Sustained deliberate destruction of knowledge differs morally from sudden violence.
Evidence
The fire lasted three months. What this means practically: the military force that burned the library was still there, managing the fire, for three months. They watched what they had destroyed burn. No account mentions whether any of them changed their minds. The deliberate destruction of knowledge, sustained over three months, is a different kind of act than a moment of violence. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 464
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the book’s theme of destruction-by-bureaucracy echoing the Library of Alexandria ‘thousand cuts’ passage. — connects to: Cultural destruction often results from omission in protocols rather than deliberate orders. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive: The Complete…, 1080; Mass death from atrocity differs morally from ordinary, unavoidable death — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 406; Mechanized knowledge creates monopolies that endanger freedom of thought — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 1123 (+2 more)
- SEED: Angle: the psychology of prolonged, watched destruction versus instantaneous violence as a distinct moral category.
Related
- Cultural destruction often results from omission in protocols rather than deliberate orders. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Mass death from atrocity differs morally from ordinary, unavoidable death
#corroborates(0.55) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 406 - Mechanized knowledge creates monopolies that endanger freedom of thought
#exemplifies(0.40) — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 1123 - Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false
#exemplifies(0.35)