a parable on the seeds of war

[kelley]

<forward>
The point of this is NOT to say that the West is somehow responsible
for terrorism.  Obviously, the terrorists are responsible, and they
must be brought to justice.  However, we need to understand the mechanisms
in place that feed terrorism beforehand, and that would be invoked
by certain types of retaliation.  It makes no sense to act without
understanding the context.

The purpose of this parable is to provide intuition about one such
mechanism.

Best wishes,

Ben Kuipers

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Imagine that you and your family live in a really bad neighborhood.  You
struggle every day to make ends meet.  You try to keep your children safe
from the criminals who live in your area.  You work hard to teach
your children to be good people, and to live right, even though they
are surrounded by examples of people who get rich through immorality
and crime.  You go to church with your neighbors, and try to support
each other in the same struggle, since the odds against each of you are
overwhelming, but together you may have a slightly better chance.

You watch TV, and you see rich people in the suburbs who have everything
you ever wanted, who worry about crabgrass in the lawn instead of gunfire
in the street.  You work two jobs at minimum wage, hating the fact that
your children are home alone, while the people on TV complain about the
high cost of gas for the SUV taking the kids to soccer games.  You and
the members of your church tell each other, and try to believe,
that different people have different lots in life, and each follows his
or her own path to salvation.  Meanwhile, on TV, you hear the people in the
suburbs complaining about how all the people in your neighborhood are
criminals, and lazy, and should be run out of town.  You try hard to
remember that they don't understand, and to forgive them.

Then, one day, a really terrible crime is committed by a gang from your
neighborhood.  A bomb goes off in the suburbs, and many innocent people
are killed.

You are shocked, and your heart goes out to the families who are suffering.
A few of your meaner-hearted neighbors say that they are glad that the
suburbs now know what it's like.  You shut them up, telling them to have
compassion for anyone who suffers.  A few particularly foolish kids
dance in the street and show up on the evening news.  Your church holds
a prayer service for the victims of the bomb.

The police barricade the streets around your neighborhood, and won't
let any of you out, though a few sneak past.  On TV, you hear some of
the rich people in the suburbs say they want to bomb your entire
neighborhood to kill the whole gang.  If that also kills innocent people
like you and your family, well, that's too bad, they say.

         How do you feel?  What do you do?

Now, suppose the police actually do bomb your neighborhood.  The bombs kill
your parents, your wife, your daughters, and your sons.  In your family,
the only survivors are you and your youngest son.

         How do you feel?  What do you do?

         What does your son grow up to be?

Benjamin Kuipers, Professor         email:  kuipers at cs.utexas.edu
Computer Sciences Department        tel:    1-512-471-9561
University of Texas at Austin       fax:    1-512-471-8885
Austin, Texas 78712 USA             http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kuipers

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