Magic 8-Ball, Is Deepak Chopra The Dumbest Man Alive?
All signs point to yes! My God, you can’t make stuff this bad up. Chopra’s latest is a dooooooozzzzzzyyyyy! A full-fledged fisking is called for. Let’s jump right in:
…Right now more than half the American public has lost faith in the Iraq war. This opening can be widened. Instead of despairing over the chances for peace in the Middle East, consider aligning your own awareness with peace a bit more each day.
Notice: from the beginning, Deepak makes it clear he could care less about winning in Iraq. For Chopra, peace trumps national security.
You might begin in the following way: If you have been dragged emotionally into the issue of Islam versus America, pause for a moment and ask a really fundamental question:
“Do I want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?”
Well, assuredly, I want to be part of the solution. That’s why I support killing as many jihadists as possible; you see, on 9/11/01, some bad guys flew some planes into some buildings, and unfortunately, that drug me in emotionally, wouldn’t you know it…
In my experience, someone who is part of the problem exhibits the following qualities:
1. They identify with tribalism either in religion or politics or both.
2. They demonize the enemy.
3. They divide the issue into “Us versus Them.”
Quite right…us, promoters of democracy and freedom, them, suicide bombers and savages who behead hostages…
4. They countenance violence, even if they do not perform the violent acts themselves.
5. They accept anger as a positive force when backed by their own self-righteousness but condemn it on the other side.
6. They believe that winning is more important than peace.
Holy sh–! Yes, Deepak, you fool, winning IS more important than peace, when your cause is just! But for Chopra, there are no just wars, as we shall see…
7. They place a higher value on political victory than on compromise, forgiveness, or understanding.
8. They don’t look in the mirror and pay attention to what they see.
Yes, Deepak, yes, by gum, if only I changed myself! Then the jihadists wouldn’t hate America – I’m starting with the man in the mirror…
9. They follow the dictates of fear.
People who are part of the solution exhibit the opposite characteristics.
1. They see tribalism as a primitive holdover from the past and a major force for ignorance.
2. They refuse to demonize their opponents, keeping in mind that to do so is to invite demonizing from the other side.
3. They realize that “Us versus Them” is political propaganda of the worst kind.
4. They work toward ending violence on both sides.
5. They feel anger and outrage at atrocities but do not take the next step, which is to listen to anger as a replacement for reason.
So, impotence in the face of atrocities is preferred over action; thank God Deepak wasn’t in charge during World War II, or that pesky Jewish problem would have been solved – permanently…
6. They realize that no one wins in non-peaceful situations. Both sides are losers in that the cycle of violence has moved forward.
Patently absurd. Ask the Japanese and Germans circa 1945 if anyone wins…
7. They take the hard road toward forgiveness and understanding, realizing that these are human qualities worth any effort.
8. They look inside to see if the seeds of conflict begin with themselves.
9. They consider fear an emotional reaction, not a reliable guide to reality.
……
War-making is a personal issue that gets amplified to a national issue.
Yes, that’s quite true, when the person involved is a homocidal maniac (see Hussein, Saddam; Hitler, Adolf; and Stalin, Joseph).
Countries that manage to stay out of the majority of wars include the Scandinavian bloc, most of South America, many Asian countries, and so on. The U.S. has entered into or caused almost every international conflict since the Spanish Civil War in 1898.
God, but this is insipid drivel…yes, we had to enter into most every conflict because of the impotence of Europe; WWI and WWII speak for themselves, Vietnam was a French colonial war, and the UN couldn’t enforce its own resolutions in Iraq and the Balkans…the reason the other countries don’t get into wars is they ARE WEAK, Deepak, weak like yourself…
I also expect that the bugaboo of Hitler will be thrown at me, along with the bugaboo of terrorism. These issues have been rehashed a thousand times, and all I can say is that crime is manageable on the social level, and should be manageable on the international level, without thinking that the only solution is to kill everyone who looks bad in our eyes. International policing has worked, more or less, in Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Terrorism is too amorphous to pin down in limited geographical areas, hence the influx of terrorists into Iraq from Islamic regions around the world.
