quote:courageous people don't go on suicide missions with no legitimate purpose.
It doesn't matter if you think it had a legitimate purpose, it only matters if those terrorists thought it had a legitimate purpose.
What about the pilots of the Doolittle raids on Tokyo? Most of them died -- what purpose did those raids serve? Were they fearless, or courageous?
Since those terrorists believed their actions had a legitimate purpose, your attempt to define them as not courageous fails. Nice try, though.
quote:The firefighters were there to save lives. The terrorists were there to take them.
Could you answer the question, though?
Are the firefighters courageous or fearless? Why? Is "attitude" that which determins what is courage? If that dead chaplain believed in God, isn't it possible he doesn't fear death, thus he went into the building fearless?
I swear, you and Rob are a headache and a half. You see only black and white ... the world is shades of gray.
[ October 10, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
The terrorists KNEW they were going to die, and DESIRED to. That is fearlessness.
The firemen and others knew they MIGHT die, and did NOT desire to, but acted anyway. That is courageous.
And might I respond that YOU see only shades of grey, while some of the world IS black-and-white.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
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Why is fearless undesireable and courageous desireable? I just saw a blurb for the "A-Team" on cable ... "Fearless" was one of the words used to describe them. Is the "A-Team" in the same category as the terrorists?
posted
You're reduced to calling up poorly written blurbs for a bad TV show?
Why is fearless undesireable and courageous desireable?
Courage is the ability to face down fear. It requires inner strength. Fearlesness is the total LACK of fear, which requires a mind which is either deranged or well-trained.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
quote:Fearlesness is the total LACK of fear, which requires a mind which is either deranged or well-trained.
Or someone who thinks that when they die they'll go to a better place, yes? That is what these terrorists were promised? 70 virgins or some-such?
I'm just trying to figure out why fearless is used to describe terrorists ... why is it hard for people to accept the possibility that they were courageous? And how can people speak with such certainty that they were one way or the other?
posted
Well, the question is whether they wanted to die or not. If they wanted to live, but died for what they believed in, that would be a form of courage. If, however, they had no fear of death, that makes them fearless. Courage is overcoming fear. If you don't have that fear to begin with, you can't overcome it, so there's no courage involved.
But, as I said, it depends upon what the terrorists were thinking at the time. Which we don't know. So, labelling them "fearless" is just a (somewhat educated) assumption.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Radical Muslims depict the terrorists as fearless and courageous.
We call them merciless and cowards.
Therefore I do not understand why they are being called courageous in the first place.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
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