OFF: CLONE

[Chris Bates]

Martin wrote:

> Do I detect an oversimplification here?  You are quite right - people do
> the killing, but is it on their own initiative?  Was the First World War,
> for instance, the result of mass psychosis.  On the scale that was being
> discussed, it is politicians, and therefore the state, that does the
> killing and whose hands drip with the blood of the innocent.

Killing is always done by individuals not by states. The state is
simply an abstraction, a way of sharing collective responsibilities.
Look at any genocide and you will see that whilst some form of
authority initiates the killing it is continued and magnified by
individuals. In both Rwanda and former Yugoslavia tribal killings
require no state intervention.

IMO the greatest threat that we face to our way of life in the UK
is the increasing refusal of individuals to take responsibility for
anything. Give our forefathers their due, they were honourable
enough to stand up and take the blame occasionally.


Chris