[lit-ideas] Re: Is Huntington right?
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:57:32 -0700
Irene,
Wow are you ever switching around. I don't know what put a burr under your
saddle, but I once worked with an Engineer who was born in China of Russian
parents who fled Russia during the Revolution. He was in China during the
Japanese occupation and hated the Japanese. He jumped all over me for
owning a Toyota. As for me, I have trouble holding grudges. If a nation
quits fighting us and wants to be on our side, I'm willing to let bygones be
bygones. No visiting the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth
generations for me.
As to guns, you used the term "we." You said "we love our guns." Do you
mean you don't have any guns to love? Does this mean you were lying?
Irene!!!!
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andy Amago
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 9:42 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is Huntington right?
Right, the NRA is protecting our right to hunt for food in the supermarket.
Give me a break. We love our guns. We build useless stealth bombers and
submarines and aircraft carriers, so useless that even Donald Rumsfeld wants
to get them out of the budget, and the populace demands they be kept. Let's
not build roads or bridges or healthcare. Let's build guns. On top of
which another contradiction. 1945 was soooo long ago so let's not point to
that, but we can wrap ourselves up in our imagined isolationism of WWI and
WWII. BTW, do you own a gun? If you do, I'll bet you hate it, just have to
force yourself to keep it.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence <mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 4/11/2006 12:33:20 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is Huntington right?
I cant be right about that, actually, because that wasnt part of our
discussion; furthermore it isnt anything I believe. As to loving guns
being a sign of militarism, baloney. Our early pioneers appreciated guns
because they got food with them and they used them for protection against
the Indians. We love our Second Amendment right because it enables us to
defend ourselves. Prior to World War II, despite all our guns we were
basically an isolationist country. We had to be talked into supporting the
allies in WWI and WWII. We were (despite our guns) extremely
unmilitaristic. Only after WWII when it became clear that Europe and the
rest of the world was hopelessly messed up did we decide not to withdraw
once again behind our two-ocean blanket and pull the covers back up over our
heads.
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andy Amago
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 9:22 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is Huntington right?
You're right, actually. We love our guns, big guns, little guns, useful
guns or useless guns. We love 'em all. So obviously do the Japanese. It's
hard to imagine that people who love guns are not militaristic. It might be
why they buddy up to the gaijin Americans. It's unlikely that they would
actually start a war since they having an aging society (so few workers they
might be either importing Chinese workers or exporting work to China) but
America is their Jungian Shadow, their counterpart. We do what they used to
do, only not as savagely. We are their stooges, running around the world
going boom boom with our real tanks. Birds of a feather ...
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence <mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 4/10/2006 11:46:43 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is Huntington right?
You needed to overlook what I wrote to manage this one. I wrote We did
indeed clash with them in 1941-1945, but once their militaristic government
was overturned, they have evinced an enormous number of similarities to the
U.S.
I indicated some of the things I admired about Japan, their poetry, their
Samurai tradition, a sensitive writer like Shohei Ooka, and a courageous
warrior like Sabaru Sakai, but Omar concluded that I must like them because
they are racist and you conclude that I shouldnt forgive them because of
the 1937 Rape of Nanking during their militaristic period. Quite
imaginative of you two.
Lawrence
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