Re: Syndicate: "true victims" - Michael Benson's logi

[ichael.benson@pristop.si]

Re: Paul Treanor's post:

>He demands "empathy" with the "true victims".

I'm not "demanding" anything, and won't have you put "demands" in my 
mouth. If you are capable of empathy for the suffering of those being 
terrorized, killed, etc., all I can say is it perhaps confirms your 
own humanity.

>So Michael Benson's distinction between "victims"
> and "true victims" is a product of this underlying utilitarian approach.

Yes, fine, call it what you will. Those in trucks headed for the 
killing fields-- possibly today, possibly right now as you engage in 
philosophical hair-splitting -- are real, verifiable, honest-to-god 
victims. Those who are well-fed, warm, at home, indulging themselves 
with notions of victimization while forces kill and pillage in their 
name; well, sorry; they're not victims on anything approaching the 
same level. Even if they are experiencing some understandable psychic 
stress.

"True" remains a word inextricably bound to Truth. Not "notions of" 
truth or "Truth" in quotes. Take it, leave it; it's your business.

 



Michael Benson
michael.benson@pristop.si
<http://www.ljudmila.org/kinetikon/>