Please read the following letter, if you have a moment. I am hoping it might represent the views of the majority of the academic establishment. If you agree, please add your name and send it discriminately to a colleague, or to several colleagues. Perhaps this letter might be forwarded back to me if and when it acquires 250 names. Jordan ------ To President G.W. Bush and the Members of the U.S. Congress: The events of the past few days have made everyone understand how vulnerable a free and open society is to mass destruction and terror. But this terrible vulnerability is part of the strength of such a society, not a hallmark of its weakness. It takes courage to allow the free movement of people and ideas. That courage is predicated on voluntary acceptance of great risk, and not upon ignorance of its likelihood. The immediate response to such a catastrophe is anger and hatred. But the system of laws that supports the US and its allies has been designed by generations of great people to ensure that anger and hatred are never given the final word. Justice, truth, and respect for individual differences are principles whose power far outweighs the thoughtless desire for revenge. More importantly, revenge breeds revenge. It seems terribly dangerous to provide individuals motivated precisely by the desire to increase pain and suffering the luxury of the war they so much desire. Such a war turns them from rigid, totalitarian cowards to soldiers; from failures who are willing to prey upon the innocent to heroic exemplars of the fight against overwhelming external oppression. The craven acts of terrorism perpetrated in New York and Washington are dignified intolerably by their classification as acts of war. The individuals who perpetrated these appalling events must be regarded and treated as criminals, as international pariahs, who have committed crimes against humanity, and who must be brought publicly and rationally to justice. Our great technological power makes us increasingly vulnerable to the rigid madness of the ideologically committed and resentful. To turn against such madness with indiscriminate revenge seeking is merely to react in the same primitive and deadly manner. To risk the slaughter of innocent people in the hunt for such revenge is to absolutely ensure that constant episodes of international terror will come to be the hallmark of 21st century existence. The entire world stands behind the US, in the hope that the commission of crimes against civilization can be exterminated. Such solidarity was absolutely unthinkable even fifteen years ago. The US therefore has an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate its unshakeable commitment to its own principles, particularly under such conditions of extreme duress, and to provide the world with the hope that democracy and freedom can truly rise above the parochial ideological madness of the past. Such a demonstration would truly lift the American state above all past national institutions, and would continue the tradition of great spirit that allowed for the rehabilitation of Germany and Japan after the Second World War. Perhaps the events of September 11 might therefore be regarded as the last war of the second Christian millennium, instead of the first war of the third. In consequence, we implore you to react with discrimination, to target only those truly responsible, and to avoid the cruel and thoughtless errors characterizing humanity's blind and ethnocentric past. Please punish only the guilty, and not the innocent. Otherwise the cycle of terror that seems an ineradicable part of human existence will never come to an end. Sincerely, 1. Jordan B. Peterson, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, peterson(a)psych.utoronto.ca 2. Daniel C. Dennett, University Professor, Director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University, ddennett(a)tufts.edu 3. Steven Pinker, Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), spinker(a)mediaone.net 4. Hilary Putnam, Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, hputnam(a)fas.harvard.edu 5. Nicholas Humphrey, School Professor, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, n.humphrey(a)lse.ac.uk 6. Joan McCord, Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, mccord(a)astro.temple.edu 7. Endel Tulving, Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Centre, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto M6A 2E1, tulving(a)psych.utoronto.ca 8. Paul R. Lawrence, Donham Professor, Emeritus, Organizational Behavior Unit, Harvard Business School, plawrence(a)hbs.edu 9. Arnold Modell, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Amodell617(a)aol.com 10. Janet Polivy, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, polivy(a)psych.utoronto.ca 11. Charles Helwig, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, helwig(a)psych.utoronto.ca 12. Chris Westbury, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, chrisw(a)ualberta.ca 13. George Mandler, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Ca 92093 14. Jean M. Mandler, Research Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 15. David LeMarquand, Psychologist, North Bay Psychiatric Hospital, North Bay, ON, CA, david.lemarquand(a)nbph.moh.gov.on.ca 16. Corinne Santa, Principal, G. Theberge School, Temiscaming, Quebec, CA, csanta(a)wqsb.qc.ca 17. Jean R. Séguin, Department of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal, Jean.Seguin(a)UMontreal.CA 18. Myriam Mongrain, Professor, York University, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Canada, mongrain(a)YorkU.CA 19. Romin Tafarodi, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, tafarodi(a)psych.utoronto.ca 20. Paul Wong, Professor, Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C., Canada, wong(a)twu.ca 21. R. Mara Brendgen, Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal, CA, Brendgen.Mara(a)uqam.ca 22. Jean Toupin, Department of Education, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, CA, jtoupin(a)courrier.usherb.ca 23. Richard W. Price, M.D., and Mrs. Ellen Price, Neurology Service, Room 4M62, San Francisco General Hospital, 1001 Potrero Ave., San Francisco, CA 94110-3518, price(a)itsa.ucsf.edu 24. Raymond H. Baillargeon, Ph.D., Chercheur, Centre de recherche de l'Hôpital Sainte-Justine 3175, Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Canada, rbaillargeon(a)justine.umontreal.ca 25. David Pincus, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio, dpincus216(a)aol.com 26. Mihnea Moldoveanu, Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, micamo(a)mgmt.utoronto.ca 27. Gerald C. Cupchik, Professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, cupchik(a)utsc.utoronto.ca 28. Bernie Schiff, Professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, schiff(a)psych.utoronto.ca 29. Keith R. Happaney, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, happaney(a)psych.utoronto.ca 30. Paul A. Spiers, Ph.D., Clinical Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 31. Kathleen O'Craven, fMRI Scientist, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre 3560 Bathurst St, Toronto, OntarioM6A 2E1 Canada, ocraven(a)rotman-baycrest.on.ca 32. Douglas F. Watt, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology, Quincy Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, DrWatt(a)msn.com 33. Jean Rife, Department of Music and Theatre Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, jeanrife(a)mit.edu 34. Robert Soussignan, Laboratoire Vulnérabilité, Adaptation et Psychopathologie CNRS UMR 7593, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France, soussign(a)ext.jussieu.fr 35. Alison S. Fleming, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada, afleming(a)credit.erin.utoronto.ca 36. Shitij Kapur, MD,FRCPC,PhD, Canada Research Chair in, Schizophrenia and Therapeutic Neuroscience, Associate Prof. Psychiatry, Univ. Toronto, Research Scientist, PET Centre, Section Head, Schizophrenia Research, skapur(a)amhpet.on.ca 37. Stephen K. Levine, Professor of Social Science and Social and Political Thought, York University, slevine(a)yorku.ca 38. James V. Wertsch, Professor and Co-chair, Program on International and Area Studies, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 39. Irving Zucker, Dept. of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, irvzuck(a)socrates.berkeley.edu 40. Kay E. Holekamp, Professor, Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI, USA, holekamp(a)msu.edu 41. Eilenna Denisoff, Lecturer, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, eilenna_denisoff(a)camh.net 42. Benoist Schaal, Researcher, Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France, schaal(a)cesg.cnrs.fr 43. Gergely Csibra, Research Fellow, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London, United Kingdom, g.csibra(a)bbk.ac.uk