09-02-2010, 03:08 PM
Quote:In a striking admission from the Obama Administration's top intelligence officer, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced Wednesday that the United States may target its own citizens abroad for death if it believes they are associated with terrorist groups.
Once upon a time in the distant past there was this very curious and archaic system whereby someone believed to be doing something inimical to the interests of the state (or at least against its stated laws), would be arrested by a policemen, taken to court where something called a trial took place. Advocates for the accuser (the state) and the defence (the accused) presented factual evidence and a Jury of 12 men and women weighed the evidence and came to a judgement whether the accused was guilty or innocent of the accusation -- and if found guilty then a court Judge handed down a punishment. This was especially the case in cases where the defendants life was in jeopardy if found guilty. I say especially because human jurisprudence over the centuries turned up so many cases where a trial was rigged, the evidence false and innocent lives taken needlessly that it was felt that a particularly strong test must be made to ensure the judgement must be correct in the future.
It was, undeniably, a very laborious process - and mistakes continued to happen from time to time. But, at least, it was the best that could be managed under the circumstances, namely the blind leading the blind.
It seems like sheer madness these days, I know. Thankfully such archaic ideas and processes slipped into misuse what seems like centuries ago now. Today we are fortunate to have a state that is never wrong, would certainly never do anything that was unlawful and who, bless them, have only our best interests in the forefront of their mind. So we can rest assured that they will only do right.
Ergo, justice is safe in their hands.
As are our wallets....
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14