egyptian violations different?
- Diogenes

Matrimony: the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.
- Heinrich Heine

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

We never desire earnestly what we desire in reason.
- La Rochefoucauld

Why should the U. S. Government support a strong, independent Israel when the Israeli Government doesn’t?
- Diogenes

Simple accountability seems as rare in American espionage as it is in American education.
- Paul Greenberg

It takes a Southerner to truly understand and appreciate sin. We were probably the first Americans to say, ‘Lead us not into temptation. We can find it ourselves.’
- Rita Mae Brown

In Spain they once founded a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. To raise the necessary funds, they arranged a big benefit bullfight.
Kurt Tucholsky

Two wrongs make a fight.
- Robert Jesurum

There was a fiery evangelist who challenged his congregation: “Is there anyone in the audience who has ever known anybody who comes close to the perfection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?” Incredibly a little man in the back raised his hand. Stunned and furious, the preacher screamed, “Are you saying you have known such a person?” The little man nodded sadly and answered quietly, “My wife’s first husband.”
- Anonymous

I was too poor to get married, but I found it out too late.
- Henny Youngman

Undertaker: Are you the husband of the deceased?
Husband: Yes.
Undertaker: Take out the garbage, mow the lawn and hang up your clothes!
Husband: What’s that all about?
Undertaker: Your wife signed up for ‘perpetual nagging.’
- WIZARD OF ID (comic strip) 

We will hunt down and destroy the (Chechen Muslim) terrorists that attacked Ingushetia.
- Vladimir Putin

The Israelis must not take reprisals against their Muslim attackers.
- Vladimir Putin

Will the real Vladimir Putin please slither over here and tells what he really thinks about the Jews and the Muslims.
- Diogenes


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