Not good vs. evil, but evil vs. evil

I just finished viewing the first of three hours (!) of The Power of Nightmares, a 2004 BBC 2 documentary, which was linked in the comments to a post cited by poodler.¹

I came away with a new perspective of how both sides in this War on Terror, the neoconservatives as well as the Islamists, deny reality in a quest to bring moral purity to the world. The common element of both the neocon and Islamist movements is that both do not trust the vast majority of people to behave in the common interest of society when given the freedom to behave as they wish, and so a myth must be created to wrest that freedom from the people.

This denial of reality and myth-building is shaping up not so much as the war between good and evil, but a battle between evil forces, each trying to stamp out what is good and right with the world to substitute their twisted notions of righteousness and take ultimate control.

My take is that the best purpose of religion is to convince people that their own interests are best served when they serve others, as in the Golden Rule (which is not "He who owns the gold makes the rules"). This has since time immemorial been twisted to serve dictators great and small. If that twisted mess is all that religion is nowadays, I have no problem with chucking it all and starting over. Life is too short to let clerics and politicians ruin it for everyone.

Suffer the little children indeed.

¹I found the site that republished the documentary, One Planet One Nation, and did some research, and it appears that it is run by a non-profit corporation by the same name. Its domain is registered in Kelowna, BC, Canada, but its hosting provider is in Texas. Given the nature of the Internet and low-cost hosting, I find this not at all suspicious, and the documentary comes from an impeccable source (the original credits and copyright notice are preserved).

Computers multitask; people shouldn't.

Last night after gmjambear and I had dinner at the Old Country Buffet in Factoria Mall in Bellevue, I wanted some batteries for my camera (as the rechargeables I've been using have become untrustworthy). I found what I needed and got in line at the cashier. The woman in front of me was juggling a purse, two other bags of purchases, and not one but two conversations on her cell phone, all the while trying to make a small purchase. As she fumbled in her purse for change, gabbing all the while, she suddenly decided she didn't have enough change and decided to pay with a debit card instead, requiring more interaction with the clerk and more juggling of stuff. Gary was this ->||<- close to telling the lady to do one thing at a time, and instead left the store and waited for me in the mall.

Freedom is on the march...

What Mad King George II said:

"Freedom is on the march."

What he didn't say, but should have:

"... a death march, off to some benighted corner of the planet where we can kill it off in secret and nobody will notice."