[lbo-talk] no WMD? well there was "intellectual capacity" for such

Ian Murray seamus2001 at attbi.com
Tue May 27 21:57:56 PDT 2003


----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com>


>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > Michael Pollak wrote:
> >
> > >And they've still got it. Are we saying we're planning on destroying
it?
> >
> > But doesn't every physics department of every university in the world
> > have it? Should we destroy all those too?
>
> That's precisely my point. There is nothing in this charge that
> distinguishes Iraq. And wiping it in any country out would be the
apogee
> of barbarism. So how could we possibly say it justifies war if every
> country has it, and after we leave it will still be there? Or do we
plan
> on sending the entire world back to the middle ages in the name of
peace?
>
> That people can say things like this with a straight face and at length
> without feeling the least bit of cognitive dissonance makes me feel like
> the world is ruled by zombies. They're not even listening to them.
>
> Michael

=====================

Stanislaw Lem has a short story about precisely this problem of dual use technology/techgnosis pre-emption/futility, parodying technoculture as mistake that's not the same as "Luddism" but I can't find my copy of it. Can anyone else help, it's pertinent.

Ian



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