Loneliness and world affairs

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I have just listened a service from CNN about post-traumatic stress in US soldiers having served in Iraq and in Iraqi civilians as a consequence of these four years of war. The ratio seems to be 1 to seven among soldiers and 70 per cent of Iraqi children (70 % ! !). Now my problem is this. I feel somehow obliged not to introduce a political discussion on the Iraqi war for various reasons. I understand that this forums are for all people suffering from some form of autism independently from their political views which often come from family allegiances. Moreover, although I know well enough the US, having lived one year in Michigan during a presidential campaign, I am not an American citizen, and, even if WP is an international “virtual” community, I would prefer not to meddle in politics here. And I will not. But there are questions which touch my problems as an autistic. I have studied all my life the problem of social values in a modern community, and I have reached the conclusion that there is little to hope for the future of the human kind given the disproportion between technical means of destruction (and in these I include the capacity to create human machines, chains of command like the military, or even those related to the production of weaponry of all sorts) and the capacity of dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts. Given that WW1 has been an horrible carnage, and after that we have had the Spanish Civil War, WW2, Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam and numberless mass slaughters in Africa and, recently in East Europe, the only attitude I can manage is that of being blasé, letting the news take only a little part of my attention. But sometimes this defensive wall is perforated, as in hearing that 70 per cent of Iraqi children may have to suffer all their life of what they have witnessed, I would like to express my rage and frustration which should be even stronger among normal people (NT), by definition more sensitive to mass madness in the world. I have no one to talk about this now, not even by phone, so I will put my feelings here.

It's very sad to read about Iraq. We have a friend of the family who's serving in the military, and it is hell. I cannot for a moment begin to imagine what an Iraqi family is going through. They kill each other with such ferocity, I cannot understand any of it. They are all Islamic, but because one is Sunni, and the other is Shiite, they torture and kill one another. I keep asking, where have all these weapons come from?? It seems like every man in Iraq has a shed full of rifles and rocket launchers. We are seeing a very sad situation play out in front of our eyes. Even if we packed up, and left tomorrow, what would happen?? Total civil war?? Invasion by Iran?? Invasion by Turkey?? It will get worse, and that's the most pathetic thing of all ...

Not everyone in Iraq is armed thats just the picture the news paints.

For those who are armed theres a war going on of course people on the sidelines (some of who are american) are going to jump at the opportunity to profit by selling them weapons.

I figured this was going to happen from the start. The country has been riding the edge a hairs breadth from civil war for decades.

You can hate Suddam for the things hes done you can even blame him for turning the two sides against one another in the beginning but you have to admit he at least kept the country from self destructing for a long time.

I can believe 70% of the children will end up with PTSD and guess who thats thanks to? Ill give you a hint.. theyre not even on the same continent as the kids theyre traumatizing.

As for talking about the war here its pretty pointless to do so I dont think there are very many people here who seriously believe violence can create anything but more violence.

Don't give saddam any credit. He didn't stop civil war, but merely suppressed those against him. In a sense, it WAS a one sided civil war that always continued.

I wish we never started that war, but abruptly backing out wouldn't be smart. I wish we never supported Israel, but the arab insistence that we back out makes pulling out ridiculous. It make sound stupid and childish, but sometimes you have to deal with stupid children on their level.

Steve

... you said it, dude

What got me were the blatant lies we were all being fed. I don't care much for liars.
(I believe that's an AS trait )


It's a sad business, from start to 'finish' (wherever we are now)

I don't think it's got anything to do with modern technology or organization or anything else. I think it's just the normal human condition and always has been. Ever heard about the thirty years war? Ever hear about a guy named Genghis Khan? The Roman conquest of Gaul? and how many others have done the same thing involving smaller numbers that nobody even remembers? Take a look at the Hebrew conquest of Canaan recorded as a great series of victories in the Bible, and consider what it was like for the people on the other side.

What about before that, before recorded history? What horrors are utterly forgotten? Nobody knows what happened to the neanderthals, but when two groups of people come in contact and one of those groups disappears, what's the most common explanation? That process took many centuries. Does anyone think of neanderthal pain, neanderthal tears? How many tribes and nations have been utterly wiped out and utterly forgotten, and what was life like for those people in their final years and months and days?

You don't need human malice to break hearts, there was the plagues in europe and the famines in asia, and that recent tsunami. Smallpox killed of something like a third of the blackfoot, and the 1918 flu killed tens of millions of people. Then there were all those other events that only devastated lives by the hundreds or dozens, but for each individual, the pain was just as great.

They got fancy words now, and lots of abbreviations, PTSD or whatever the hell they're calling it now, but it ain't nothing new, just plain old pain and suffering.

And it doesn't require a war or a flood or an epidemic. How many people will kill themselves today? What pain and despair drove them there? How many kids are getting bullied in school right now, their childhood turned to an endless nightmare that will maybe haunt them all their lives? How many kids are suffering the loss of a parent in their lives just to gratify the ego of some heartless feminist?

George Bush ain't no hero, but he didn't invent suffering, and in this game, he's less than a two bit small time punk.

I don't like it either, paolo, but I don't understand what you're saying. If you got that much compassion, I hope you've got a big truck to carry it around in. I didn't design this world and neither did you. We were just born here.

Just because its nothing new doesnt make it acceptable.

