Violence has been said by many to be justified in the name of doing good. "The Iraq war is bringing democracy and peace in the middle east" for instance is a common justification. The trouble I have with saying violence can be used for good is the notion of good.
When you commit violence, you absolutely know you are causing harm, otherwise it would not be violence by definition. With violence, there is a guaranteed "bad" effect in the form of harm you are inflicting. For instance, the Iraq war has caused hundreds of thousands civilian deaths as a result of the violence our troops and Iraqi troops are involved in.
However, how can you "know" of any good created from violence? The good becomes this ethereal ,mental, if not subjective entity.
Often times good is realized in the absence of bad. This black and white polar view of the world is troublesome. However, even with this view it is easy to see one truth related to war.
If Good is realized in the absence of bad, and bad is caused by violence, then good is done by peace.
You cannot do Good by doing Bad.
A good rebuttal might be the argument that the future good created by our violence will out-weigh the bad being done.
However, I think it is foolish to determine the lives of so many people by some hopeful gamble of something so far removed from reality as the concept of "good".
2007-10-07
2007-03-29
Guitar Head
I like to hit the guitar once in a while. Play some tunes. Make some muzik. So today I bring you a picture of my Jessica's guitar.
Ok, so really it is just the head of the guitar. But as anyone knows, the head of the guitar is just as important as the rest. And it is also shiny.
Ok, so really it is just the head of the guitar. But as anyone knows, the head of the guitar is just as important as the rest. And it is also shiny.
2007-03-25
Picture of backyard and speech
Today I bring to you a picture of my backyard. For those of you who do not know, I bought a condo last year in Downers Grove. My patio looks out into the court yard which is a nice place to be.
I am also hosting a wiki page at my house. You don't have to register to edit it. But more of an interesting note is that my computer at home can talk. I made a web page where you can send me a message and I will here it from my computer. This may get annoying after a while but I thought it would be fun to be able to make my computer talk from anywhere in the world. Let's just call it a technological home experiment for me to hear people's messages. All messages are kept and everyone can see the messages people send me. Try it out!
It is very easy now for technology to allow us to communicate with each other. However, the population is booming and it is now becoming impossible to stand out among over 6 billion people in this world. The theory that there are at most six degrees of separation between you and someone else in this world emphasizes the connectedness of our communication with other people. However, our attention to other people is limited. We are connected the 6 billion other people but our attention is only to a select few. I am not the best example of someone mindful of other people but I have, up to a point, realized that we have to be aware of our communication with others and the impact it can have, not only immediately to them, but to the whole of humanity. There is a lot of anger in a lot of people's speech. This kind of speech is not thought out, and the impact it has is not acknowledged. There is no knowing how your angry speech may have a subtle ripple on the people you said it to, and the people they know, and the people they know. Of course our network of relationships is cyclic. So there may be some truth to the phrase "What goes around comes around". So please send me a message. You can make my computer say the angry things you would say to someone else. The difference here is, I would have no idea who it came from. More importantly you can let it be an opportunity to practice good speech.
Here is the link again
http://mempko.dyndns.org/talktome/
I am also hosting a wiki page at my house. You don't have to register to edit it. But more of an interesting note is that my computer at home can talk. I made a web page where you can send me a message and I will here it from my computer. This may get annoying after a while but I thought it would be fun to be able to make my computer talk from anywhere in the world. Let's just call it a technological home experiment for me to hear people's messages. All messages are kept and everyone can see the messages people send me. Try it out!
It is very easy now for technology to allow us to communicate with each other. However, the population is booming and it is now becoming impossible to stand out among over 6 billion people in this world. The theory that there are at most six degrees of separation between you and someone else in this world emphasizes the connectedness of our communication with other people. However, our attention to other people is limited. We are connected the 6 billion other people but our attention is only to a select few. I am not the best example of someone mindful of other people but I have, up to a point, realized that we have to be aware of our communication with others and the impact it can have, not only immediately to them, but to the whole of humanity. There is a lot of anger in a lot of people's speech. This kind of speech is not thought out, and the impact it has is not acknowledged. There is no knowing how your angry speech may have a subtle ripple on the people you said it to, and the people they know, and the people they know. Of course our network of relationships is cyclic. So there may be some truth to the phrase "What goes around comes around". So please send me a message. You can make my computer say the angry things you would say to someone else. The difference here is, I would have no idea who it came from. More importantly you can let it be an opportunity to practice good speech.
Here is the link again
http://mempko.dyndns.org/talktome/
2007-02-25
HDR Image for you.
I have had a keen interest in High Dynamic Range imagery (HDR) lately. HDR images are simply a set of images taken at a range of exposures and combined into one image. This creates some interesting effects. It is getting popular around the internet recently. There were some great ones of Chernobyl. Below is a HDR picture I have taken of my retro Motorola record player and a lamp.
You can read about HDR here.
Let me know what you think about my image and go and try taking some yourself. They are very fun and the results are rewarding.
You can read about HDR here.
Let me know what you think about my image and go and try taking some yourself. They are very fun and the results are rewarding.
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