Thank you all for a very interesting discussion! You touched on several topics that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Ordinarily I’m a bit uneasy with the idea of government seeking to impart “moral” guidance to its citizens, but I do see the point that was made — there are many of us who’ve been eager to know what we could do to help, and a little suggestion or two to help people focus and coordinate their effors probably wouldn’t have hurt. Our apparent reulctance to clearly name the enemy we fight seems to be another stumbling point. As Dinesh D’Souza put it, “war on terror” is a bit of an unfortunate misnomer, “terror” being more indicative of the method we’re fighting than the underlying motive/ideology. War against Islamic fanaticism/jihad or “Islamofascism” would be more appropriate. But are we too afraid, in these PC times, to say it out loud? If so, how can we hope to squarely confront and beat our opponents in this fight?And “acceptance” certainly doesn’t seem a goot fit in the case of 9/11. We need a word for that fifth stage that conveys a commitment to recovering, rebuilding, reclaiming our sense of who we are.
I find it impossible, by the way, to recall Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grieving without thinking of the doomed Lenny Bruce-style standup comic movie that Roy Scheider’s character was tasked with rescuing as a back plot in “All That Jazz”. “[This woman], without the benefit of having died herself, has broken the process of death down into five stages…” Ah, good stuff from more innocent times…
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Thank you all for a very interesting discussion! You touched on several topics that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Ordinarily I’m a bit uneasy with the idea of government seeking to impart “moral” guidance to its citizens, but I do see the point that was made — there are many of us who’ve been eager to know what we could do to help, and a little suggestion or two to help people focus and coordinate their effors probably wouldn’t have hurt. Our apparent reulctance to clearly name the enemy we fight seems to be another stumbling point. As Dinesh D’Souza put it, “war on terror” is a bit of an unfortunate misnomer, “terror” being more indicative of the method we’re fighting than the underlying motive/ideology. War against Islamic fanaticism/jihad or “Islamofascism” would be more appropriate. But are we too afraid, in these PC times, to say it out loud? If so, how can we hope to squarely confront and beat our opponents in this fight?And “acceptance” certainly doesn’t seem a goot fit in the case of 9/11. We need a word for that fifth stage that conveys a commitment to recovering, rebuilding, reclaiming our sense of who we are.
I find it impossible, by the way, to recall Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grieving without thinking of the doomed Lenny Bruce-style standup comic movie that Roy Scheider’s character was tasked with rescuing as a back plot in “All That Jazz”. “[This woman], without the benefit of having died herself, has broken the process of death down into five stages…” Ah, good stuff from more innocent times…