The fact that others have caused the same atrocities in equal or greater scope before doesnt excuse your actions.

As everyone knows ...people with AS have neither compassion or imagination.<-----They are also devoid of the ability to use sarcasim.So I obviously dont have AS because I can imagine myself being in an environment where I am constantly afraid of having my arm blown off or watching a family or friend bleed to death in front of me.I can imagine not being able to think about my future because my country is being turned upside down and I have no apparent control of the decisions being made "for me".I can imagine my father not being able to find work to feed our family,unless he joins the police force or army and risks being blown up daily.I can imagine living in a village that has always been poor but resources after war ,were with out clean water or enough food or medicine.I can imagine feeling like a "pawn" in someones game.

This isnt about politics.This is about human nature.I use to think it was because of the corruption of American politics....HA,then I read more history.The one consistency in all times and countries is the human ability to be greedy and self interested at the cost of compassion for the "other".There are countless individual examples of humans helping and sacrificing for strangers or members of their clan.
But when it comes to "systems",there is an ability to stop feeling for an "idea".Perhaps it goes back to the concept of the "survival of those most able to demonize the enemy and suspend compassion or empathy".I will shut up now,as I appear to be babbling.

Guess,what I was getting at,is that I have to divert myself from thinking about human suffering as much as possible.It only makes me want to escape this physical existence and my cats would miss me.

Thats true. Evolution isnt kind. It rewards violence.

But am I the only one who is unable to suspend compassion or empathy or consider the "enemy" subhuman simply because they are now designated as "the enemy"?

In this day and age not joining the bandwagon tends to put you in the "enemy" category though so its a dangerous time to be an aspie?

I agree that human history is not recorded history, starting with the great agrarian empires in Asia and the Middle East. Tribal and nomadic life existed 100-150.000 years before and continued to exist after the formation of the great empires. Some tribal life and nomadic life was discovered in New Guinea only in the years ’930 and ’940. Some still survive in Amazonia. How was life before the agrarian states? There was certainly inter-tribal violence and duration of life was less than half now (in the West and Asia). I am not talking about culture and literacy, because these are everywhere an elitarian privilege.
Between Hitler and Genghis Kahn, (and Stalin and other modern autocrats) there are abysmal differences. Genghis Kahn was responsible for massacres (particularly in Iraq, but also elsewhere). From his conquest of power to his death there are nearly 40 years of his government and military leadership of the mongols. A very successful and sophisticated rule, characterized, among other things, by religious tolerance. Hitler ruled for 10 years with a demented political project (racial purity) mass extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped people. In a few years after he unleashed the war, he accumulated mistakes that brought him down. But Hitler disposed of the obedient machinery of the German army, of the fire power of modern technique and of the control of the propaganda. He brought horrible destruction on other people and on his own people.
The post WW2 is characterized by the construction of the A bomb and the H bomb and of a system of vectors that could already erase any form of life in the planet (wrong and right) in a matter of hours (dr. Strangelove). Proliferation is unstoppable. The mere existence of this possibility is basically corrupting the social fabric. We are the species that can commit suicide.

Well said. But its not just that we CAN the true problem is that we inevitably WILL.

Whats the point of being nice and upholding the moral and social fabric of society when its all teetering on the edge of oblivion anyways?

Yes I agree that the social fabric is already corrupted I think without a possible remedy. And I think that the salvation of the world cannot be laid on our shoulders. It would an absurd anomaly if a cat (or a group of cats) were made responsible for the safety of catkind (perhaps a neologism). In the same way I think that no human should have the egotistic fantasy of having to save mankind. Lenin, Mao, Hitler, Robespierre and many others entertained this fantasy. But, even if we navigate on the Titanic, wouldn’t be nice to seek some little piece of kindness here and there on board? And revolt against blatant unjustices committed in some part of the ship? Should Billy Budd be hanged?
I am against hanging Billy Budd. But perhaps I should only worry about my coffee tomorrow morning.
These are only casual, freewheeling reflections.
The obituary of Milton Friedman the father od the "Chigago boys" who counseled Latin American governments for at least a decade. Milton Friedam was another harborer of disasters. As a matter of fact, contemporary history is dominated by doctrinaire professors, or failed professors (like Marx) who elaborated theories which did infuence events in a massive way, often this leading to catastrophes (in Eurasia, in Latin America).
Billy Budd is a character of a Melville story, unjustly tried and executed on a ship.

Someone (and others) ”we won’t quit until the ‘job’ is done”. What “job”? A child, a woman, a man who is killed, maimed, blinded. They are huge, sometime marvelous, some time poor and deprived universes which are being erased. Universes of memories, desires, attachments, fears, perceptions. Who has the right to destroy universes, and in name of what value, principle, law: are there laws or principles somewhere kept in a vault which can be spent to destroy universes? That talking of a “job” is what disturbs more than a rape, more than the worst blasphemy. It excites vomit, anger, repulsion. How can people go along in the streets without having before their eyes what is committed in their name? And not any remotest corner of their minds is touched by the scenes of annihilation. Only when they come home after hours of self erosion in an errand or in the office or in the factory, they are given the opportunity to give a glance to what happens. And, lest they are totally inured, they may only shout stop that think (the set, the tube, the screen).

I've felt very lonely, after what happened in London, the first half of December, last year. Those of you who know me know what I'm getting at. I still feel a twinge of loneliness, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.