tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post5792338817090919350..comments2024-02-29T03:34:23.190-05:00Comments on Who Were the Sea Peoples?: How to Spot an Ideological Blockagegcallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-61316541103470778932011-09-20T14:35:26.471-04:002011-09-20T14:35:26.471-04:00Wally, but the explanations do NOT contradict each...Wally, but the explanations do NOT contradict each other, and presenting them as if they do is nonsense. And he definitely favors continued meddling, and wants to ignore it as a factor prodding terrorism.<br /><br />So, he may have some more subtle psychological analysis going on... and that may be accurate, I don't know. But the thing I pointed out is surely going on with him.gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-47841314374066499782011-09-20T12:03:54.560-04:002011-09-20T12:03:54.560-04:00Hmm - I thought that TLP was making the point that...Hmm - I <em>thought</em> that TLP was making the point that we imagine the chain of events that led to 9/11 in terms of abstract things like 'American meddling' instead of individual choices like 'religious zealots commit murder-suicide,' because admitting the terrorists' autonomy is a lot scarier than contemplating political abstractions of the (lefty/righty preferred logic) sort.<br /><br />Christopher Hitchens, for instance, is what I'd call a thoughtful exceptionalist - seeing the US as bound up in complex relations with other countries and recognizing its unique potential given the present nature of those relations. One of his big points post-9/11 was that whatever roles the U.S. had played in mideast politics in the 20th century, groups like Al Qaeda were autonomous actors of a kind that a mere description of U.S. foreign policy <em>could not predict</em> - an emergent property, as it were - and that the U.S. was indeed free to act in response to their autonomy rather than to its own guilt.<br /><br />Am I misunderstanding TLP, or you?Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12215651059418273961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-56803105912617515092011-09-20T12:03:35.237-04:002011-09-20T12:03:35.237-04:00Hmm - I thought that TLP was making the point that...Hmm - I <em>thought</em> that TLP was making the point that we imagine the chain of events that led to 9/11 in terms of abstract things like 'American meddling' instead of individual choices like 'religious zealots commit murder-suicide,' because admitting the terrorists' autonomy is a lot scarier than contemplating political abstractions of the (lefty/righty preferred logic) sort.<br /><br />Christopher Hitchens, for instance, is what I'd call a thoughtful exceptionalist - seeing the US as bound up in complex relations with other countries and recognizing its unique potential given the present nature of those relations. One of his big points post-9/11 was that whatever roles the U.S. had played in mideast politics in the 20th century, groups like Al Qaeda were autonomous actors of a kind that a mere description of U.S. foreign policy <em>could not predict</em> - an emergent property, as it were - and that the U.S. was indeed free to act in response to their autonomy rather than to its own guilt.<br /><br />Am I misunderstanding TLP, or you?Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12215651059418273961noreply@blogger.com