Future of the U.S.

[Guest guest]

I'm with you, Butch.

 

This is the greatest country on earth because of our freedoms and

acceptances.

 

The extremists are using these freedoms against us. They are very

clever. Fortunately they are in the minority, but they seem to scare

those that are " moderate " and basically like the rest of us: we just

want to live our lives in peace and protect our families.

 

I am noticing more and more that moderates are speaking out. This is

good and should continue to be encouraged.

 

Dede

[Guest guest]

I'm with you, Butch.

 

This is the greatest country on earth because of our freedoms and

acceptances.

 

[Dave:] I almost didn’t answer this one because I really don’t want to

inflame a thread that results in the moderators telling us to settle down.

But dang it, I do think it’s the most important discussion of the day, and

there aren’t enough people raising their voices just to talk.

 

The extremists are using these freedoms against us. They are very

clever. Fortunately they are in the minority, but they seem to scare

those that are " moderate " and

 

[Dave:] But wait. “They” hate our freedoms, but who is it that’s taking

them away? Did Osama decree that we would be scanned by machines that would

see us naked or that old ladies would have to remove their shoes to get on a

plane, or is he just sitting back laughing about it? Do you really think a

posse of Arabs with box cutters brought down the Twin Towers? I carry a box

cutter at work; I have the Junior Taliban model. The Al-Qa’ida Warrior cost

$10 while mine was only $4.99 at Home Depot. I make sure I leave it at work

just in case I get stopped and asked for my papers. Give me a break. Did

Saddam put cameras everywhere? Is it the terrorists that want unlimited

warrantless eavesdropping and wiretapping? Yeah, these extremists are

clever. Scary clever.

 

basically like the rest of us: we just

want to live our lives in peace and protect our families.

 

[Dave:] That’s just what everyone wants, including your average Iraqi.

From their point of view, we are among the ones keeping them from doing

that. We have a history of messing around where we have no legitimate

business, but we aren’t the only ones. Before we even thought about it, the

British were raping third-world countries, and of course the Romans wrote

the book. Even they were just taking after Alexander, and they learned to

their regret when they met Genghis Khan that they weren’t the only

practicing bullies in the world.

 

There’s another side to all of this. World history is leading to a global

culture, and there’s no way to avoid it. We started out as individual

clans, and found out that there were advantages in allying ourselves with

other clans. Thus were born tribes, which were big enough to duke it out

with big predators as well as each other. One day, someone thought to fence

off a field of wild grain he’d been cultivating (I’m sure it seemed like a

good idea at the time), and before you knew it there were villages. And of

course they had to have some sort of militias to guard the fields. Then

came cities and city-states with their lands and urbs, and there were

kingdoms, some of which were covetous as well as evangelical, and became

empires. I am sure that war started the first time someone made a comment

about someone’s mother, but armies come from agriculture, from having

something someone else is willing to gang up on you for. There’s no way

we’re going backwards. There will be some form of world government.

Personally I think it’s a necessary and good thing, but I also think that

current attempts in this direction are all wrong. It’s an idea whose time

hasn’t arrived, but it isn’t far away.

 

All of this fits into the history of the world in a perfectly sensible way,

as far as I can see. I can’t see any way for the world to avoid some

massive upheavals in the reasonably near future. My hope is that they will

not be nuclear in nature, and that enormous masses of people will not die in

ghastly ways. I would like to think that folks might choose reason over

force, even though the people I see rattling their sabers on today’s world

stage don’t give any sign of being reasonable. There isn’t a single one

that’s worth his salt as a human being. In any event I firmly believe that

whatever remains when all of this is over, the world will be a better place

than it is today. And to bring it all back to topic, it’s things like the

knowledge we discuss most of the time here that will be invaluable in that

world. When I teach my herbal soapmaking methods I stress that this is

knowledge that would have been sacred in a former time, and was. And, in a

way, it still is. This isn’t just about pretty-smelling toiletries and

mood-lifting scents for desperate housewives. It’s more than that today and

it will be much more in the future.

 

 

 

 

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Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.25/743 - Release 4/2/2007

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Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.25/743 - Release 4/2/2007

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[Guest guest]

I agree with you, David. I can only agrre to what you said

Ane (Brazil )

 

 

Fácil engolir os sapos. Duro é ter que mastigar...

Ane*

 

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