posted March 20, 2003 12:24 PM              

Individuals have had to work together as teams to accomplish anything since way before i was born, such is the complexity of the tasks most humans handle today. However, I beleive that given a couple of months good training almost anyone could switch tasks and probably do it just as well, if their heart was in it.

Putting the current regime on a little pedestal and worshipping it is all well and good.....for some people, but it certainly isn't my kettle of fish, not that i like fish at all.

posted March 20, 2003 12:29 PM              

You COULD NOT run the government in a couple months, give me a break

posted March 21, 2003 03:43 PM              

It's like there's this whole sound and light show going on

~*over here*~

to distract us from what's going on

________________________________________________________*over here*.

I'm not saying that the above mentioned show is the war or conflict in general; it encompases so much more.
Nor am I saying that it's a result of purposeful actions by any government, group, or individual - it just is.

It's so frustrating -
and invigorating, as it's a wonderful challenge (but, again, I don't know if that's simply a result on me of Uranus' new position, and - if it is - if it's all in my head or if a new awareness has been brought to the fore).

posted March 21, 2003 06:42 PM              

Fukiyama (plagiarizer of Hegel), "It is the end of history, The battle of the ideologies is over. Liberal Democracy has won over communism(Cold War) & fascism(WWII)"

Nations, being Asian, Western or Eastern European, or North or South American (& even Africa once they stabilize) have all started to liberalize their economies & governments in hopes of interconnecting the world & globalizing, which would hopefully raise the bar for standard of living in all third world countries (still theory & still debatable, but so far the theory is working).

Now Rumsfield, probably the staunchest conservative in the government has expressed this ideal since the 80s to liberalize gov'ts when the opportunity presents itself.

Right now they are seeing an opportunity to have this dream realized & possibility the reverse of the "domino theory" of the Cold War will occur. Instead of one democratic gov't falling causing more to fall, one more liberal democratic government rises & then more follow.

Liberalization includes the advocation of a state governed by the people, a gov't elected by the people, & an economy of free trade without government actors that exploit their country's natural resources for their own gain. Essentially liberalize control over economy which spreads the wealth of a country's natural resources among the people.

What Rumsfield, Bush, & the Western gov'ts are genuinely attempted to do is integrate the world as one liberlized democracy & economy where all countries are interconnected & eventually the sovereignty of the "nation-state" (even the USA) yields the a higher int'l authority following the rules of economic prosperity for example: (Which I'll post later)

Destruction of Islamic fundamentalists, War on terrorism, search for oil, disarmament of Iraq, are all faulty reasons to advocate the one greater ideal, that has quite a vision for the future. But one of positivity & a collective prosperity for the world.

I'm sure there are a million & a half arguments to demonize the US & our gov'ts & their political actors which would make this idea seem futile.

But I just wanted to present this vision of the future so people may at least know of it & consider it.

I mean THERE IS a h*e*ll of a lot the governments of the world do not tell the people of the world what their true goals are, they are REALLY EDUCATED & STUDIED in these matters & it wouldn't be too bad to...
just for a moment...
Consider maybe they do have a plan for the future & these pithy events are simply stepping stones to its realization???

posted March 21, 2003 07:04 PM              

I still beleive they don't have a clue though - if they did, well, either its a truth nobodies' going to like and they're just LOOKING incompetent because they make so many screwups!

Surely if the govornment were that omnipotent and godlike you wouldn't get two sets of traffic lights 5 meters away from each other (I've seen it happen....)?

posted March 21, 2003 08:02 PM              

Second, just because someone is exploiting a country's resources does not mean that the country's resident's are benefitting. for example, take the Sudan. Sudan has been having civil wars for years, and Sudan also has a lot of oil; foreign companies are drilling this oil and presumably paying the government for it, but the common people of Sudan still live in horrible conditions. I'm not saying that these wars or the misery of the Sudanese is the fault of the oil companies. What I am showing is that simply exploiting a countries resources is not enough to garauntee its citizens happiness.

Now, if a country is to exploit its own resources, it should be done by local companies- not foreign. They can sell the product to foreigners, of course, but doing it the home way heps the companies form conscientiouss environmental policy and stimulate the home economies.

posted March 22, 2003 01:00 PM            

Privatization of the water supply that led to prices so high that the common person couldn't afford WATER.
Hundreds of thousands of people rioting in the street because their own water had been taken away from them by 'liberal democracy'.

posted March 23, 2003 12:15 AM              

First, in Argentina an elite private upper class exploited the loans rec'd from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) & the Global Bank thru the UN.

That private upper class exploited a resource (water in this case) to take loan money & put it into their personal accounts.

Second, look at the big perspective...
Argentine is one country on one continent in the whole world...
How about Taiwan, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Singapore, Eastern European country's. They are are examples of successful transitions of liberal democracy (of course at different speeds), they have raised the standard of living for all their peoples

posted March 23, 2003 07:20 AM              

and i wouldnt say capitalism is doing a brilliant job considering that ol' suicide rate is still creeping up....

posted March 23, 2003 02:26 PM              

Well people, ARE we ignorant little bumpkins who can't even think? I would say not. Our leaders, for all their experience, are just as human and fallible as we are. They make mistakes. They are subject to irrational fears and unrealistic dreams. They may even be- perish the thought!- vulnerable to dishonorable things like corruption or bribery. So we need to watch them and make sure that they don't do anything stupid, and we are perfectly capable of reflecting on their actions and judging them.

posted March 29, 2003 11:28 PM              

Has anyone heard that the poles are getting warmer??? *sigh*....

...has anyone heard that a giant planet might be headed our way? Not to hit us, but to come close enough to us, to cause unimaginable havoc? Could this be what the BIGGER PICTURE might be?

...just wondering....*sigh*