As our holiday rolls up, we are at war. We are engaging for a reason and that reason is valid. I may not agree with our approach and spending, but the reason is valid as it always is...
War always has a reason. Both sides supposedly have one as a matter of fact. Diplomacy seems to be effective only amidst the stench of death.
The next day, we start again and usually without reflecting upon previous reasons or conflicts. "This one is different," we say, and we proceed again.
Religion, flags, nationalism, borders, trade, and various commodities, and territories, are blended by the opposing sides. Newer, more horrible tactics, are employed. We are convinced as humans, that if we can just be horrible enough we'll "win."
We learn from all this only how to be more horrible to each other, at least that is how it seems.
The news the other day had videos of American teenagers brawling with each other while the digital cameras of their friends recorded the events for youtube.
That's new and that is not, in a way, not new at all. It only makes sense. We are returning to the Wild West, or at least to the "romantic" portrayals of the lawlessness of those days. Our kids learn to slash each other. Now they are apparently using a form of documented war to entertain themselves.
The news of the those events was a defining moment. What type of leaders will those kids become? A generation raised to witness and glorify violence against each other. A generation that grew up "understanding" gang mentality and clinging to it for "safety." A reflection of us? The logical result of disbelief in our systems, schools, laws, courts, governmental agencies, and America itself? What will their kids learn from them? What is the next logical result of their stoic distrust of each other and all around them?
Go back and remember what it was like when you were in high school.
I took guns to school many times ,we hunted for an hour or so with other high school friends .We shot no one.We all had knives to gut or skin what we shot.We stabbed no one. Some people smoked dope ,no big deal.Some did acid ,that was a big deal.
But if someone pissed you off you went out and beat the hell outta each other and it was done.Three more days out of school to go hunting or fishing.
Todays youth is removed from school for taking a toy gun to school thats the same punishment we got for doing acid. Every punishment is the same.
We have lost touch with what is a crime and what is growing up!!!!!!!!
man's technological capacity for violence has increased, but i do believe the appetite for it has lessened. diplomacy doesn't only work within the stench of death. when was the last time any of the world's major powers fought a head to head war? maybe korea? and really none likely on the horizon.
the developed world has civilized. we just have to wait for the undeveloped world to catch up. maybe help it along a little.
cheer up. personal safety, and standards of living at are an all-time high from an anthropological stand point. a person in a developed nation today, making a household income of 20,000 U.S. annual, has access to more luxuries than a millionaire did at the turn of the century.
Hillary is our next President, no WAY will a Republican win in 2008. Because of this, I rolled all my 401K into a high risk fund, the economy will do well in the next 6 years.
GW sending more troops - wow. The people in Iraq are probably really, REALLY tired of all the fighting, so much so that the Sadam era is looking pretty good if they could have it back. When will "peace" arrive there ? Never, but it will get better when 2008 comes, and GW goes, and the UN takes control of the situation when our new president makes good on her promise to get out of Iraq.
I think gas will never be below $2 a gallon, even if crude drops back to $30 a barrel.
I think people who drink anything but espresso and cappuccino have no idea what real coffee tastes like.
I think the turning point in age for a man is 35 years old. Something happens at that point, when the body start getting older, lines in the skin deepen, aches and pains become more prevalent and appreciation for life gains a foothold in the little things that happen everyday. I think wise old men could share much if the stupid young man would listen.
I think without God, this nation will fall into one where crime is high, sex dominates the youth, illegal drugs flow freely and self-reliance and personal responsibility for ones actions are lost.
I think we have all that right now, everywhere.
I think I'm never going to send money for a disaster or need again. The Katrina disaster is a disaster still, 80 billion dollars, 250,000 familes still financially devasted still and 18 months later. Money NEVER fixes anything. Ever. New Orleans should be leveled and forgotten. Count it as a lost, move on.
I think racism is alive and well, and those fires of color burn the brightest in people of color.
If we are a global world, than truly white people are really a minority too.
If evolution is real, then I am an African American too.
I think Christina Aguilera, who's CD's have been in my player the past 6 weeks, is one of the greatest voices of our time IF she'd quit singing so black. Phenomenal is her voice (most of the time).
I think I could solve much of the traffic problems of today if given the chance. The MINIMUM speed any vehicle can drive is 10 mph less than the maximum. If you're slower than that, you get a $5,000 fine. If you are NOT up to the traffic speed when you come off that ramp, $5,000 fine. If you break for something thats happening on the other side of the highway, $25,000 fine. I've got more too .......
I think churches should pay taxes just like every other business in the world. Yes, churches are business, HUGE business
I don't think Rocky IX or whatever it is should have been made. Let Rocky die Stallone, let him die.
The study backed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows that 21 percent of eighth-graders, 36 percent of 10th-graders and 48 percent of 12th-graders acknowledged that they had at some point tried at least one illicit drug.
I agree on the issue of war and diplomacy, but the underlying human drives remain as they always have been. We fight, wound, and kill for the same reasons we always have. We're just more efficient at it today.
People in general have always been ignorant, stupid, selfish and violent. It's just that with today's media, it's a whole lot easier to share images of these behaviors with anyone just about anywhere. Our animalism has not increased. We're just not as removed from it by distance and culture as we were before the invention of the film strip or CRT.
Also, I hope we stay in Iraq for a long time so we can keep killing our enemies, no matter who they are or why they fight us. We won Vietnam militarily and still ran home because of a lack of political support. I'd like us to finish the job today, just as we did generations before the debacle in Southeast Asia.
Random thoughts...
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