My gallery moved
I now display my lousy photographs even more publicly on flickr.com. Fortunately they are so mediocre that nobody bothers to critique them.
flickr.com seems great. I enjoy watching good and bad photos. Some of the better ones on flickr make me realize just how little I know about photography and how far I still have to go. I intend to make sure that I enjoy the trip.
flickr.com — highly recommended!
2005-08-09Religion considered harmful?
The US Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress has prepared a rather interesting report The Sociology And Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?. The report notes that a new type of terrorists has emerged that does not follow the norms of the society at large. Extreme religious groups divide the world into “them” and “us”, and can easily justify almost any actions aimed at “them”, regardless of the targets.
There is a significant aspect of these new terrorism movements—they are motivated by extreme religion or ideology. I believe that any radical movement that abandons rational thought and focuses on ideology instead can potentially turn to terrorism. Religious groups are a prime breeding ground for such movements, because religion requires you to suspend rationality and believe, “have faith”.
The terrorist is actually quite sane, although deluded by an ideological or religious way of viewing the world. [...] In short, a terrorist will look, dress, and behave like a normal person, such as a university student, until he or she executes the assigned mission.
Religion, however, is strictly speaking not a requirement to become a terrrorist. It is enough to have blind faith in the righteousness of one’s cause. Such faith can also be found in activist groups, especially in groups who recruit gullible teenagers. A low education can be an influencing factor, but quite often even highly educated persons join terrorist cells. The type of education is critical.
Based on this, I would expect to find terrorist traits in groups such as “rights” activists, revisionists, nationalists; basically in any groups who hold a strong ideological belief in being right, typically despite evidence to the contrary, and have an urge to act. I would be especially worried if there is a strong religious motive. Movements such as “Pro Life” and creationists spring to mind.
Beware of strong convictions and belief. Think. Always be ready to challenge established truths. This is the way to eliminate terrorism.
[/life/society] permanent link
2005-08-03Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety
I am currently reading Alain de Botton’s book “Status Anxiety”. It will take some time, as I pick it up again only when I happen to feel like it. It’s an interesting book. I just happened to bash the yellow press a month ago, when I got fed up with the strange news that are flashed as newsworthy these days. In his book, Alain makes a similar observation.
Although Alain puts a lot of effort into defining what “status” might mean, and why it may be a cause for anxiety, I think that the core idea behind the book is very familiar. If you let other people define what you value in life, and what you should aspire to, you may very easily find yourself living a very unfulfilled life. This idea is reflected in the solutions Alain has to offer—philosophy, art, politics, Christianity, and bohemia.
I cringed a bit at first at the inclusion of Christianity in Alain’s list, but it does seem to offer a solution. The thought that your status in life doesn’t matter, because your true status is determined in an afterlife, does offer consolation for status anxiety. In this case, it strikes me that the cure may be worse than the disease.
[/life/philosophers] permanent link
No blogging during vacation
I didn’t bother to write a single blog entry during my four-week vacation. I don’t want to imply that blogging during a vacation is wrong, this time I just chose not to. Being able to choose, even in puny things like this, and being concious about the choice is part of happiness.