What a fucked up world this is.

[Kemper_Boyd]

The two airliners.
Bombings in Israel.
Bomb outside the Moscow metro.
The 12 Nepalese murdered.
The two French journalists being held hostage.
The siege of the school in North Ossetia.

[mamemeister]

Tracy and I summed it tonight up exactly as you have.

[biggestjim]

[sarcasm]Fortunately we now have Doom 3 to forget all about this violent and messed-up world.[/sarcasm]

[Orava]

Tracy and I summed it tonight up exactly as you have.

I was thinking exactly the same tonight. Religion has a lot to answer for. A lot of these nutters remind me of Europe before enlightenment - sort of medieval crazed zealots (with modern weapons and explosives of course).

If it would be US (or UK) under similar sustained attack I don't know what would happen. And what happens, when one day one of these extremist groups gets their hands on nuclear weapons, won't be pleasant.

It is an uncomfortable thought but maybe in such a case much of the 'civilized world' would feel quite comfortable in sterilising large parts of the islamic world with a counter strike.

I just hope things do not get that far.

[aureole]

I guess this nudges the question "Does terrorism work?".

I can't really define the question properly (as in, what do I mean by "work"), so I don't know how to approach getting the answer. Thoughts?

[Kemper_Boyd]

I guess this nudges the question "Does terrorism work?".

I can't really define the question properly (as in, what do I mean by "work"), so I don't know how to approach getting the answer. Thoughts?

Well it depends upon what you mean by work, but if you mean cause terror and
sometimes force your enemy to give you what you want but can not achieve
through politics or diplomacy, then yes terrorism does work. It's terrorism when
we disagree with it, and freedom fighting, or resistance, when we do agree with
the aims. It worked for Zionist groups, the ANC, the French resistance, Viet Cong;
I'd even argue that it's been fairly effective for Irish republicans.

[pogo]

I was thinking exactly the same tonight. Religion has a lot to answer for. A lot of these nutters remind me of Europe before enlightenment - sort of medieval crazed zealots (with modern weapons and explosives of course).

Religion's not the problem. All the problems at the outcome of opression, current (Israel of the Palestinians, Russia of the Caucuses), recent (Saddam of Iraq) and historic (the Soviets of the USSR). People as fucked around as the Palestinians, Iraqis and Chechnians are and have been are understandably desperate and willing to resort to desperate measures.

[Orava]

I was thinking exactly the same tonight. Religion has a lot to answer for. A lot of these nutters remind me of Europe before enlightenment - sort of medieval crazed zealots (with modern weapons and explosives of course).

Religion's not the problem. All the problems at the outcome of opression, current (Israel of the Palestinians, Russia of the Caucuses), recent (Saddam of Iraq) and historic (the Soviets of the USSR). People as fucked around as the Palestinians, Iraqis and Chechnians are and have been are understandably desperate and willing to resort to desperate measures.

I agree - militant islamic extremism is probably just a convenient outlet for these frustrations. However, some of these struggles are funded by fundamentalists.

[Zoot]

It is an uncomfortable thought but maybe in such a case much of the 'civilized world' would feel quite comfortable in sterilising large parts of the islamic world with a counter strike.

I just hope things do not get that far.

And thus Armageddon beckons......... I know that is not what you meant, but you are right - what was so far off the agenda ten years ago is now seriously considered as a viable option. God help us if it really comes to that.

[PFVA]

I don't know how old most of you were in the late 60s and 70s and it was the same thing. Hostages all over, bombs threats and attacks, justified guerrilla and terrorist groups, Vietnam war.

Maybe i'm just getting old but it seems that technologies improve but the mindset remains the same.

[Kemper_Boyd]

It is an uncomfortable thought but maybe in such a case much of the 'civilized world' would feel quite comfortable in sterilising large parts of the islamic world with a counter strike.

I just hope things do not get that far.

And thus Armageddon beckons......... I know that is not what you meant, but you are right - what was so far off the agenda ten years ago is now seriously considered as a viable option. God help us if it really comes to that.

Yeah but 20 years ago things were much worse. WWW III seemed
to be just a matter of time, terrorism is nothing compared to the
cold war. Whilst I find today's terrorism quite horrifying it doesn't
personally worry me the way the imminent threat of a full-scale
nulcear war did. As PFVA says we've seen similar before in the
middle east, though without much of the overt religious justification.

[The_Subtle_Knife]

well, I read the "bizarre" press every weekend.


I always think "what, that's well fucked up" constantly.

http://www.weirdlinks.com is my starting point.

[Guest]

I don't know how old most of you were in the late 60s and 70s and it was the same thing. Hostages all over, bombs threats and attacks, justified guerrilla and terrorist groups, Vietnam war.

Maybe i'm just getting old but it seems that technologies improve but the mindset remains the same.

Yep, the world's always been fucked-up to some extent. Probably no more now than at any other random moment in history. Is it any wonder that many of us prefer to play in the wonderful world of videogaming?

'The Real World' - a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

[Foozwah]

[sarcasm]Fortunately we now have Doom 3 to forget all about this violent and messed-up world.[/sarcasm]

I'd prefer it if we all sat down for a nice session of Animal Crossing instead.

Perhaps the day will come when a tabloid newspaper will run a sensationalist story about AC players - "Evil Videogames Taught My Son To Make Friends And Treat Others With Courtesy And Respect! - One Mother's Horror Story..."

Edit: But yes. World fucked. Much badness.

[Jezmondo]

The two airliners.
Bombings in Israel.
Bomb outside the Moscow metro.
The 12 Nepalese murdered.
The two French journalists being held hostage.
The siege of the school in North Ossetia.

I know! - But 'Big Brother' was good this year.