TERRORISM--- ONCE AGAIN, THE INTELLECTUALS ARE WRONG

Mort Sahl once observed that, "When I said I wanted intellectuals in Washington I didn't mean I actually wanted them to run things."

As the kind of a guy who didn't read Plato's Republic in college because I didn't want to read more bullshit from a Republican, I'm reminded again of Sahl's line as I read the "analysis" of Iraq from all the usual places; you know, the thinkers from Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and the Sorbonne.

They actually believe a guy who decides to kill himself while killing ten others has some sort of deep philosophic connection with a universal process. GET THIS: when any of us decide to kill people we have to have no thought at all. We have rage. Rage is an emotion that suppresses all thought. You just do.

"You just don't know man, what it takes to go out and take somebody down, like I mean just fucking go out and grab their money or their wallet just because they are there.....I mean we used to go out and snort and drink and smoke til we were fucking crazy laughing and just strike. Kill? Fuck, who the fuck cares? Just take. Take and stomp. That's who I am." From a guy I was helping one time. A guy who "got it" about himself but didn't know how to end it. Everybody I have come in contact with who has engaged in this type of crime simply doesn't think.

"I see some stupid bitch at a bus stop wearing a gold chain I just walk up to her and take it. That's who I am, dude. I see it. I want it. I take it. She says something I punch her face in", another guy I worked with but couldn't help at all. I asked him if he had always been "like this" and he looked at me for a long time, at least it seemed like a long time, "since the fourth grade" he finally said, "I was getting even". That was as far as we got. He didn't want to think about anything but his rage. He went away for a long time.

All of them wanted to "to go out like a man". They were going to prison, which suited them just fine.

The street criminals all belong. Belong to a group or gang that has a "philosophy", namely this is my turf, set foot in it and I'll kill you. "La Raza, Black Pride, a whole life style of sex, rape, and fighting are shows of power to the neighborhood. The ability to instill fear into everyone is important, they think fear is respect. That is their purpose. They don't think about their philosophy. They just do it. In prison they join another gang. Always racial.

The Road Goes on Forever but the Party Never Ends

These modern terrorists, the guys who actually do the deed, have put themselves into an emotional place. An emotional state. They want revenge, they talk themselves into it; revenge against (the West, America, the UN etc.) and like all gang members they want to "die like a man". The men who took out the UN Baghdad wanted to "die like men" killing others. There is no thought. The neighborhood they left behind "respects" them. Every criminal who ever lived has left notes around that sound like there's some thought there. Everybody who has ever "worked" with them knows there isn't. "I want it, I take it."

It really is that simple.

BTW Mort Sahl also said "I want to be buried in Chicago, that way I can stay active politically.", sort of an democratic terrorist.