Underwear gnomes

Paco Malo writes

Ethics is a luxury only the powerful have. More importantly, killing commuters in London or Madrid will not get the evil capitalists off your back.

Gandhi demonstrated that ethics are not a luxury exclusive to the powerful.

I agree that killing random commuters is not an effective way to fight “evil capitalists”. Random killings are by definition not well targeted. But there is no reason to believe that fighting capitalism was the motive for the bombings. Evil capitalists are the boogeymen of communists and their ilk. The bombers have their own agenda, distinct from imposing the universal Worker’s Paradise: they want to impose the universal Caliphate. The entire world under Islamic law. Nothing short of that will do.

Here’s the plan:

Jihadi 1: Serial mass murders is just phase one. Phase one: Serial mass murders in the name of Islam.

Kyle: So what’s phase two?

[Silence]

Jihadi 1: Hey, what’s phase two?!

Jihadi 2: Phase one: Serial mass murders in the name of Islam.

Jihadi 1: Ya, ya, ya. But what about phase two?

[Silence]

Jihadi 2: Well, phase three is the Universal Caliphate. Get it?

Stan: I don’t get it.

Jihadi 2: (Goes over to a chart on the wall)
You see, Phase one: Serial mass murders in the name of Islam, phase two-

[Silence]

Jihadi 2: Phase three: Universal Caliphate.

Cartman: Oh I get it.

Stan: No you don’t.

Kyle: Do you guys know anything about world conquest?

Jihadi 2: You bet we do.

Jihadi 1: Us jihadi are geniuses at world conquest.

Posted on July 30th, 2005 by pwyll
Filed under: politics

3 Responses to “Underwear gnomes”

  1. Paco Malo, on July 31st, 2005 at 10:03 am Said:

    Dear Editor,

    In what sense was Ghandhi not powerful?

  2. pwyll, on July 31st, 2005 at 11:43 am Said:

    I took power to mean worldly power: wealth, or command of violence. Gandhi started as a simple lawyer. He was not wealthy, and he commanded nothing. He lived subject to a colonial power. He still managed to change the world, without hijacking airplanes or slaughtering innocents. Gandhi understood that ethics are not a luxury reserved the powerful, but a source of self mastery.

  3. Paco Malo, on July 31st, 2005 at 7:23 pm Said:

    Arguably, Ghandi had one of the great minds of the 20th century.

    With the exeption of a subset of the Japanese Imperial Army’s Kamikaze pilots, the set of desparate, powerless persons we are discussing do not have great minds.

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