The Ugly Face of Moral Relativism: who is Madeline to judge?

Check out what Madeline Albright said in the LA Times today.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-albright24mar24,0,5251258.story?coll=la-home-commentary

Moral relativism once again shows it’s ugly face. And damn, Albright is fugly!

Leveraging the obscurity of what the word “is” is may have worked in the 90s, but not today, half way through a decade scarred by terrorist appeasement no more. There are no half-truths or rational opposing viewpoints when it comes to what is good and what is bad in the world today. Killing indiscriminately and doing so saying, “Allah wants it that way, just ask me” is evil. These morons cannot even accept responsibility, but blame their god.

Forget it, Madeline Notbright. You cannot compare the Western ideal to fundamental Islam. That is like saying the Union’s ideals in the Civil War versus the Confederacy’s manipulation of “states rights” argument in order to continue to enslave people is morally equivalent. It’s like saying the Civil Rights movement in the sixties is morally equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan’s outlook on how American Society should run.

Terrorists attacked us. We warned the world we could no longer allow the support of fundamentalist terrorist organizations. The globe has shrunk and terrorists easily traverse it when mayhem and murder is the goal. We went into Afghanistan to clear out a regime that supported terrorism. We went into Iraq to do the same. Iran now looms as a problem. In each case, a totalitarian, oppressive government that kills for thoughts and imprisons/tortures for disagreement threatens our safety by supporting terrorist organizations and creating/threatening us with weapons that could kill thousands to millions.

Yet we should not judge, right Madeline? Bull crud. We must judge, for our judgments save lives, free the enslaved, bring fairness and justice and freedom to oppressed people in America and across the globe.

Yeah let’s put the liberals back in power. Watch us capitulate and die.

Marketing a Mountain

“Sherpas are mystified that Westerners spend so much time and money to see what to them are sometimes sacred but not very interesting mountains.”
-Jim Fisher on page 90 of Everest, Mountain Without Mercy

“The wolves pounced on him in a flashing tempest of teeth and claws. And as they tore through his parka and closer to his flesh, Josh had to laugh. For as bleak as this looked, it was still like puppy time at the petting zoo compared to the first time he was attacked by the pure and natural peppermint in Everest – the mint gum without mercy.™”
-Author Unknown, from “Merciless Tale #103” on the inside wrapper of an Everest Powerful Mint Gum tin.

During our first session in the Mind-Surfing class, Dr. Lankford told us to write down what we knew about Mount Everest. One of my favorite gums is Everest Powerful Mint Gum. They are little chunks of mint gum that pack a real punch. They use Everest to signify how powerfully cool the mint flavor is when you chew one. That is a catchy sales pitch.
When I read about how the commercialization of Mount Everest increased the tourism trade and how the Sherpas did not quite understand the big deal about it (on pages 90 and 91 of the assigned book), I figured they were just accustomed to the humongous mountain. They did not see it as an icon of a huge challenge, great height and bitter cold as many Westerners see it. To them, the gum would be like one of us looking at “Los Altos Chewing Gum.” I am sure they sense a level of majesty related to the highest peak in the world, but they are so familiar with it that the impact is smaller.
The ad executives that put together the Everest Gum concept saw a similar opportunity to capitalize on the iconic mountain to make money as the natives of Nepal. And what a concept! I noticed that on the inside of the package there are small stories of great challenges in the daunting cold. These main characters, like X-Game action figures, go hiking in the forest or climbing a mountain of snow boarding off cliffs and get into some horrible trouble. In each story, they are about to meet some grizzly fate, but hearken back to the first time they chewed an Everest Gum and realize that challenge (the powerfully strong mint flavor) was a much greater test. Pretty funny.
Along with the story is a URL to their website: www.everestgum.com. I checked it out. They sure put a lot of time and talent into it. They have interesting information in the site like the equipment used to climb. They also had a “Sherpa” in there that they treated like a cartoon. It was a picture of a native with the mouth cut out that would move up and down when it talked, like the pictures in a Monty Python ‘s Flying Circus cartoon sketch. I am not the type to get all offended by things like that, but I could plainly see that others would feel it denigrated the Sherpa.
When you think of the tourism, the books, the movies, the mint gums and all the other things that go along with commercialization of Mount Everest, you wonder if all this capitalism is exploiting this majestic icon. I hope the natives around the mountain gain greater comfort and do not lose their identity and traditions. They are not inanimate mountains for catchy product manipulation.

My Mountain Manifesto Entry 1: Companionship and the Mountain

“Breashears, the fax continued, is safe but is joining the rescue effort.”
-Tim Cahill on page 14 of Everest: Mountain Without Mercy

“Climbing with you was easy as a vow”
-W.H. Auden from his poem “The Climbers”

Tim Cahill wrote one of the first stories in the book Everest: Mountain Without Mercy. He explained his feelings when his friend and colleague, David Breashears, was in possible jeopardy while climbing Mount Everest. He did a good job expressing his feelings, making the tension of wondering if his friend was all right analogous to the feeling you get when you see a child run in front of a vehicle.
Cahill and Breashears held a common interest: their wish to scale Everest and make a movie in the IMAX format of the ascent. Cahill said, “No one had ever attempted this before because everyone knew it was impossible.” Cahill went on to describe Breashears as a “tireless worker, entirely professional”. They worked well together and there was a bond in place, a bond forged by mutual admiration and respect for one another and the tallest mountain in the world.
W. H. Auden wrote many great poems about companionship and love. One of these poems, “The Climbers”, uses scaling a mountain as a metaphor for the arduous journey he and a partner had in their relationship.
The first stance of the poem describes Auden’s escape from the mundane people that live around him. To escape, he must climb “the mountains” of his fears. His fear of being different, recognizing he is not like others, is a vast obstacle to conquer. His journey does not allow for valleys (cols) or water or anything that would make the obstacle easier, especially excuses or victim-hood.
The second stance turns the subject away from his own climb and focuses on a friend who is sharing the task. The first line is so powerful! Vows are easy when you take one for what you believe in. Auden could have also been alluding to a wedding-type vow, but a general vow feels more powerful to me, so I am sticking to my first interpretation.
Cahill showed his strong feelings of respect and admiration, and explained the great stress he felt when there was a possibility that Breashears could have been hurt or killed. They forged their relationship with the obstacle of Mount Everest as a common goal. Auden’s mountain represented the same thing: an obstacle. His mountain also honed a relationship he had with another. Although Auden’s mountain was not a physical height to climb, there were dangers, discomforts and tough points to overcome.


The Climbers

Fleeing the short-haired mad executives,
The sad and useless faces round my home,
Upon the mountain of my fear I climb;
Above, the breakneck scorching rock, the caves,

No col, no water; with excuse concocted,
Soon on my lower alp I fall and pant,
Cooling my face there in the faults that flaunt
The life which they have stolen and perfected.

Climbing with you was easy as a vow;
We reached the top not hungry in the least,
But it was eyes we looked at, not the view,
Saw nothing but ourselves, left-handed, lost;
Returned to shore, the rich interior still
Unknown. Love gave the power, but took the will.

-W. H. Auden

My Mountain Manifesto

I wrote about Mount Everest when I was reading a cool book titled Everest, Mountain Without Mercy. I have some various journal entries relating Mount Everest to various things, and I want to start posting those entries. This was an idea that Dr. Scott Lankford put out in an English Seminar that he calls Mind Surfing. So be it!

I'm sick of doing anything else, and I want to re-inspire myself. I hope they inspire you some too.

First one is coming up....