> Yes, but there's a difference between clan vengeance and mass
> murder for professional gain. Lou, who may not be much of
> an abstract thinker, had something personal against Valerie;
> Madeleine and her master had nothing against the children of
> Iraq, they were merely in the way, and in addition they're
> supposed to have read history and philosophy and know what
> they're doing.
I'll grant there's a difference, but I'd say they're points along the same continuum. And neither the personal rage Reed might feel nor his likely incapacity for abstract thought excuse or even explain the *general* terms in which he puts his sentiments. As for Albright, who knows if she did or didn't feel an animus towards the innocents who died in Iraq? Adorno has it that if a lion had consciousness, the rage it feels towards its prey would be ideology; it's not hard to imagine that someone like Albright harboring a similar blind fury against her victims. -- Curtiss, still thinking _Songs for Drella_ is a great album, though.