Here is an email I received in response to one of my essays.
Hello. I’m sixteen years old and I was looking at war photos when I came across your site. The reason I was looking was because I wanted to see how bad war really was (not that I could actually comprehend it just from pictures). Don’t jump down my throat and start accusing me of things. You don’t know me. I don’t know everything about you. You don’t know everything, nor do I. I just want to ask you a few questions. Am I a Nazi? Am I a Nazi for wanting to join the army? for wanting to do something exciting in my life? for wanting to serve the country that works hard everyday to protect people that don’t even care?
You have been deliberately vague, but you seem to be telling me you have an itch to join the army, torture and kill people and you want my blessing. You have offered only bogus excuses, not your true motivations. You know that nobody in Iraq or Afghanistan has any possible means to kill you or your loved ones. The best they can do is blow up soldiers who have invaded their country with bombs they make in their kitchens. So why do you really want to kill people? For the same reason people your age join gangs. It is fun to beat up and kill people, especially when you have rifle than can pop people off over a kilometer away and they are effectively unarmed. You are a bully. Look in the mirror. You can’t fool yourself that is what truly motivates you.
To me 2001-09-11 seems like last week, as does 2001-10-07 when USA invaded Afghanistan, or 2003-03-20 when the USA invaded Iraq on false pretences. I have followed the events day by day. You were only about 7 years old on 2001-09-11. Claiming to know more than I do about these events than I do would be like me claiming to know more about the Korean war than my parents did.
I don’t like to kill… actually I don’t know, I never have. Well at least I never had the urge to kill, if I did I would track you down and kill you for some of the ignorant things you say. I don’t want to kill, I just want to do something exciting, something honorable(at least to the people who matter aka not you). Call me a baby killer and scum bag if you like(whatever helps you sleep at night).
You are the one who told me you wanted to be professional killer when you grow up. I did not accuse you of it out of the blue.
Some of the things you say seem really hypocritical. Oh murder is bad!!! yet you say the person who invented the ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) should be dragged behind one and killed? Yes kill him for inventing something useful. Wow, you’re the saddest kind of person. I don’t even know why I’m writing this… maybe just to tell you how horrible of a person you are.
I would love to see the inventors of the all terrain vehicles dragged to death behind their infernal machines. What a disgusting racket! What destruction of fragile ecosystems! They are the very antithesis of what getting out in nature is really about. Makers include BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) (Bombardier who also make the lake-shattering Evinrude outboards), Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Polaris. BRaaaaP!
~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)
I was just expressing my revulsion at these noisy, environment-destroying machines. I did not mean my remark about ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) to be taken literally. (You claim that I am not worth reading, but you seem to have scoured my website with unusual diligence. What gives?) I get angry when people like you kill for no reason, especially kids. Granted, there are people I would be overjoyed to see literally tortured to death, like Dick Cheney, John Choon Yoo, George W. Bush, but this is because they have caused extreme suffering on a mass scale, not just because it is fun to bully the weak which motivates your average soldier.
All you are is a new age hippy.
Nerd would be a better description. Of course, we Canadians all look like commies to you Americans with our public health care, concern for the environment and friendliness to immigrants and distaste for guns.
Oh poor animals, don’t eat them thats wrong! so animals can eat each other but we can’t? If they were smarter they would eating us now wouldn’t they? You know what you keep eating your veggies. More meat for me. The simple truth of the world is that the majority will always win. The majority of people in the U.S. think eating meat is fine so you know what? they will. Nothing you can say will change that.
That is what is called a straw man argument. Are you lying, did you truly have a problem with reading comprehension or are your delusions about me so strong they make you hallucinate words I did not say? I did not say that eating animals is wrong, just that we should refrain from mistreating them while they are alive. I think we should eat less meat, but that is to conserve water and make more efficient use of farmland. A domestic animal usually experiences a much gentler death than it would in the wild.
The majority of people think serving the country is a bigger accomplishment and deserves more honor than anything you’ve done, or will ever do.
There are many ways to serve you country, but torturing and killing kids on the other side of the world so you can steal their oil is hardly serving your country. I can’t imagine anything more futile and pointless than killing children. If you want an adrenalin-pumping way to serve your country, fight forest fires, join a SWAT team, help out in natural disasters rescuing people in storms and floods.
I’m not going be one of those people that say "oh I don’t hate you I just want to discuss things" because you know what? I do hate you. I hate everything about you, yet I can’t do anything to change that. Just like you can’t do anything to change the world. Go ahead try and I’ll laugh while you fail. Even though I hate your values, I accept that you have a right to believe whatever the hell you want to. Another thing, what’s up with this whole green thing.
The reason you hate me is I interfere with your masturbatory sadistic fantasies. I tweak your conscience. I refuse to believe the soothing lies you tell yourself to justify mayhem. That is why I bug you so much. I don’t interfere with you in any other way.
Yes, the earth is being destroyed, but what is there to do about it? It’s being killed for things everyone needs and uses (probably even you). If you’re so concerned about how were killing the environment, why don’t you come up with something to stop it? I really don’t care because for one, I’m not gonna be alive when the Earth’s a giant ball of shit e(selfish I know) and two even if I tried I could never stop it alone. You’re a fool if you believe your effort or the efforts of a billion people could. Even then there would still be a lot more people doing harm then good. Last thing, about the whole being numb to violence. Is that really a bad thing? I think it would help people cope with how shitty life is. Not that you care about what I think. I don’t really care about what you think either, I just felt like telling you, that basically you suck. Well I’m done with this little rant. Which is basically what your website is. The pissy little cries of a hypocritical hippy who will never change anything in this world.
Circa 1975 I invented a furnace thermostat that automatically turned down the heat when people went out or went to sleep. It cut my gas bill in half. Back then I gave away my near new car and have used foot or bicycle ever since. Part of my website is devoted to explaining the environment to newbies such as yourself. What have you done to serve your country, the environment or your planet? You use helplessness as an excuse for sloth. The environment supports all life. Without a thriving environment, there in no economy. Business people ignore this prime fact of existence.
You sound like someone who has suffered serious child abuse. If you believe you are helpless, that is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Part of your problem is your ego. Nobody saves the world single-handed, not even Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. But everyone can contribute to the solution. Your part is only one six billionth of the job. Yet you wimp and out feel overwhelmed at even that tiny task.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead (1901-12-16 1978-11-15 age:76)
48 years ago, I made a major change in the world that took me by surprise. I lived my first 21 years, totally in the closet. In those days it was illegal to be gay here in Canada. Someone could kill you for being gay and not face prosecution. You would lose your job and your apartment if it were found out you were gay. I decided to change that, even though I knew it was futile, even though nobody was with me, not even the gay people. They were opposed too. I persisted, wrote books, lectured, went on radio and TV, wrote letters, presented petitions, lead demonstrations… A few people joined me. I lead a gay rights group. Within three years we had gay rights legislation. The group I founded took gay rights issues to the supreme court of Canada. Nobody was more surprised than I was at how fast the changes came. Now we even have gay marriage. That was utterly inconceivable back in 1969 when I started. If I can make a change in the world that everyone opposed at first, it is a lie that we are all powerless to make changes. You have no experience yet with adult powers. You are still constrained by the yoke of parental control. It won’t be that way forever. Don’t project how futile life will always be just from how powerless it feels now.
If you truly believed your own words of despair you would have killed yourself, just out of boredom. You don’t really believe your own bullshit. You just wanted to goad me into talking you out of these ideas that plague you. A counsellor would be better at it than I am. If you want people to help you, don’t throw lame, off-the-mark insults. It invites a response in kind which will not help the situation.
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