Some say that we need not be affected by the loss of the 20 million years.
The terms ‘hideous’ and ‘monstrous’, by their use in connection with the killings of September 11, are recalled from metaphor and loose talk to original meanings. Nothing can be thought that will take away from such judgements. It is also true that to be on an airliner and look around and see the passengers and be able to stick to the plan of flying it into a skyscraper is to do hideous wrong, and to persist in the plan if they come to know it is to be monstrous. But it is an idea that some parties to a real inquiry into September 11 and thereafter will take to be relevant, as much as anything else. The living-time lost to this sample of individuals is such as to make all deaths by terrorism, considered in terms of living-time lost, insignificant.
But how could it be mistaken to think of it? They will say they are not flies. Certainly the conclusion is hard to face. Do you say that this is crazy stuff, unreal? It would be good to know what you mean. Suppose someone argues, rightly, that there is good evidence that we could have lengthened their lives by an average of five years – and concludes there is a loss of livingtime of 20 million years. There are four million individuals in the worst-off African tenths. In fact we in the United States, Britain and so on could have changed the bad lives, and still could do something. Mr Tony Blair, in some of his speeches, shows he is concerned. They live an average of about 50 years less than the best-off tenths in wealthy countries. What they get is average lifetimes of about 30 years. The poorest tenths of the populations of the African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zambia want what we want. SUBSCRIBE NOW Articles Omissions & Terrorism Ted Honderich explains why he thinks that we in the West are partly to blame for the terrorist attacks on September 11.
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