xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>So --- someone tell me --- what turns an 'innocent civilian' into someone
>who it's okay to kill? Conscription? A gun? A uniform? An order? A set of
>protocols? A law? A prayer? And then, once we sort that out, who gets to
>kill them and how?
...perhaps innocent civilians are those who are not armed and threatening
or attacking those who want to fight...?
the context of these terms is not philosophy, of course, it's the language
of war. it would be nice if such a language had no use, but at times like
these, perhaps it behooves us to come to terms
with the potential significance of some of these terms...?
diane...searching
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"Waves of hands, hesitations at street corners, someone dropping a
cigarette in a gutter - all are stories. But which is the true story? That
I do not know. Hence I keep my phrases hung like clothes in a cupboard,
waiting for someone to wear them. Thus waiting, thus speculating, making
this note and then another, I do not cling to life."
Virginia Woolf, The Waves, 1931.
(...life clings to me...)
*************************************************************************************
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
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