01-21-2018, 10:50 PM
(01-21-2018, 09:11 PM)Cynic Hero Wrote: Tell me, why when the Serbs waged war in Bosnia back in the 1990s and as the war developed they were finally ready to assault the Bosnian cities in particular, why was there suddenly the appearance a screen of American and European troops suddenly blocking them? Serbs had done nothing wrong to Americans and Western Europeans, so there was no reason for that screen of forces to be there. The motivations for placing that screen of troops by Western politicians was purely due to the selfishness of western baby boomers and the manifestation of that selfishness.
Maybe it is simpler than that. Murder universally offends the sensibilities of practically everyone. If forty years earlier the victims were Jews and this time the victims were Muslims... so what? It is still wrong. Smaller scale? I find a robbery-murder in a convenience store appalling. If to save one life is to save the world, as one saying goes, to murder one person is at the least a murder of the world.
The British, Americans, and Soviets could do only one thing to thwart the Holocaust, and that was to hasten the victory over the demonic power killing so many people. But dealing with Serb butchers was far easier. We could do something this time.
Selfish? I consider the effort to thwart Serb butchers a consummately selfless act.
"Selfish Boomers"? Sure. I can tell you all about Boomer elites in ownership, management, and politics. They treat anyone not born into their class like peons and expect us (including Boomers like me not part of such an elite)
to consider such treatment beneficence. Maybe they would have been nicer had they had to do farm chores as kids. Maybe they would be nicer had they not had rooms all to themselves in the Suburbia of the post-WWII era. Maybe they would treat others better had they not found it so easy to avoid doing military service in Vietnam. The worst Boomers got to grow up like aristocrats , and they could never recognize that their privilege resulted from the toil of others. Those of us Boomers who knew some hardships in life, whether poverty or a handicap, or even doing unglamorous military service, are much more decent. Unfortunately the Boomer elites have deemed us disloyal for having some chips on our shoulders and unworthy of opportunity, so we don't get to shape economic and bureaucratic decisions in more humane ways.
Selfish? I consider the effort to thwart Serb butchers a consummately selfless act.
Xenakis may be wrong about you. You probably hate your mother just as much as you hate your father. Get help!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
