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In the wake of CEO-slayer Luigi Mangione becoming a folk hero, an anti-genocide fighter getting arrested for targeting genocide perpetrators, and less-defensible non-state-sponsored violence reaching epidemic proportions in the USA, it’s a good time to talk about the minuscule fraction of human violence that isn’t perpetrated by governments.
First hour: Philosophy professor and technology critic David Skrbina returns to the Truth Jihad podcast to discuss the hoopla around Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s influence on American young people in general, and CEO-slayer Luigi Mangione in particular. While teaching at the University of Michigan, Skrbina corresponded extensively with the imprisoned Kaczynski and served as his editor. He writes: “This whole issue extends beyond technology to that of any corrupt social system (like health care) and how people might respond.”
Second hour: International relations professor Michael Brenner recently sent out his short essay “In Praise of Anger.” It begins:
Anger is as normal a human emotion as any other – affection, combativeness, protectiveness, sorrow. It gets a bad press these days, though. That is especially true in intellectual circles and among the self-consciously virtuous/goodhearted in general. That’s surprising in one sense. After all, an incapacity to get angry probably would have resulted in homo sapiens being beaten out in the survival contest against the evolving Neanderthals, Denisovans and other hominins we competed against. Anger was crucial to survival – not anger directed necessarily at other tribes. Much less beasts of the fields and forests. Rather, anger at the slacker, anger at the bully, anger at the (game) poacher, anger at the thief, anger at (s)he who sowed discord, anger at the vain warmonger ever looking for a fight, anger at the rogue who broke the rules just to show his superiority.
In the second half of the hour, Rolf Lindgren joins from Madison, Wisconsin to discuss the recent school shooting. Rolf is a Republican Party events organizer who is well-connected among the conservative minority in Madison that sends their kids to Abundant Life Christian School.