John argued strongly for a unilateral strike in Saddam’s heart of darkness (webdiarySep26 and webdiarySep26. David took him on in It’s about judgement, not belief (webdiaryOct1)and John replied in Loving Hitler(webdiaryOct2).

Then came Bali. David’s response: Searching for hope. John’s response: Desiderata . Both are republished below, before David’s latest, Fools and fanatics.

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Searching for hope

By David Makinson

This is an extract from a letter I wrote to a friend (of socio-political bent) last night. I usually try to be constructive, but I cannot find it in me at the moment. I think I am beginning to despair.

It surprises no-one I suppose, but it still defies belief, that commentators from across the political spectrum are using (yes, “using”) the Bali atrocity to score points off their rival pontificators. It is deeply sickening.

So now it’s definitively established to those of the right that the bleeding hearts have been exposed as fools, whilst it’s equally clear to those of the left that here is proof-positive that the macho, militaristic posturings of the right continue to rain catastrophe upon us.

I want to scream: Wake up, people! These horrible events prove neither faction right. Surely it’s obvious by now that we’re all wrong? Our romanticised assessments of what we define as good and evil, and our yearnings for the simplicity of black and white solutions, are delusions. The world lurches from futile rhetoric to ineffective response and still our people are dying.

Unnecessary deaths. Politicians and commentators of all persuasions will seek to portray their particular cause as noble because we have lost our friends. We must reject this cynicism. Be clear that these poor, poor people died for nothing – a tragic symbol of an abject failure of leadership.

Politicians failed to protect them. The experts of right and left have had no effect. We must not reward them by jumping on any of their various bandwagons. Just cry and cry and cry for the wasted victims and the torment of their loved ones.

The left says our government’s public support of the US makes us a target. We sense the truth in this. The right says that it is folly to think that a passive stance will protect us. We sense the truth in this.

The right says a military solution is the only solution. They may be correct. The left says violence begets violence, and they too may be correct. Neither group can recognise the merits in each other’s case, and so the true, far more complex solution eludes us.

President Bush said, in the seeming long ago, “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists”. Wrong, George. We’re against both of you. We wonder if perhaps you deserve each other, but we’re certain we have done nothing at all to deserve you. We, the cannon fodder, oppose you. We are the innocent people of Australia, the US, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, the world, and we are opposed to you. It’s not as simple as us and them. It’s about all of us.

For myself, every instinct I have says we need to seek an active path of peaceful action and engagement if we are to have any chance of working through these troubles. I believe this is the test of courage we need to confront – to engage these people at the root of their grievances and hurts – both real and imagined.

I am not optimistic that we can pass this test. I fear our bravery does not run that deep. The pragmatist in me recognises that we will resort to force. We will dress this up in words of action and purpose, and imagine it a considered and effective response. We will convince ourselves it is necessary and just. It is neither – and it will not work.

It is a dark time. I fear for my children. I am conscious that I offer no solutions. Doubtless the right and the left will have many. Let us pray that somewhere amongst the dross is a kernel of constructive thought which can be built into hope.

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Desiderata

By John Wojdylo

I will engage this Islamist idealism – or this nihilism, so alien to Islam – even when they swear they hate my way of life and vow to destroy it. My love and humanity will change their hearts.

Their grievances and hurts will be healed. They will not murder my people anymore.

I will build schools for their children, give their families food when they need it, educate them about my way of life, help them build the society of their dreams. I will undertake peaceful action and engagement.

I will take it upon myself to atone for the evils inflicted upon them by people acting in my name, by the “system” I live under that is beyond my control.

When my people die I will forgive the Islamists. It is the hardest thing, but I’ll will forgiveness. I cannot live hating or confronting anyone. It is self-destructive for me. I will be Saint Sebastian, the innocent one slain by 100 Islamist arrows.

I will ceaselessly subject myself to self-criticism, to root out my failures, and to try to understand what more I can do to see things from their point of view and make them stop hating me and my people.

I will even try to imagine their imagined grievances against me, so that I can persuade them – through my humanity – that we’re really all just human beings, can all live together irrespective of our deeply-held ambitions and will to achieve them.

I will weep lamentations that politicians and commentators of all persuasions disgustingly seek to portray their particular cause as noble because we have lost our friends, and then I will seek to further my particular noble cause.

I will be the innocent one who refuses to comprehend the realities of power and madness; madness is too tiring to think about, too debilitating to even begin to comprehend. Too tragic – because there is no hope with madness.

With madness, there is no hope, just darkness. Like death.

I will refuse to understand the power I wield, particularly that exerting compelling force wisely in the face of madness is both a duty and a good.

I will, at all costs, resist comprehending the portents of incorrigible and embittered irrationality, resist using my power wisely not to confront or engage or change hearts but to guide them away from the abyss.

And in those cases when guiding is impossible I will banish the thought that the day is coming when an attack will not only destroy a building and 200 lives, but an entire city.

Because for the Islamist fascist, it can make no material difference. He feels the power of God when his finger is on the detonator; and in a self-referential narcissistic loop, flush with hate for the ants around him, he senses imminent deliverance for himself and “his” people from this world of suffering: “God is great!”

Because he is God.

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Fools and Fanatics

By David Makinson

Just re-read Wojdylo’s latest and realised he’s actually had another go at me – stealing my words and using them for his own ends! First my knowledge is “paltry”, next I “love Hitler”, now he’s using my material. A vengeful guy! I think I am actually pissed off. My critique of his “Desiderata” is below. The tone is consciously aggressive, though I can’t get the hectoring and condescending tone of that awful “Loving Hitler” piece – I bow to the master.

