20 Nov 2015

A Revealing Misunderstanding

Pacifism 26 Comments

This is actually kind of interesting. I made this wiseguy FB post:

FB Carpenters

What I meant was, it puts you in such a good mood to hear “Merry Christmas Darling” or “Walking in a Winterland,” that it would make the fighters chill out and lay down their arms. The extra joke of course was that they obviously wouldn’t celebrate American Christmas.

But the people in the comments were saying stuff like, “Nickelback” and “Yeah they’d get so depressed they’d kill themselves.”

So people clearly thought I meant that it would be a weapon.

Now, I don’t think it’s because my taste in music is off. (I like Barry Manilow too, but I understand that he is the butt of jokes.) I think the reason this joke missed is that people just assumed that if I had a plan to do something with this group, it involved killing them.

Whereas in my mind, especially with the persona I’ve cultivated with my FB jokes over the years, I thought it was obvious that I would come up with a solution that everybody would endorse. As if I were called in to negotiate a labor dispute, not stop terrorists.

I’m being serious, I think most people vastly underestimate the number of situations where there are decent non-violent outcomes. I’m not in the post going to give my plan to neutralize terrorists, I’m making a general observation.

26 Responses to “A Revealing Misunderstanding”

  1. Tel says:

    I want my, Nickel back.

  2. Darien says:

    Curious thing is that it never occurred to me to think you were weaponising the Captenters. I read your post and thought “hey, that’ll mellow ’em out” followed by “I wonder where my copy is.” Maybe I’m just an old softie.

  3. ax123man says:

    Does the state even pretend to make non-violent attempts to settle disputes?

  4. Transformer says:

    I am pretty that sure everyone got your intended meaning. Its just funnier (at least for those of us with a certain kind of musical taste) to go for the “Merry Christmas Darling” as WMD angle.

  5. JoeEsty says:

    And then you get depressed when you realize Karen Carpenter is dead.

  6. Grane Peer says:

    I’m certain that Christmas music, all Christmas music, was invented to crush the human soul. You probably have an auditory disability if you are immune.

    • Craw says:

      They have already started playing it some places here. Soon nowhere will be safe.

  7. Craw says:

    When I saw this I thought you were being flippant and dismissing the evil ISIS represents because it’s a problem for your opinions. Those who pretended you meant it as a weapon were simply being kind.

  8. Josiah says:

    It was the Captain America outfit that threw people off.

  9. Craw says:

    Your God and your Rothbardian theory gives you your “nonviolent” resolution here. Rothbardian theory allows owners to kill trespassers, or hire private agents to so on their behalf, and that for a Rothbardian, is nonviolent because the trespasser is the real aggressor. God owns everything, he says homosexuals are trespassers, and he hires his followers to kill them, nonviolently.

    • Keshav Srinivasan says:

      Bob is a pacifist (as am I), which means that he doesn’t believe in using violence even in self-defense or to defend property.

      • Transformer says:

        They say that in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

        In a world of pacifists , is the man of violence king ?

        • Keshav Sriivasan says:

          Well, Bob has written a book (Chaos Theory) as to how he would deal with violators of the non-aggression principle in his anarchist utopia. As far as what I believe, I think it is undoubtedly true that responding to violence with non-violence can lead to at least short-term victories for those who use violence. But that’s a price we should be willing to pay in order to do what is right.

        • Keshav Srinivasan says:

          Well, Bob has written a book (Chaos Theory) as to how he would deal with violators of the non-aggression principle in his anarchist utopia. As far as what I believe, I think it is undoubtedly true that responding to violence with non-violence can lead to at least short-term victories for those who use violence. But that’s a price we should be willing to pay in order to do what is right.

      • Craw says:

        Bob isn’t killing anyone in my hypothetical. But his theories offer a “nonviolent” way for gays and the ISIS he makes light of to settle their differences. Isn’t he both a rithbardian and a believer?

        • Craw says:

          Let me clear. Bob Murphys alleged joke I contemptible, minimizing the evil of these killers. Imagine in 1943 joking about sending
          Songs the SS.

          • Tel says:

            I know nutzinc about zis!

          • Bob Murphy says:

            Your grammar is as refined as your sense of humor.

            You think all we need to do is get serious about ISIS to solve the problem? Do you despise Mel Brooks for joking about Hitler?

            • Anonymous says:

              Autocorrect, paired with a host whose site does not provide a review or edit capability. But by all means pretend a typo matters and substance doesn’t.

        • Tel says:

          You are probably thinking of the Riffbardians, who believe that hot guitar licks have a hypnotic effect causing terrorists to turn to non-violence.

          Preliminary tests at the Bataclan Concert Hall have been somewhat disappointing, although there’s probably still scope for grant money, if anyone wants to fill in the necessary forms.

          It’s just that age old question that keeps coming up: arm the victim or sing along with the perpetrator.

        • Keshav Srinivasan says:

          Bob doesn’t believe in using force of any kind, whether in self-defense, protection of property, or anything else

      • Craw says:

        Kesha’s Srinivasan I thought you said you were an observant Hindu. Doesn’t that mean you support others using force to enforce laws?

        • Keshav Srinivasan says:

          Yes, I am an observant Hindu, I should say that I am not an absolute pacifist. I’m a pacifist in terms of what ordinary people are allowed to do in their daily lives. But I do think that it is possible in principle for it be justified for the government to use force in order to enforce justice (which is not to say that all force used by the governments that currently exist in the world is necessarily justified). I should also make clear that I’m not an anarchist or even a libertarian.

          • Craw says:

            Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering. To put it unkindly, you simply prefer to leave the actual dirty work to others. I put it that way because while you admit the necessity of force moral free-riders like Murphy do not. To be consistent he has to say he’s sorry the Holocaust was stopped, and I doubt even he will go that far.

  10. Harold says:

    You have one thing in common with Jeremy Corbyn, our new Labour party leader. Not much else I suspect.

    “American Christmas”? Are you sure it is an American thing?

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