Quote:
Originally posted by Donut:
War against an abstract noun! Never easy.
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While this is a nice Donut-esque funny one-liner (or is that two?), it also contains a ton of philosophical wisdom. Derrida teaches us that there are at least three intrinsic metaphysical conceits in the notion "War on Terrorism" (War, Terror, and TerrorISM), and that our whole concept of each of these conceits is wrapped up in a way of thinking that dates back to Father Plato, a way of thinking in terms of absolutes and opposites that constrains our ability to understand the very problem we seek to address. In short, our way of thinking that divides the world into terrorists/non-terrorists, war/peace, death/life, good/bad, etc. prevents us from understanding the causes, motivations, philosphy, and goals of terrorism.
Personally, I take Derrida and deconstructionism with a grain of salt, recognize it as a true but finicky point, set it aside as
reductio ad absurdum, and move on with my beloved metaphysical conceits. (I also find his delimma well-solved by harkening back to dialectics.)
But, it nevertheless is very true that for all these reasons war against an abstract noun is never easy.
