To: fran@kimosabbe.com
Sent: 05 February 2002 20:03
Subject: Fwd: Returned mail: User unknown
Dear Kimosabbe
Very pleased to learn about your plans for a new periodical. Sounds like an excellent idea. The questions you raise are sensible and important, and require serious answers. I am just in no position to undertake this task. In fact, there is a long queue of interview requests, also sensible and serious questions. The most i can do is make some very inadequate comments, I'm afraid. It won't do any good for me to delay. Commitments are very intense, far ahead. In order:
http://www.resistancemp3.org.uk/
1. I've had more interviews than i can remember about the topic since Sept. 11, around the world, including several on BBC. Some excerpts from them appear in a small book:_9-11_(South End press; I think it may have been published by Pluto in England, but am not sure; so many such arrangements I cannot keep track). Briefly, I think the coverage has excluded central issues, which cannot be dealt with seriously within the shared doctrinal framework of the dominant Western intellectual culture; it's quite different elsewhere, say Mexico, or even in parts of the West with a long history of foriegn domination, Ireland and Greece, for example). I've given many examples in interviews, some now in print. But this is characteristic; the same was true of the Vietnam war and more recent Western crimes, and it goes far back in history. The reaction of the general public is complex. Everyone shares the horror over the atrocity, and there is considerable fear about the likelihood of further terrorist attacks, maybe even more severe ones. That's entirely natural and legitmate; personally, I share those setiments. Contrary to what is claimed in the media and intellectual journals, however, there is substantial questioning, openness and dissidence, more so than in any conflict that i can remember, at any remotely comparable stage. Again I've written about it.
2. You're right. Spiritual/ religious beliefs play no role in my attitudes and opinions towards these matters.
3. About human nature, first we know very little. The nature of insects is poorly understood, humans vastly more so. Sowhatever is said is speculative and weakly grounded. That warning aside, it seems that human nature, including our moral nature, must involve far-reaching principles; otherwise as David Hume pointed out long ago, there would be no way to account for our ability to make judgments in new circumstances. But these principles allow for many options, depending on the circumstances of a human life. The same is true of other aspects of the development of organisms, humans among them. It's far to guess, I think, that each of us, by nature, could be a saint or torturer. Each of us could support slavery or regard it as vile and depraved. There's no dout that a great deal can be done to change things. The example of slavery is only one of a great many. And of course we should work for that end, just as our inner nature tells us.
4. They can be extremely important, no dout. Not always a healthy influence, as we also Know. (On the Arts)
5. While revolutions have often been bloody, social change has often proceeded without much violence. A heavy burden of proof lies on those who advocate violence, or even authority for that matter. Personally I think that burden can be met, but it is not easy.
6. Afraid I don't know about Mr Hicks (On Bill Hicks)
Noam Chomsky
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