To Question the Unquestioned. LO27359

From: Barry Mallis (theorgtrainer@earthlink.net)
Date: 10/08/01


Replying to LO27340 --

Dear At,

I sit in New Hampshire, some 200 miles north of my birth city, New York.
For some twenty years I have slowly widened my knowledge of religious
beliefs, and all the while I have conducted a modest search for my own.
Out of laziness I have not applied causal loop diagrams to my personal
search, such as it is, for a system which brings further meaning to my
life. Maybe that's because I have had until recently enough noise in my
life to occupy my time; that noise may have, for the most part, hidden the
signal some people desire to find.

Insofar as September 11 is concerned, I think of the event as an lunatic
atrocity perpetrated by small "minds", albeit from another planet. No
systems analysis can convince such lunatics that my use of the descriptor
lunatic is either meaningful or justified. Their existence, I propose, is
a spiraling reinforcing loop. The unintended consequences are of little
import to them. Palestinian rights, and Americans on Saudi soil are their
chief concerns manifested in atrocity to answer what they deem atrocity.

These lunatics still have hidden deep within them some humanity. If
confronted by the extended hand of a hungry child, they would react
positively. If that hand of peace were extended by the child of a dead New
York mother, they would empathize, too. But that won't happen.

>From a mere four or five miles we drop bombs from the comfort of
armchairs. From seven or eight thousand miles away, they coordinate
atrocity. In both cases, there's so much separation, that even the most
heart-rending newsreels bring little of the event into their presence. In
fact, it no doubt supports their resolve, because a human link has been
consciously or unconsciously severed.

If I were conducting a dialog with the Egyptian doctor who guides bin
Laden, he would surely weave an interesting, weighty argument around the
issues without addressing effects and unintended consequences. All the
postulating in the world about how we act and react would seem to no
avail.

I'm sad, anxious, angry. Unlike our American president, I have no need for
jingoistic mention of the American way of life, whatever that is. Best say
freedom to choose, to apply oneself, communicate openly, worship in peace.
He has said those things, too, and equated them with something American.
That's only a part of the broad, human picture. Anyway, I'm not
apologizing for him. He does what he can in stressful times.

Best regards,

Barry

-- 

Barry Mallis The Organizational Trainer 110 Arch St., #27 Keene, NH 03431-2167 USA voice: 603 352-5289 FAX: 603 357-2157 cell: 603 355-0635 email: theorgtrainer@earthlink.net

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