chicago public radio

[abm2631]

"Welcome back to the show, Al Gini (resident philosopher at NPR)."

"I'm sorry to be here talking about this topic," says Mr. Gini.

Al Gini teaches at Loyola University (in Chicago) and is a frequent commentator on the program Eight Forty-Eight on Chicago Public Radio.

Today's topic:  War.

The next five minutes or so is spent quoting famous

Comments

Re: Knee-Jerk? More like Erring on the side of caution...

[bluebird3]

I'd call myself a pacifist, but I agree with Beavis that living creatures have a right to defend themselves. I also think that Homeland Security did the right thing by taking away liquids yesterday. I'm not sure what the right approach is going to be going forward. The number of common items you could consider 'dangerous' on a plane is a very long list, and you can't take them all away. Each time the terrorists come up with a new plot, there definitely has to be a rebalancing of convenience and safety.

In terms of whether humans are war-mongering or peace-seeking creatures, I guess you only have to look at the course of human history to see that we're war mongering. I wish it weren't so, but history speaks for itself. It's certainly true that it's easier to start a war than to stop one, easier to continue a conflict than to resolve it-- so from that respect, even if you split the world 50/50 into hawks and doves, the general course of history would be hawkish. One would like to think that the more civilized the society, the more civilized the conflict resolution could be, right? Unfortunately, in that respect we haven't come a long way. In fact, we've probably digressed because of the technological advancements that enable people to start wars at a moments notice and from miles away.

I guess the question we need to answer is how controllable is our war-mongering spirit? Is it an inevitability that we'll always be at war? Can't bodies like the United Nations help? Or by giving the United Nations that power are we creating more conflicts?

Re: Knee-Jerk? More like Erring on the side of caution...

[batmantis275]

The Savage Nation says we should start racially profiling. After all, we know who it is who hates us. I mean, lets face it, if there was an african american rally going on, and a bunch of white guys with confederate flags were in the area, we'd all be suspicious, right? Well, the Savage Nation says we should just be suspicious of all male Arabs between 16 and 32. Terrorists could never figure out how to get white men to do their work. Hell, I bet they can't get Stinger missiles on the black market either. We'll be safe forever if we just don't allow toenail clippers on airplanes. (FYI: I'm am just saying what they said, i do not think profiling is a good idea.)

I also think that banning liquids from planes was a knee-jerk reactionary decision. A better policy would have been to already have bomb-sniffing dogs in airports or some other method by which to find those liquids. Hell, just have people open their water bottle and give it a sniff. I'm betting nitro-glycerin doesn't smell (or taste) like water.

Re: Knee-Jerk? More like Erring on the side of caution...

[ames83]

I can guarantee you that these terrorists came up with a liquid that is tastless and odorless to use to kill. I totally think that what they did was the right decision. It's not that difficult to put the banned items in your checked baggage.