Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Americans are idiots

Author:David Carter-Tod
Posted:5/4/1999; 9:34:59 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 5/4/99
Msg #:5631 (In response to 5627)
Prev/Next:5630 / 5632

The list is endless. In East Timor, massacres are happening as we speak. Sudan, Ethiopia, Tibet, Burma etc. etc.

The quick answer is that we need Turkey because it's something of a democracy, stable, and an ally in a critical (oil) region.

If the US started holding accountable all those it could hold accountable, it'd run out of friends (markets and oil) very, very quickly. More significantly, those friends would turn around and start pointing at logs in its eye, which the US doesn't take very well (who does?).

We can bring this back around to issues raised here before. In any relationship, personal or national, what do you focus on? Do you tell your associates what they do wrong all the time, or do you tell them what they do right? When do you draw the line? How do you draw the line?

Personally, this brings me back to the idea that "the personal is political" -- decisions I make in my personal life about how I interact with others are important because they send a message about what I value in behavior, and ultimately those messages from all of us reach decision makers at state and national levels. I apply that to the "Internet" and I try to make it inform my behavior in forums like this.




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