[extropy-chat] "Rational Irrationality" [sic]

[Lee Corbin]

Al writes (in an offline message whose permission to copy I have)

> Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> > First, why didn't you demur when a number of us agreed that suicide
> > bombing is not necessarily irrational? If your value system values your
> > own life much less than it does The Cause, it is perfectly rational to 
> > [act] accordingly.

> Precisely. One could even say that someone who volunteers and is
> sent to Iraq is perhaps taking a greater risk than a suicide bomber
> in that they have less control, the suicide bomber's pain is gone in a
> flash; GIs face excruciating pain in being injured, and the uncertainty
> of not knowing if and when the blow arrives for them.

Yes!  That's right!

Moreover, just think of it!  Many of the suicide bombers
have a great deal of *personal* incentive too!   None of
the Allied soldiers anticipates any 72 virgins on reaching
paradise after he's killed in these mortal coils.

If anyone is being irrational (and I still claim that no one in
these examples is), then it's the American and allied soldiers
who are, not the suicide bombers.

Lee