The ‘bugaboo’ of Hitler, the ‘bugaboo’ of terror…indeed. Hey, Granny, tell us about the great Bugaboo that killed tens of millions…boy, that was some sort of straw man, wasn’t it? Remember when the WTC collapsed on account of that bugaboo? Wasn’t that something?…Hey, you reckon those folks in the Balkans that were ethnically ‘cleansed’ in that one bugaboo liked international policing?
……
As for peace being lily-livered compared to the tough, realistic solution of war, I realize that after a certain point the police must shoot at criminals. We seem to be the only country where the cops shoot tens and hundreds of times more often than in other societies, and that needs to be addressed. Even so, in certain situations–Bosnia is a prime example–there is sometimes a limited need for using violence to curb worse violence. To say that unconditional surrender and obliteration of civilian populations are necessary in order to “save American lives,” however, is to commit the inhumane act of counting one of our dead as the equal of dozens, or hundreds, of theirs.
And the grand finale: moral relativism at its starkest, with no mention of the initiator of the bloodshed, equal blame for all…the ultimate guilt trip for Americans.
Chopra has vaulted into a perhaps insurmountable lead as the Jackass of the Year. Hey, Deepak, in all sincerity: get bent…
UPDATE 08/30/05 06:39 a.m.: Thanks to Betsy Newmark for the link…and thanks also to the great and powerful Dr. Shackleford, as well…
Well done, Mark. That must have felt good.
The Chorpa Outlook fits perfectly into what I’ve summarized as the predominant, essential “philosophy” of the international left; I call it “The Unfortunate Pantheism.”
The Unfortunate Pantheism is a polyglot hodgepodge of contradictions that includes French Existentialism, postmodernism, postgraduate relativism, drug addled hippie-era Anarcho-Marxism, animals-are-people-too environmentalism, inhumane Humanism and this or that book of odd theories by Noam Chomsky, a.k.a. the left’s lone “big gun.”
To DC’s point 4, “They work toward ending violence on both sides,” I can only say this: I’m sure he’s been on innumerable speaking tours throughout the Muslim and Arab worlds and that both al-Jazeera and al-Arabia give him several hours a day to, with his overabundant sagacity, broaden the mind’s of the population there.
Not.
It’s the ‘neutrality’ of the piece that is just infuriating…no difference at all between terrorists and Americans, morally speaking, to Deepak…but I concur with everything you just said…
Great slam. Yow. Good on you.
What a waste of intelligence is that Deepak. That pseudoguru, that Ghandi lite, that purveyor of tepid New Age candles, that recycler of Rod McKuen poems, that Beatle-esque huckster of life immortal (if you only belieeeeeve).
I would actually have some respect for the man if he gave the same speech to an al Qaeda camp. I’m sure we’d be able to identify the head when it comes rolling out.
Kevin, quite right…Greg agrees with you in the comment above…
Too bad Deepak wasn’t on one of the four planes high-
jacked on 9/11! I’m sure he could have shown the terrorists the error of their ways, and the plane would have landed safely! I don’t know what’s in the Kool-Aid Deepak serves, but I’m not going to find out!
TomT, see, you’re part of the problem…if you just adjusted your attitude, the ills of the world would disappear and we would float on the clouds in Toyland…
can “chopra” be added to the acceptable curse words used at decision oh8?
louielouie, I actually suggest ‘Deepak’ as a synonym for ‘screwed up’ – usage example: Wow, you really Deepaked that relationship…
Yet another good question.
Today does seem to be the day for them, eh? Mark at Decision ’08 has a great one, too: Magic 8-Ball, is Deepak Chopra the dumbest man alive? Uh, I don’t need a Magic 8-Ball to give you the answer
Excellent smackdown, Mark.
It took some doing, but I finally found a link to Chopra’s 10-point Iraq peace proposal in the build-up to the present war. Here’s the link:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/stayfree/2003-April/000053.html
Read this, if you dare, and then try and tell me that Deepak Chopra is the dumbest man alive. The truth is, he may well be the dumbest organism alive. Seriously. I think I’ve scrubbed fuzz out from under my refrigerator that had more sensible notions.
utron, that’s hilarious…
Another “intellectual” who spends his life living high up in the “ivory tower” with no concept of the real world.
