Author
|
Topic: Some Americans Still Don't Get It
|
DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490
|
posted 01 August 2008 02:40 PM
I tried not to die laughing... too much. quote: We Americans are about to enter our 19th consecutive year of Truman-envy. Ever since the Berlin Wall fell, people have looked at the way Harry Truman, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson and others created forward-looking global institutions after World War II, and they've asked: Why can't we rally that kind of international cooperation to confront terrorism, global warming, nuclear proliferation and the rest of today's problems?(...) Today power is dispersed. There is no permanent bipartisan governing class in Washington. Globally, power has gone multipolar, with the rise of China, India, Brazil and the rest. This dispersion should, in theory, be a good thing, but in practice, multipolarity means that more groups have effective veto power over collective action. In practice, this new pluralistic world has given rise to globosclerosis, an inability to solve problem after problem. (...) A few years ago, the United States tried to break through this global passivity. It tried to enforce UN resolutions and put the mantle of authority on its own shoulders. The results of that enterprise, the Iraq war, suggest that this approach will not be tried again anytime soon.
That last part really slayed me. Does this navel-gazing moron that epitomizes all I dislike about the United States and a good chunk of its citizenry (the insularity, the inability to admit the US's own problems, the reflexive insistence that the US may be bad but the rest of the world is worse...) not get that 1940s America had a moral cachet that his idol Dubya Bush pissed away completely?
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Stargazer
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6061
|
posted 01 August 2008 05:03 PM
Now that you are an Official Honorary Canadian you now must refer to Stockwell Day by his rightful name - Stockboy Day. quote: I do wish that more Canadian voters weren't as susceptible to lies and tricks as their neighbors to the south. There may be fewer lies but then of course you don't need as many votes to get a Steven Harper into office as a George W. Bush.
Argh!!! I know. And believe me, I hate this man with a passion. Okay, not quite as much as I hated Mike Harris but pretty close. We are all in this horrible mess together. Now we have to try to figure out how to get the hell out. Another thread on here said we may have Helmet Head for another year plus!
From: Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wilf Day
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3276
|
posted 02 August 2008 01:40 AM
quote: Originally posted by Robespierre: I do wish that more Canadian voters weren't as susceptible to lies and tricks as their neighbors to the south. There may be fewer lies but then of course you don't need as many votes to get a Steven Harper into office as a George W. Bush.
At one time the FBI, I have read, had placed so many moles into the CPUSA that they had a majority on its national executive.I have no reason to believe that Robespierre is who he claims to be. He is just as likely to be an agent provocateur on the staff of the FBI. Either way, his presumptuous comments are of no value or interest. I wish he would go away and amuse himself somewhere more appropriate. "Robespierre, we do not attack banned babblers, and your comments are not ok. Stop." In fact, just stop.
From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Stargazer
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6061
|
posted 02 August 2008 04:24 AM
quote: At one time the FBI, I have read, had placed so many moles into the CPUSA that they had a majority on its national executive.I have no reason to believe that Robespierre is who he claims to be. He is just as likely to be an agent provocateur on the staff of the FBI. Either way, his presumptuous comments are of no value or interest. I wish he would go away and amuse himself somewhere more appropriate. "Robespierre, we do not attack banned babblers, and your comments are not ok. Stop." In fact, just stop.
This is a personal attack. This is what you were telling others not to do. And because of your assumptions you have called someone a mole, a troll and disruptive. I have seen NONE of that coming from Robespierre. In fact, just the opposite. Yet here you are, trying to get someone banned because you think he is an FBI plant? Jesus H. Christ, this is silly and clearly a personal vendetta enjoyed by you (who clearly started it) and now John K, who apparently can't think for himself. If Robespierre is a "plant" I will gladly eat my hat (and dirt) but I think you are the one who has gone to far now. Not all Americans are suspect, and that is what I see happening here. Just like another American babbler whose contributions were welcomed, he left. Wonder why that happened? Ever?
From: Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
RosaL
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 13921
|
posted 02 August 2008 06:05 AM
I can't think of a single reason why the fbi would infiltrate babble. It's really, really, really ridiculous Back on topic: quote: .... people around the world lose faith in their leaders.
a small sign of hope I only wish it were the case that people were losing faith in their rulers. These people are simply acting on their behalf. We need a deeper, more thorough-going, and informed loss of faith. [ 02 August 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]
From: the underclass | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
RosaL
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 13921
|
posted 02 August 2008 06:38 AM
quote: Originally posted by N.Beltov: I can't agree with that sentiment. I agree with Lou Reed; you need a busload of faith to get by. But Lou wasn't talking about religious faith or a belief in a supernatural entity. He meant something else.
I was talking about "faith in our leaders", the loss of which is decried in the article cited in the opening post. I don't think faith simpliciter is either good or bad - that (i.e., whether it is good or bad) depends on the object of faith, amongst other things. [ 02 August 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]
From: the underclass | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490
|
posted 02 August 2008 08:36 PM
What really got me was the way the guy was holding up Democrats as the ideal of strong-men running the USA who told the world what to do and everybody all jumped and said "how high?"This myth of American order-giving belies the truth: FDR and Truman, more so than the conservative idols Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Little Shrublet, at least attempted to cooperate internationally and try to develop a global consensus in setting up a United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. American exceptionalism has always been an unwelcome current in the world, and social inertia continues to blind at least some Americans as to the depths of resentment their arrogance has provoked. I'm only surprised Shrublet didn't nuke Iraq and wag his sanctimonious finger at the UN saying "If yer not with us yer agin' us, and I meant it."
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|