Sam Harris- the First Shot in the War

 

I've written about Sam Harris before and generally considered him a clever and wise individual. He has some interesting insights and is probably the most reasonable and open-minded of the new atheists. Yet, his steady and analytic continuum is interrupted in a few places. Certain subjects cause him to flip onto a reciprocal course of madness, and the biggest of these is Donald Trump. He recently appeared on Triggernometry, an excellent YouTube conversation and interview channel. It didn't take long for his Trump Derangement Syndrome to kick in. From about the twenty-five minute mark, Sam praises the decision to ban the president from Twitter; and it would be bad enough if he stopped there, but he doesn't. He calls Trump a "black hole of selfishness" and adds: "We can't afford to have four more years with this guy. What should well-intentioned people... conspire to do?" He says it was justified to suppress the story of Hunter Biden's laptop. He then utters some words I can hardly believe I heard: "I don't care what's on Hunter Biden's laptop. At that point Hunter Biden could literally have had the corpses of children in his basement and I would not have cared... Is it a leftwing conspiracy to deny the presidency to Donald Trump? Absolutely it was, but I think it was warranted." Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDqtFS_Pvcs. The hosts are staunch libertarians and dispute him strongly. Sam Harris has stated publicly what many people are clearly thinking. The democratic political system is not sacred. It is morally and practically legitimate to subvert it under certain circumstances. I don't know if Sam or the hosts realize this, but that is the most accurate definition of war. Wars do not begin when people start shooting each other; that is merely the final stage in a war (one that I sincerely hope to avert, especially in the nuclear age!). The threshold of war is where one or both sides stop attaching their own desired agenda to a higher principle; be it a law, a moral consensus, a decision in a parliament or a court order etc. At this point they simply pursue what they want by any means necessary; and the moment one side makes that decision their opponents have no choice but to follow suit. As Sam spoke I suddenly realized the United States has now crossed that line and probably did so several years ago. We in Britain also did when the Remoaner phenomenon began. In a way, it is a relief. The battle lines are drawn. We know where we stand now and there is no more pretence. I know that I am partisan in this war and so will inevitably have to get involved. I just hope very much that a state of peace and justice can be restored without anybody getting hurt.
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/01/donald-trump-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2019/10/brexit-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-greatest-mba-speech-in-history.html.