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Well, Dominic, that’s me nicely categorized. I’m of the Individualist group. Bit of an oxymoron, that. Overall, it seems to me that I am asking questions here while you are laying down the law and telling me the way it is. Underlying everything I’ve written is doubt whereas you seem, to me at...

Perhaps that's just it, that I don't have that instinct. I also don't seem to have any instinct of envy or jealousy, FWIW. I agree with just about everything you wrote and regard it as an excellent description of how it all works. Maybe what you have written ends the conversation and it's just...

To your first comment above, while I mentioned the two together I wasn't linking them in the way I've given you the impression I was. To support your point, in Tokyo I once asked a punk with a bright orange mohican, tartan trousers with zips and a heavily studded leather jacket the way to the...

The first 2 parts are pretty obvious when it comes to unions, for example, (in order to fight against another group with a history of screwing the group from which members are drawn) or when people join a club that facilitates enjoying a particular interest. The 'larger than their isolated...

I've just been reading through the "chav--explain to a confused expatriate please" thread over on Politics. As an ex-pat I was similarly bemused when I first heard the term but after reading through the ‘chav’ thread I am mostly reminded that I remain mystified by people’s desire to want to be...

I'm not inventing this stuff... if you care to read up on Islam you will find that historically and presently Muslims regard themselves as one community regardless of background or nationality - they refer to all Muslims as forming the Ummah, or community. Sure, this is an idealised view of...

I can see that you have an agenda but it's very hard to tell exactly what it is with the way you keep throwing up all these irrelevancies and non-sequiturs. Nobody here is suggesting that the bombers were justified in hitting London. Of course they weren't. But that the bombers thought so is...

Again, you ignore the point of my post... I'm not talking about the Taliban. I'm saying that whatever the Taliban were responsible for, it's not okay to kill thousands of innocent civilians. This is a point you have so far failed to address. Yes, I agree that taking military action against the...

I'm still wondering what you meant by this. Offensive how and to whom? On another topic, you keep taking speculative comments about how the bombers might have felt or thought about what they were doing, and applying them to all Muslims. You also seem to be taking speculation about their...

'meant to be' hmm? actually, this idea of the muslim brotherhood is pretty offensive. What do you mean? Offensive to who? uh, cos the taliban are that little bit nastier than george galloway. The Taliban didn't order or execute the events of 9/11. And anyway, you're just twisting things -...

That Islam was originally thought of as a unifying force that would make tribal and national divisions redundant and within the Islamic world all would be equal before Allah. And that Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait etc. were a result of Western imposition. Indonesia attained statehood after the...

I imagine to the bombers 'who' was going to suffer was secondary to the damage their action would inflict on the capital city of their oppressor and the fear they would cause there. Also, of course, as they gave their own lives for the cause so the lives of any Muslims killed would be worth it -...

You might be right - maybe no one is evil and what we are witnessing is man being stupid. What I am doing about it is saying what I think. By the same coin, none of the Iraqis who have been killed had anything to do with the decision to invade their country. Has that invasion benefitted...

The US and UK don't target civilians? - that's just something we say to make ourselves feel better about killing them. When Bush and Blair decided to invade first Afghanistan then Iraq they knew civilians would be killed and therefore are responsible for their deaths and injuries just as the...

Confucius said: “It’s difficult to underestimate the degree to which 90% of the population is spoon fed and brainwashed.” John Eden replied: "It’s difficult to underestimate how stupid it is to extrapolate anything from what music people buy, or clothes they wear.” Black and white, night and...

Yes, Komaba is in Tokyo and is where I used to live. Well spotted :)

The Scourge of the Swastika by Lord Russell of Liverpool - I read this from cover to cover and looked at every photograph when I was 10 and realised then that violence and cruelty were not for me. The Bible - Made me suspect that everything was just opinion. A History of Western Philosophy by...

Japan/China The roots of this present flare-up between China and Japan may be embedded in the distant past. China started having an influence on Japan over a thousand years ago with Japan playing Europe to China's Ancient Greece. China is the seat of Japanese learning but I think there's still...