Isocracy, MBA, Palestine

[tcpip]

Isocracy Network first meeting was last Saturday; a surprising thirty people turned up (I was expecting - and catered for - half that), with about twenty apologies as it was the long weekend. Adopted campaigns for the year; (a) supporting the Henry Review (b) opposing the Internet filter and (c) working for a Federal Bill of Rights. We also voted to become an incorporated association and join the Alliance of the Libertarian Left. On item (b) I've been doing some "united front" building with the Australian Sex Party, the Pirate Party and the very clever Filter Conroy. Over the next few weeks an agreement should be hammered out. Some may find it amusing that my first practical use of my MBA studies is to set up an organisation in the tradition of anarcho-syndicalism....

But on that I had my exam for Business Law this afternoon (Economic Decision Making will be on Monday afternoon). Found it a very pleasing experience. When these are completed I will have completed a Graduate Diploma in Business (Technology Management). I have to decide at this point whether I jump ship and finish my MBA at the University of Melbourne or continue on with Chifley. Of course UniMelb is more prestigious, but Chifley, with its emphasis on scientific and engineering backgrounds and distance learning, has advantages as well. As for the course itself, plenty on contract law, torts, trade practises, property law, business structures and employment law; a surprisingly fascinating field and it has led me to consider whether a move from criminal law to torts would be appropriate for my long-held desire to rid the world of victimless crimes and punishment orientations in social rehabilitation. There is even plausible application in international law...

Speaking of which, very recently (yes, I was studying during all this) I was involved in a little discussion about international law and the recent Israeli raid of the humanitarian flotilla in international waters. One poster was feeling a little challenged early on so he made a call for re-inforcements, 4CHan style (two people responded..) The entire substance of their argument could be narrowed down to; (a) "You're an anti-semite" (I'll let my Jewish friends determine that thanks, not some Internet kooks.. (b) Palestinians deserve to be attacked and have collective responsibility for the actions of any local terrorists (hmmm.. what anti-semitism?), along with (c) Islam is fundamentally intolerant. Seriously two people wrote that, although one who has already shown his ignorance on some fairly well-known and important religious matters on the past. The only thing that really causes intolerance in religion is fundamentalism, not matter what the credo.

I do wonder how such people will mentally deal with the two humanitarian flotillas of Jews from Germany and the UK that are currently on their way towards Gaza. Anyway a practical uptake is that I've made contact with the person who originally thought up the idea of the flotilla to break the illegal blockade of Gaza and have made initial steps to join one in the near future. I see it a little like my first journey to East Timor - I had always intended to visit Palestine afterwards and now the time is indeed appropriate.

Comments

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

i admire your commitment to bettering life for all of us, very much.
thank you! from myself and on behalf of my children. xo
:-) :-) :-)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Awww. That's very sweet :)

And in all honesty, it's a pleasure. It really is.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

I saw that train wreck the day after the touchpaper was lit. And, sorry, but I simply don't have the spoons to jump into that sort of shit-storm.

Especially when three of the participants are the egregious Jordan Bassior and a couple of his flying monkeys. He and his coterie of fiercely independently-minded ideological clones spend so much time in their happy little echo chamber, that any disagreement really does look like stupidity or mental illness from their point of view. Of course, they spend so much time steeping in each other's agreeable prejudices that so does reality.

It is utterly, utterly pointless to engage them. Jordan and his flying monkeys are precisely the sort of people for whom killfiles were invented.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, poor Jordan. He finally brought himself to admit that Palestinian children are justifiable as targets. Honorary member of the Objectivist Death Cult.

It is utterly, utterly pointless to engage them. Jordan and his flying monkeys are precisely the sort of people for whom killfiles were invented.

A couple of lines of Javascript is all that's needed :)

spend so much time in their happy little echo chamber, that any disagreement really does look like stupidity or mental illness from their point of view

And that should be where they're left. The rest of the world can move on.

But it did make me wonder; in the real world if someone came up to me and said "Islam is fundamentally an intolerant religion", I'd simply avoid such a fucktard in the future. Online I actually debate the issue with them, at least for a while to see if there's is any inkling of humanity within them.

Killfiles

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Silly me, should have provided a link... Assuming you're not already aware of it..

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4107

[zey.livejournal.com]

I can only wish you the very best of luck with the flotilla. Take extra care and don't take any silly risks where trigger-happy commandos might be concerned. We all want to see you back in one piece, with all body parts in working order.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, the initial application is in. Of course, space is tight and they'll be initially looking for people with a longer-standing history with Palestinian organisations (which I don't have). There also seems to be a good proportion of public notaries on board; two members of the German parliament, one former member, one member of the Irish parliament, one member of the Knesset, and a member of the Swedish parliament.

I will of course, as you suggest, take extra care and from experience I know I don't panic under dangerous situations (it's one of those things that you can't tell unless you've been there).

I rather suspect in coming months that potential conflicts between the flotillas and Israel will be significantly muted.

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

(c) Islam is fundamentally intolerant.

In the US, that seems to be a mainstream view - one which no amount of reason seems inclined to break down. This despite the fact that many of us have Muslim neighbors who are great people. I had a relative spouting this garbage, and appealing to the authority of a book he'd read. A book which I later determined was written by a bosnian serb who had possibly been a 'playa' in the Milosevic regime (my B-i-L thought he was a Russian). No wonder people can't figure things out, if they don't even check out the authors they read for prejudice. It got really bad when he was spouting off about the Qaran and all of its violence - I called him on the fact that the christian bible is full of calls to warfare... he denied. I cited several examples, and with a straight face he said "but that's the old testament..." and dismissed. And didn't even see the inconsistency of what he was claiming (taking verses out of context, or without knowing the significance for a believer....) Ugh!

The only thing that really causes intolerance in religion is fundamentalism, not matter what the credo.

Pretty much true, I think. It is one thing to think you have the 'truth' - it is quite another to believe you should share it with others by force and compulsion.

Echoing those above, though: Do be careful on the flotilla adventure.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

one which no amount of reason seems inclined to break down

As the saying goes, "you can't reason a person out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into".

What I found seriously odd about the above poster however was the claim that they had done many years of research into the relative positions of Islam and Christianity and yet completely failed to recognise the comparison between the advocacy and justification of wars in City of God and the Islamic equivalents, dar al-Islam and dar al-harb and further to take a well-known quotation ("Kill disbelievers where ever you find them") out of a well-known context.

A reasoning person, when confronted with facts contrary to their opinion would say "Oh, OK, I was wrong, I've learned something new". I cannot fathom what a person subject to extreme confirmation bias does... Hit themselves on the head until they have selective memory loss? Start suffering internal cognitive dissonance until they go postal?

It would be a fascinating opportunity to study the workings of a rigid mind...

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

Yep. Sounds like you had much the same discussion I did. "Study" isn't study if you only use the stuff that 'proves' your point.

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Just don't get yourself killed.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Despite recent events it's extremely unlikely. A good number of ships have arrived without incident in the past and I suspect that a great number will do in the future. I IDF targetted one particular ship (MV Mavi Marmara) because it was operated by the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Do you want dialogue with EFA on the anti-filter campaign? Happy to help.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes please, that would be great. I'll add you to the list of people that are currently in the correspondence loop...