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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Jerry Pournelle: Loyalty and the Dar al-Islam |
| 2009-11-12 |
| Are all Muslims enemies of everyone not part of the House of Submission to Islam? In one sense this is a very silly question: that is, anyone who cares to can find someone who calls himself a Muslim and who is generally agreed to be a Muslim who does not consider everyone not part of the Dar al-Islam to be an enemy to be put to tribute or converted to Islam. Moreover, it's not hard to find honorably discharged Muslim veterans of the US Armed forces, and with a bit more effort one can find heroes among their number. They don't consider the rest of us enemies to be converted by force. The question is mindless and stupid. And yet, then the question becomes, are those people Muslims? Surely another silly question? |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #1 Pournelle has popularized a law, which he calls Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy: In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely. Also stated as: ...in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-11-12 23:43 |