The Socialist Labor Party offered everlasting peace to the Juden Folk. All they had to do was die!(and I am not saying “the”).I sometimes think grad school does more harm than good. Some of the shallowest people in the world are the “deep thinkers”.
Frankly, that’s an insult to refrigerator fuzz. Mine never tries to make peace with me.
OTOH, it has authored a self-help book and seems unusually contemplative, so, perhaps you are correct.
You forgot the little hiccups and “oo!”s to go along with that quote, Mark. I mean, you can’t get the full blast of withering sarcasm without them.
Excellent fisk! I’ve thought Deepak-paddywak-givadogabone was an insult to sub-amoebic lifeforms everywhere for quite a while, but I’ve never seen such a lovely, reality-based (sorry ’bout that) TKO of his idiocy before (my apologies to idiots everywhere). Keep up the excellent work!
Many thanks, sir…here’s, for those who are interested, the original (apparently) of Deepak’s pre-invasion 10 suggestions…
Mark, thanks for digging up the original of Chopra’s peace proposal. The sad thing is that the original and the parody really aren’t inconsistent with one another. I mean, if providing free Nickelodeon is part of a serious peace package, then wouldn’t it be just as helpful to increase the Iraqi population’s smoothie intake?
utron, I think the parody made more sense, frankly…
I wonder if Deepak has foresaken the tribalism/ religion in his own culture that classifies people as untouchable and therefore non existant. Has he done anything to relieve the grinding poverty in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries in the sub continent?
Where does he get off being so high and mighty? People like him make me ill.
Chuck
India’s gotten quite a raw deal at the hands of Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Look at the Mumbai bombing way back in 1993. Does the Reverend Chopra really expect his mercy would be reciprocated by these butchers? Crikey.
Good stuff.
Can’t wait for the next time PBS features “Deep”ak in their beg-a-thons.
Mark, how’s this; we offer our cargo planes to all the bash-America types who are sympathetic to the Islamo-fascists. They can bring all the dune buggys, tie-dyed shirts, guitars, LSD, pot and peyote that they want. For us, it’s a win-win situation; if they succeed in drugging the terrorists, they will be too stoned to actuate their detonaters. If the Islamoes slaughter the anti-Americans, then we are rid of a group that wants to divide our country in war time!
You know, it’s so crazy, it just might work…
Thank you so very f***ing much for handing Shallowpak his rhetorical arse. His argument (with the exception of a cursory nod to “Necessary minimum force”) gets right to, and you effectively refute, the main point of the modern anti-war movement, and that’s the lie that all we have to do to end war and violence is stop being violent ourselves and just be nice to people. I’ve seen two bumperstickers here in Eugene (aka Berkeley on the Willamette) that drive me up a tree:
Peace Please
Don’t ya think if all it took was asking nicely, we’d have done it by now?
Love your enemies and you won’t have any
Bullsh*t. The world is, always has been, and always WILL be, full of selfish, violent, evil people, and the only way for any of us to have peace from them is for some of us to be weilling to meet their violence with equal or greater. Mill had it right.
Anyone notice the chutzpah of decrying “us vs them” while saying there are 2 sides- people who are part of the problem or people who are the solution, & then declaring your opponent (“enemy”) to be part of the problem>?
Yeah, internal consistency is not Deepak’s strong suit; much more on that later…
Mark, Deepak Chopra said “Actually, I am fairly resigned
to wars ending however they end” Who is this guy, how
did he get here, and are my tax dollars going to PBS to
fund a show of a defeatist, in war time, who doesn’t care
who wins? What’s his exit strategy; go to India, Guyana?
I just stubbled across this board, it appears you are all just angry sheep. Go back to sleep your government is in control
What board – did you find a two-by-four? Oh, you mean my BLOG! Yeah, I thought about calling in ‘Angry Sheep’, but Decision ’08 seemed more appropriate at the time…
By the way, you dropped this tinfoil hat…