The holocaust and my perplextion

Learning about a lot of the new information that has come out due to new info from east Germany etc, has reinforced an important point that is not well known. The holocaust was not the idea of a few madmen, it was the accumulation of smaller atrocities that snowballed. It was not a top-down decision by the few but incremental atrocities by the bottom. Why is this the most perplexing part? It is because it demonstrates that we are very adaptable, so much so that we can adapt to do atrocities. Humans have the ability to believe in something so much that it convinces them they are justified in committing atrocities. Worse still is that this means it will in all likelihood happen again. We must remember that we come from (genetically) the most innovated and effective killers. Which brings me the my seemingly odd reflection, I cannot judge the involved people's actions since I cannot say with any measure of confidence how I would have behaved. I must see a reflection of a potential part of myself in the perpetrators lest I underestimate my capacity for atrocity.

Triumph of the intelligent

It really is amazing to think about what we (humans) are capable of, even more so in spite of obstacles. To me it is awe inspiring when I look at the pictures from Huygens and think that there is a man-made probe on Titan's surface! The Mars landers where inspirationally, but a probe on Titan sending back pictures and data, amazing. To me this is made even more amazing when you think about the state of the world (not just currently but at anytime in our history) with the rich and powerful abusing the poor, religious people running around jihading and crusading and man fighting the natural world. The intelligent people have always and continue to rise above it all and do amazing things!

Abstracting Harm

It is an interesting phenomenon that most people will try and help an injured wild animal, but when you try and motivate them to save the very same animals habitat you get very little response. I wonder if it would be more cost effective to spend the rehabilitation money on habitat instead? Clearly this would help in the long run, but it is (to me) harder to sell than helping the immediately affected animals.

This is a overall problem of our society: disconnection from consequences. When you buy gold you usually don't think about the mercury or cyanide leaking into waterways and killing hundreds if not thousands of animals and rendering the land contaminated for thousands of years. Just like when (most) people think of going to war they don't think of maimed or dying soldiers. It's sad to think that people knowingly hide these consequences and even sadder to think that most people would rather not know.

Funny Religion an anal god

It really is amusing to think that most people's god is suppose to be merciful and compassionate but also incredibly anal. Apparently god will damn you to an eternity of Hell if you use a condom once (most religions), eat a cheese burger (Jews) and (before the second Vatican council) have a burger on Friday (Roman Catholic). You have to wonder if someone was in hell because of eating meat on Friday would he be bumped up to heaven after the 2nd Vatican council?
It's almost as ridiculous as the Muslim belief that if your a martyr you will get 70 virgins in heaven! So allah is apparently pimping, either creating virgins or forcing heaven dwellers to slavery. Imagine the poor women martyrs with either 70 female virgins to be catty with or 70 male who have no idea what they are doing ;-)
If ya can't beat 'em, laugh at 'em!

Good, evil and zubar!

Although most people have an intuitive definition of good and evil these have as much meaning as zubar (word I made up). Here I am talking about good as the opposite of evil.
You see, it is always possible to see good/evil in any situation. To me this makes the words effectively meaningless. For instance most people would say saving a life is good. But their being one more life on the planet (specifically one at the top of the food chain) means other things will have to die to let it survive. It will consume resources that others could have had and it may grow up to be a mass murderer. Obviously I'm being dramatic but the point remains, there is no such thing as good/evil.
The only other pretend argument is that god is good and anything like god is closer to good. This falls apart so badly it's fun to mention. If I want to be like god (or good) then I should flood the planet and kill as many people as possible.
It's funny what happens when you try to define intuitive things, god disappears in a puff of logic... again!

Oh, maybe we should listen to Scientists Now

After this terrible disaster (the Tsunami) people start asking scientists questions and for answers. Oddly enough scientists warn about these types of things and almost no one listens until it's after the fact. People first turn to religion, get lied to, and then ask scientists for the truth. I guess it's better later than never. But I wonder if this will mean people will start to have a more active ear to the warnings of global warming and pollution before something like this happens again due to our actions (or inaction).