The 45-minute set conclusively answered the question of whether any of this could be classified as art, with the laser an equivocal object of attention: was it working like a searchlight, an authoritarian tool, or was it more like the beam of a lighthouse, even the sign of a benign alien intelligence?
If you ever get the feeling that every heretofore ordinary object in your life is now beeping, flashing, counting, or otherwise hinting of intelligence — benign or maybe even malevolent — blame Warren East.
A religious person is a twit who thinks that a supreme being created the universe while a reasoning person concludes that everything evolved from an, as yet unknown, starting point which was unlikely to have been a sentient omnipotent and benign (are you kidding?) intelligence.
The trick is knowing whether that intelligence is benign or malevolent — or perhaps some of both. .
Likewise, is it fair for the United Nations to continue to freeze the assets of people like Seyed Jaber Safdari, the manager of the Natanz plant, or companies like Mesbah Energy, the supplier of the reactor at Arak, because of links to a program that American intelligence believes is benign?
The movement professes to espouse a benign, apolitical strain of Islam, but Western intelligence agencies suspect it of recruiting jihadists.
All they seek now is the legal ability, almost certain to be given to them by a parliament which, with a touching lack of dissent, accepts the benign intentions of the executive and the intelligence agencies.
The group publicizes a benign strain of revivalist Islam but is suspected by Western intelligence agencies to be a recruiting ground for jihadists.
The group publicizes a benign type of revivalist Islam, but is suspected by Western intelligence agencies of being a recruiter for jihadists.