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Bertrand Russell

It was interesting to see some of the feedback concerning the writings of John Wojdylo. The man attracts both friends and foes, it seems, but not a lot of neutrals. I’ll declare myself a foe, if only because he seems to have designated me as one of his, presumably for having the temerity to question his wisdom.

John accused me recently of objecting to the style, rather than the substance of his offerings. I’ll wear that. The style is certainly deeply objectionable. His Loving Hitler piece is downright offensive. Doubtless I’ll object to the substance too, if I ever find some.

People should bear in mind that John is biased, and take this into account when evaluating his offerings. This is not (only) my opinion – it is self confessed. John calls it “willed bias” and believes there should be more of it. It is “all too rare”, he states with calm conviction. This disturbing confession is towards the end of Loving Hitler, the piece in which he accused me and others of loving Hitler (at least I think he did, it’s all terribly convoluted). Remember: ” Willed bias”.

Prejudice and bigotry can sometimes be forgiven, because they are blind and may be cured with knowledge. But there’s a special place in hell for people who do it deliberately.

I read John’s Desiderata with interest and realised it has to be refuted, and just a little ridiculed – in case anyone is gullible enough to think it is of any substance or merit. Here at last we see John’s true colours, rather than his endless and deeply selective regurgitation of other people’s views. I suspect most people reading Webdiary are not taken in by this tosh, but I want to be on the safe side. I also realised that I didn’t need to look very far for support for a whole list of contrary positions – John’s house is already riddled with the termites I need.

So I found myself a whole list of facile, baseless, plain old-fashioned stupid, positions – and just changed a few words. Sound familiar? I should note that unlike John I don’t necessarily accuse him or anyone else of taking these positions. My intention is only to demonstrate the poverty of thinking and the cynicism which underpins the original effort. I begin to wonder if it’s not much more that some kind of word game to John, one where he gets to prove how much smarter than the rest of us he is. Perhaps he is smarter, who knows? Who cares?

In sanctifying the use of military force on the grounds of his version of morality and duty, John is arguing the logic that Israel applies to Palestine. He is also arguing the logic the suicide bomber applies to Israel. And regardless of where you stand on the rights and wrongs of that particular issue, next time you read about a suicide bombing remind yourself – both Israel’s and Palestine’s approach just doesn’t work. (Before I’m lambasted for condoning suicide bombers or loving Arafat, or loving Sharon for that matter, let me unequivocally refute those and any other similarly ludicrous claims).

I could stoop to John’s level at this point and say that because he talks such a clearly terrorist book, he must love terrorism. But that would just be silly, so I won’t.

It is absolutely critical that we find a more intelligent way to address terrorism – both the symptoms and the causes. I do not claim to know what that way is. John does of course, but I cannot summon that quantum of arrogance. What I am certain of is that the more we listen to John and his fellow fools and fanatics as they preach a way that is so clearly wrong, the less likely we are to find a path that is right.

John – you may wish to ponder this – from a man whose morality, unlike yours or mine, is not in question: “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” Mahatma Gandhi.

See – I can trundle out quotes too. They’re just shorter.

I have begun to believe and hope that it in the smallest of symbolic gestures we may be planting the seeds of constructive change. It may be the only way that people like us can hope to make any kind of difference. Confronting John is a tiny act, I admit, but it’s got to be done, because he is a tiny part of the problem. Here’s my response to Desiderata, with apologies and thanks to John Wojdylo

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Contra Desiderata

By David Makinson

I will not engage this Islamist idealism. I will not wonder why they hate my way of life and vow to destroy it. My love and humanity will be put to one side, reserved exclusively for those I call my own.

Their grievances and hurts will be ignored. I will have them murdered as they murder us.

I will not build schools for their children, give their families food when they need it, educate them about my way of life, help them build the society of their dreams. I will use military force and make sure the wounds go ever deeper.

I will turn a deliberate blind eye to the evils inflicted upon them by people acting in my name, by the “system” I live under because I do not care.

When my people die I will send the young of my nation to kill theirs. It is the easiest thing, and there can be no forgiveness. I cannot live without hating or confronting someone. It is essential to me. I will be endless vengeance, and slay a hundred of them for every one I lose.

I will never subject myself to self-criticism, I will ignore my failures, and I will not try to understand what else I can do to see things from their point of view and make them stop hating me and my people.

I will never try to imagine their imagined grievances against me, so that I can persuade them – through my humanity – that we’re really all just human beings, can all live together irrespective of our deeply-held ambitions and will to achieve them.

I endorse the politicians and commentators who portray my cause as noble because we have lost our friends. I applaud this necessary manipulation.

I will be the corrupt one who can comprehend the realities of power and who will foster madness. Madness is a tool to be used for my ends. Without their madness, and my own, I have no substance, and no-one will listen to me.

I understand the power I wield, particularly that using weapons of mass destruction against those who have done nothing to me is perfectly acceptable. I will not seek out the actual criminals. I will revenge myself with indiscriminate acts of mass murder. I will be like them, because I am like them.

I will, at all costs, pretend I do not see the mirror which shows in my own face the portents of incorrigible and embittered irrationality, and I will use my power gratuitously to force more and more people in their worlds and my own towards the abyss.

By my conscious acts, I will sow the seeds of an attack which will not only destroy a building and 200 lives, but an entire city. I will respond to this with ever greater violence.

Because for a Wojdylo, it can make no material difference. I feel the power of God when my finger is on the keyboard; and in a self-referential narcissistic loop, I will dismiss all contrary views even as by my own words I prove their validity.

Because I am right and they are wrong.