[ExI] riots again

[Mike Dougherty]

On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 2:07 PM, Mirco Romanato <painlord2k at libero.it> wrote:
> Il 06/10/2012 17:17, Tomaz Kristan ha scritto:
>>  > If you want to reduce death tolls, focus on self-driving cars.
>> Instead of answering terror attacks, just mend you cars?
>> What kind of a perverse logic is this?
>
> It is the logic of ignoring a problem when the solution is not of your
> liking.

I assumed the point was to examine the "utility" of solving the
terrorist threat comparing the number of lives lost to that particular
cause vs the number of lives lost to human error driving cars.  Taking
away the responsibility of keeping a vehicle from killing its
occupants or others around it would save many more people each year
than are killed by terrorism.  While that may be true of simple
numbers, the terrorist problem probably should be measured not in
lives but in some sense (however false) of safety/security.

I'll propose that we (US, the west, etc) feel threatened by religious
ideology that is not our own simply because it's unknown.[1]  I
consider this the driving xenophobia that Keith has been talking about
for years.  The fact that the policy makers use this fear to
manipulation the population means they absolutely will do so.  We're
generally too afraid to go outside after dark in our own neighborhoods
- not because international terrorists will suicide bomb us, but
because the "bad guys" are lurking around every corner.  Have you seen
nighttime Earth from satellite?  Why do you think the US is so
brightly lit?  We're trying to allay those fears of the boogeymen in
the dark that we've been told are everywhere.  I'm pretty sure the
physically larger, differently ethnic, alternately idealled threat
waiting to "get me" is the local equivalent of the foreign national
(about as different from me/us as possible) is far less of a real
threat to my health & safety than my own government.  I feel like
we're advised to keep the deadbolt locked so nobody can violate our
homes while we're eating corn syrup, sugar and carbs in front of the
vapid mind-control television.  The inevitable destruction of health
creates the market for pharmaceuticals.  Whatever, I know I'm on a
rant.  I'll stop here for now.

[1] I'm sure the "unknown" in this case does not apply to the learned
scholars of this list.  I'm talking about the Joe Sixpack average
prole.  I'm talking about those people in my own community/country who
distrust me because my accent is different or because of the
out-of-state license plate on my car.  This is the ignorance that may
be human nature but is ultimately exploited by those "in charge" to
constrain the public like a farmer constrains his herd.