Saturday, September 23, 2006
Marginalized
President Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on September 19, 2006. I caught his speech on MPR. One line in particular struck me. He said:
"This morning I want to speak about the more hopeful world that is within our reach, a world beyond terror, where ordinary men and women are free to determine their own destiny, where the voices of moderation are empowered, and where the extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority."
(Emphasis mine. The full text of the speech is at The New York Times online.)
I believe that extremists become terrorists precisely because they are marginalized. (This does not excuse their horrific behavior, but it certainly does explain things.) What passes for the peaceful majority may not be so peaceful. How many of those peaceful majority are squishing and squeezing the extremists until they can't stand it any more? Through his inadvertent choice of the word "marginalized," Bush identified the current state of affairs.
"This morning I want to speak about the more hopeful world that is within our reach, a world beyond terror, where ordinary men and women are free to determine their own destiny, where the voices of moderation are empowered, and where the extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority."
(Emphasis mine. The full text of the speech is at The New York Times online.)
I believe that extremists become terrorists precisely because they are marginalized. (This does not excuse their horrific behavior, but it certainly does explain things.) What passes for the peaceful majority may not be so peaceful. How many of those peaceful majority are squishing and squeezing the extremists until they can't stand it any more? Through his inadvertent choice of the word "marginalized," Bush identified the current state of affairs.
Labels: george w. bush, marginalized, peace, terrorist
Rocket Science & Brain Surgeons
Okay, I simply can't pass this up. Ever since I mentioned rocket science in my post on How to Stop a Terrorist, and then again in my Rocket Science post about how the shuttle is stopped, I swear I've heard the term rocket science used at least a half-dozen times - all in the manner of how difficult something is to do in comparison to rocket science. The other term people use to indicate the difficulty of a job is to compare it to brain surgery.
I was on Seth Godin's blog (where else?) and he linked to The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do. One of those things was to sign up with Digg, so I went over to Digg to see what the site does and found an article that has me in stitches. It's called Rocket Scientists Not As Smart As Originally Thought. Guess who did the research that came to this grand conclusion? The American Association of Brain Surgeons!
The article reads as though it was taken directly from the pages of The Onion. It was written by humorist Andy Borowitz, so it's obviously a spoof, but what a good one.
Frankly, instead of building up the egos of the rocket scientists and the brain surgeons, I think we should start comparing the difficulty of things to the Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe brings attention to on the Discovery Channel. How many brain surgeons and rocket scientists would be willing to do these essential dirty jobs?
I was on Seth Godin's blog (where else?) and he linked to The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do. One of those things was to sign up with Digg, so I went over to Digg to see what the site does and found an article that has me in stitches. It's called Rocket Scientists Not As Smart As Originally Thought. Guess who did the research that came to this grand conclusion? The American Association of Brain Surgeons!
The article reads as though it was taken directly from the pages of The Onion. It was written by humorist Andy Borowitz, so it's obviously a spoof, but what a good one.
Frankly, instead of building up the egos of the rocket scientists and the brain surgeons, I think we should start comparing the difficulty of things to the Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe brings attention to on the Discovery Channel. How many brain surgeons and rocket scientists would be willing to do these essential dirty jobs?
Labels: brain surgeons, digg, dirty jobs, onion, rocket science, seth godin, terrorist
Sunday, September 17, 2006
How to Stop a Terrorist
Make him/her so happy with day-to-day life that (s)he has no desire to topple buildings with airplanes or bomb a country's infrastructure.
Recipe for general happiness: Food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, a living wage & fulfilling work. Mix with a few close personal relationships, a general atomosphere of safety & security, and a societal attitude of acceptance of personal differences.
This isn't freaking rocket science, folks.
For a great discussion of the biological means of happiness, see the book Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment by Gregory Berns.
Recipe for general happiness: Food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, a living wage & fulfilling work. Mix with a few close personal relationships, a general atomosphere of safety & security, and a societal attitude of acceptance of personal differences.
This isn't freaking rocket science, folks.
For a great discussion of the biological means of happiness, see the book Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment by Gregory Berns.
Labels: rocket science, safety, satisfaction, terrorist
