in reply to Learning from any source

I've been debating writing a reply to this all day. I guess I'll take the plunge.

I think you're trying to find something good out of this unspeakably horrible act by having a positive regard for the coordination behind it. I think I understand your motivations, and I believe they're good ones. But the fact that this was all in the service of evil and mayhem cheapens it beyond redemption. I can't come away with a positive regard for these individuals -- the degree of thought and planning they put into it makes it more awful for me, not less. I can't imagine someone with enough hatred, enough venom in their soul, to spend months, possibly years, planning a disaster of this magnitude with such precision. I can't reconcile it with my belief that deep in the core of any human is a kernel of good.

But I would suggest you turn it around. If you want to carry away something positive for the future, think about some of the positive things that happened, miniscule though they may be against the backdrop of the disaster. To me the biggest wonder was the fact that the towers failed safely. They collapsed on themselves rather than leaning over and demolishing the rest of Manhattan. Think about that when you build your next system: if it fails, what will come down with it?

Better still, think about the incredible effort that went into raising those towers. As a matter of fact, any major construction -- a skyscraper, a bridge, an airport -- needs planning and coordination on a much vaster scale than what's needed to implement a software project. Think about what lessons you could learn from those.

As I said, I think I understand your motivations. I apologize if I've misunderstood you. But to me, the horror of what those plans brought about taints them irremediably. I can't marvel at them; all I feel is contempt for the planners -- and amazement at what humans are capable of wreaking against their own kind.

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Re(2): Learning from any source
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Sep 14, 2001 at 05:33 UTC
    I actually had this exact discussion with my manager today during our monthly "How are you doing as a person?" meetings. (For all you managers out there, implement that!) And, an interesting point was raised. It may be somewhat OT, but the entire WTC is (strictly-speaking) OT for PM anyways.

    (As a bit of background, he's a born-again Christian and I'm a Wiccan with an amateur philosophy background.)

    "Evil", as a term, has been bandied about waaaay too much in the past 50 years. And, frankly, I do not think it applies to this, or any other, terrorist bombing ever done. The only situation from the past century I can think of that "evil" could possibly apply to would be the pogroms of the USSR under Stalin. No, not even the Holocaust.

    Before I go any further, let me define what I consider to be "evil". It is an adjective, describing an act that has no redeeming goals and no possible redeeming qualities.

    An act can be horrific, despicable, and make us cringe in our seats ... yet not be evil. And, in no way would I ever advocate an act whose execution takes life in any form without a significant redeeming nature, such as food or defense of self/family.

    The Holocaust, and Nazi Germany in general, was a true holocaust. Over 25% of the Jews (and other undesirables) alive on the Earth at the time died in a period of 6 years, most in unspeakable agony. Yet, the goal behind it, while reprehensible, was (given their assumptions) ... conceivable. It was within the paradigm of Nazi Germany to eradicate another "race of humans". (Note that I do not subscribe to the fallacy of human racial differences ... all humans are of one species. That is the only differentiation supportable by science.)

    In addition, Nazi Germany gave us the superhighway, German-engineered cars (especially the VolksWagon), and ultimately the Apollo program. It ignited the need for computing machinery (for which every person who reads this is grateful) and paved the way for the EU (which most people won't find evil).

    Plus, and this is debatable as to whether this is a good thing, without the Holocaust there would have been no Israel. No Jewish homeland. No end to the Diaspora that had lasted well over 1500 years.

    The other ethnic cleansings that have happened (with alarming regularity) in the past 50 years have their roots in the desire for homogeneity and cultural identity. We, as Westerners in Europe and North America, have that very same desire in all of our hearts. I recognize it in myself and I'm both white and black. We just don't let it flare up (at least not since the 60's...)

    What the perpetrators of the WTC wanted was for the US to feel the pain that we have dished out since 1945. I'm going to estimate that 10,000 people died or were significantly injured on Tuesday. 30,000 have died in Chile due to CIA-trained guerillas. Hell, we trained Osama bin Ladin! We trained him to go out and kill Russian soldiers, which he did, quite well. And for what? Because we wanted to one-up the Soviets. No. Other. Reason.

    I understand that sentiment. Go check out the OT:Parking Lot thread for our version of it. I wholeheartedly agree with that thread, in case you're wondering. I would join the military if they would give me a gun and point me in the direction of those who were in any way related, however distantly, to Tuesday's massacre.

    Does that make me evil?

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

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