12-19-2019, 01:36 PM
(12-18-2019, 12:06 PM)David Horn Wrote:(12-17-2019, 02:26 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: At any rate, the timing is good, as it is permitting President Trump to withdraw 4000 of the 14000 odd remaining US troops in Afghanistan without significant objection.
My single biggest issue with Trump in foreign affairs is the opaque motivation for his moves. We know he likes dictators more than democrats, so is this part of that paradigm? If not, then why now? He seems to have no interest in foreign affairs except for the photo ops they generate. On the other hand, Putin may be pushing this behind the scenes in the same way Putin and Erdogan pushed him to dump the Kurds and pull out of Syria. Or is this an impeachment counter ploy?
Donald Trump does not understand human suffering, tragedy, or misery. He exemplifies as an example the warning of Socrates:
ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
(The unexamined life is an unworthy life).
At a low level it reminds us to not take easy courses of survival and self-numbing as petty criminals, drunks, or addicts. At a higher level it reminds us to examine what we do and why. Just because the rewards are more luxurious does not make ignoble behavor honorable.
Trump claims to be brilliant (yeah, anyone who brags about his own brilliance probably isn't so), yet he has huge gaps of character. He seems unable to recognize suffering, despair, grief, and overall pain in others. He seems to admire successful gangsters more than he respects "working stiffs", including soldiers. Utterly unreflective, he offends people who must think for themselves or others. I know my faults and must act to be normal... but if I act with simulated courage often enough I will get a reputation for courage. If I simulate diligence I will not seem lazy. If I simulate generosity often enough... to be a good person I must struggle against some bad tendencies. Don't we all?
I knew enough from childhood to not mock the handicapped. There but for the Grace of God go I... any man can go to war and become disabled in war, and any person can be crippled in a vehicle crash or an industrial accident. The near-martyrdom of the naval aviator John S. McCain is nothing to mock, but instead to honor. I know enough to stay clear of bad people such as criminals, perverts, and political extremists. People with the delusion that they can use evil people for their own ends are fools.
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.