Moral Stupidity by Orson Scott Card (OSC)

Ornery.org ^ | June 16, 2003 | Orson Scott Card

[Bogey78O]

Your idea is completely stupid.

You've just justified every act of terrorism everywhere including the assassination of Dr. Slepian by Kopp. After all, had Kopp been able to stop Slepian without killing him I'm sure he would have.

You're too stupid though to get the consequence of what you're suggesting.

Stop being so ignorantly protective of your ideology.

[Bogey78O]

Why haven't Palestinians attacked Egypt, Lebanon, or Syria?

Your reasoning demands they do such but yet they love those regimes.

[Bogey78O]

Yea, like Hitler and Mother Teresa. Both the same essentially with only minor judgemental differences.

[Moonman62]

Because it isn't relevant to Card's argument.

It is relevant to your "argument." If Arafat and the other Arabs weren't purposely keeping the palestinian people in poverty, they would be much closer to parity with the Israelis.

[technochick99]

I'm a fan of Orson Scott Card. I never realized that he wrote non-sf as well. Thanks for bringing his writings here.

[Moonman62]

In a situation where both sides in an armed conflict have essentially the same weaponry, we can expect them to both conduct the war according to some kind of rules. When one side faces certain defeat if they follow the rules it is stupid to expect them to follow the rules.

Actually, what happens is the weaker side surrenders. Only when the rest of the Arab world wants to kill all the Jews, and funds such, does the weaker side strap bombs to their children, and sends them off to kill the women and children of the other side.

[mathluv]

Have you read John Ringo?

[Britton J Wingfield]

Nope. That's a book title?

[Bogey78O]

I'm sure you've heard the claptrap clamoring for a re6turn to the 1967 borders. Do you care to know who owned the Gaza and the Westbank prior to 1967?

Because if the Palestinians owned it then they'd have had a state, no?

Look up the original partition. The lands the palestinians want were seized by arab nations and the palestinians oppressed under their laws where they were virtual slave laborers unable to own land and considered second class citizens legally.

[mathluv]

No, John is an author. His first book was 'a Hymn Before Battle". He was on fox and Friends a year or so ago. There are 3 books inn his first series, and 3 in a series co-authored with David Weber.

[Humbug]

Card is great, have been a big fan of his ever since i read Seventh Son (at least i think that was the first book of his i read, it was either that or Wyrms). That was about, oh, i guess around 15 years ago now. Since then have read just about everything he's written and enjoy most of it, especially The Homecoming Series, the Alvin Maker series, and the first 3 books of the Ender series (for some reason my favorites tend to be the 2nd book in each of those series).

Anyway a few years back when i first got hooked up to the net i did a search and found out that he had a website, whereupon i was pleasantly surprised to read his articles and discover that we agree on many issues. Pleasantly surprised in the sense that it seems most famous people that i like don't quite see things the way i do (ie, they're usually very liberal and very PC). He isn't a Republican though. From what i've gleaned he's socially conservative but leans to the left in other areas... regardless he is definitely a man that i respect and will listen carefully to what he has to say, even when i disagree.

Also another thing i've discovered is that we share a lot of the same views about TV and movies too. For instance he loves Fox News and hates CNN, plus he rips into some of the liberal propaganda found in many movies...his reviews of Amistad, Pleasantville and American Beauty come especially to mind.

As to the Ornery site (which is his political site, his main site is at http://www.hatrack.com ), i used to post there back when it first started up (i think he launched it back around '99 due to the fact he vehemently disliked Clinton/Gore and wanted to do whatever he could to see Gore defeated) but unfortunately it seems a lot of his fans, or at least the ones that frequent his message boards, are rabidly anti-Republican and so once i found FR my interest waned and eventually i stopped going there.

Btw for anyone who isn't familiar with Card but think you might be interested in reading his work, you can go to his main site and click the OSC Library link to check out samples of his works. There you can read the first chapter or two of his books and plus some of his short stories in their entirety. Also there you'll find archives of his yearly Uncle Orson Reviews, where he gives his opinions on the music, movies, books, tv and so forth that he was exposed to over the course of that particular year.

In fact, just did a quick search and found the Amistad review here: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/reviews98/movies_worst.shtml

[Moonman62]

No they wouldn't. No amount of money would result in a Palestine that was militarily equal to Israel.

If Arafat and the arab world wasn't keeping the palestinians in poverty they wouldn't need to invest in a large military and neither would Israel. They'd be living in peace and prosperity next to each other. The option has been available to the palestinians for over fifty years.

[Moonman62]

In a situation where both sides in an armed conflict have essentially the same weaponry, we can expect them to both conduct the war according to some kind of rules. When one side faces certain defeat if they follow the rules it is stupid to expect them to follow the rules.

Look at Germany and Japan at the end of WWII. They surrendered and they've been more prosperous and peaceful since then than any other time in their histories.

[redheadtoo]

If you are new to Card then my humble suggestion is to start with "Ender's Game". It is fantastic.

I agree, Ender's Game is a classic. Card also writes Fantasy. The Alvin Maker series is a must read. Start with the first book, Seventh Son.

I had no idea that he wrote op-ed columns. I know that he is a Mormon from Utah. They tend to be morally conservative people.

[Humbug]

"Speculative fiction is where the real writing talent appears in these times, despite the sneering dismissals of "genre fiction" common in literary circles."

I agree with that. Lately have been getting into books by Gene Wolfe, who i think is one of the best writers going today regardless of genre. Right now i'm wrapping up his Short Sun series, which strikes me as an incredibly deep and intense portrayal of religion - particularly in the way it seems an analogy of how religion evolved from the pagan gods to the one true God. His books aren't easy to understand, but they're worth the effort...which is something i can't say for many of those books pumped out by the sneering elite.

[Mr170IQ]

Actually, Baen books has Ringo's "A hymn before battle" in its online free library.

Available here - http://www.baen.com/library/0671318411/0671318411.htm