On last night’s live show, we discussed the Iraq War Logs recently released by Wikileaks, how to tell when you might have fascism on your hands, and a little about the morals of sleeping sex.
You can tune into our live show every Tuesday night 8pm QLD time on uStream.
Watch the recorded video below or download the audio.
As the Australian parliament begins a long-overdue debate about our involvement in Afghanistan, expect to hear a lot of hot air about what a nasty piece of work the Taliban are and how we are there to put an end to their nastiness. You’ll hear about their theocracy, their imprisonment of women in burqas and nose-slitting for the disobedient.
Expect to hear statements, such as the one Foreign Minister Stephen Smith recently made, about Afghanistan being “current hotbeds or danger points” for international terrorism.
I have several issues with these arguments.
1. They Cut Both Ways
To begin with – as much as I dislike theocracies and religion in any form, from a diplomatic perspective, we have to realise that if disliking a country’s politics or religion gives us moral grounds to invade that country, then we are acknowledging that that country also has moral grounds to invade OUR country if they dislike OUR politics or religion. The USA didn’t like it very much the last time a handful of Saudis decided they didn’t like American politics. In fact, they used the attack that stemmed from that dislike as an excuse for invading a couple of countries. We have to be extremely careful what precedents we set interceding in international affairs.
2. They Are Hypocritical
The second issue, about being a “hotbed” for terrorism, is troubling for the same reason. It is a record of fact that the CIA has been a supporter of terrorists and dictators for many decades. Terrorists and dictators with names such as Saddam, Noriega, Pinochet, Suharto, Mobutu and “Papa Doc” Duvalier all received either direct or indirect support from the CIA. (Australia also was a direct supporter of at least one of these men – General Suharto.)
Of course it is also a matter of record that the CIA has been and is currently involved in supporting other terrorist organisations such as Israel’s MOSSAD and Pakistan’s ISI. If we argue that supporting terrorists makes a country open to invasion, we have to then acknowledge that it is equally acceptable for other people to invade our countries with the same justification.
So keep an eye out for any such hypocritical justifications during the government debates.
Of course, the typical politician will claim that our country (and our friends such as the USA) are justified in our/their support of terrorism or our politics. It’s one of the accepted truths of domestic politics that our position is right because it is our position. Capitalism is right and communism is wrong because we are capitalists. Christianity is right and Islam is wrong because the majority of our population is Christian.
We are right because it is unthinkable that we could possibly be wrong.
For those of you who missed it live, here’s last night’s show (all two-and-a-half hours of it!). Some of the things we talked about:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_0kFU7IfPM&fs=1&hl=en_US]
An excellent speech from Richard Dawkins. He explains that the Hitler was a Catholic and a Christian, NOT an atheist as the Pope is trying to claim, and then delves into some of the other stupid ideas this Ratzinger Pope has.
If you consider yourself a Catholic, you should think hard about these issues and ask yourself if you want to be associated with a man and a church with this history behind them.
I want one! Only $400,000. Would make a great companion to Rosie, our beloved Roomba.
Towel-folding robot now on general sale – tech – 14 September 2010 – New Scientist.
Fred Nile has been a very naughty boy. I sent him an email to rub it in.
Today I chat with Rob James and Andrew Blanda – two guys who, with their mate Raz Chorev, are trying to do something to raise awareness of male depression.
What are they doing?
They will embark on their first major ride in September 2010, from Sydney to the Glen Helen Resort, NT, (joining Steve Andrews from the Black Dog Ride), in an Australia-wide initiative to educate the community about Male Depression.
Listen in as we chat about depression, something that one-in-five Australians suffers from at some point in their lives.
I did a live show for the first time in ages tonight! Of course the topic of discussion was last weekend’s federal election. Thanks for everyone who tuned in live! Choose between the video or the audio version of the show below.
For future reference, you can catch the live show here on Monday nights about 8pm QLD time.
Ewan Saunders is the Socialist Alliance’s Brisbane candidate in the upcoming federal election. I caught up with him recently to talk about socialism, climate change, indigenous communities, and the Socialist Alliance’s policies on subjects like Iraq, Afghanistan and immigration.
As I mention during the show, if you’re interested in hearing more about “participatory democracy”, then listen to my 2008 interview with Richard Moore.
Galen Strawson is a British philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics (including free will, panpsychism, the mind-body problem, and the self), John Locke, David Hume and Kant.
Like I have argued here many times, Strawson doesn’t believe that Free Will exists. According to his ‘basic argument’:
Sounds good to me.