...and I'm sure I'll remember in a moment or two. Meanwhile..

I'm a big fan of Dan Simmons work, so I'm disappointed that the link didn't work. Maybe it will later, I'll check. Probably more visits to Dan's Website than usual. His web site is already in the bookmarks here, and even that is having trouble.

I heard Dan talk recently, and I know that one of his themes is the evolution of culture and human thought. That is, it is difficult for us to really understand ancient peoples because they thought differently than we do. That's not to say that their values were better or worse that our own, but those values were adapted to the time. How will humans thousands of years from now judge our actions, values, culture? Difficult to know.

I'll need to read the article by Simmons before I go further. I need far more sleep and my taxes to be done before I go into what Sun Tzu might think about current events....

wait a minute!......

I remember now what that post reminded me of:

KURTZ:

I've seen horrors...horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call
me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that...But
you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is
necessary to those who do not know what horror means.
Horror. Horror has a face...And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and
moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.
They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces...Seems
a thousand centuries ago...We went into a camp to innoculate the children.
We left the camp after we had innoculated the children for Polio, and this old
man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went
back there and they had come and hacked off every innoculated arm. There
they were in a pile...A pile of little arms. And I remember...I...I...I cried...
I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I
wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want
to forget. And then I realized...like I was shot...Like I was shot with a
diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead...And I thought:
My God...the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were
stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not
monsters...These were men...trained cadres...these men who fought with
their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with
love...but they had the strength...the strength...to do that. If I had ten
divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You
have to have men who are moral...and at the same time who are able to
utilize their primordal instincts to kill without feeling...without passion...
without judgement...without judgement. Because it's judgement that
defeats us. "

from Apocalypse Now

okay, it's a bit over the top for what was meant in the post, but it was what came to mind whan I read it. Seen too many damn movies.