02-04-2021, 05:52 AM
(02-04-2021, 04:37 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(02-04-2021, 02:22 AM)jleagans Wrote:(07-14-2020, 02:36 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: We don't have a major war yet. I wouldn't count that out of the picture just yet in this crisis, which has 9 years to run (not two), even if it's by comparison a smaller war, or two smaller wars.
Also note that some of us also believe its possible the 1T may have just started.
It is harder for an elite to make profit from war than it used to be. It is easier to play financial games. Thus, the elites are not encouraging the selection of warlike leaders. Nukes, proxy wars and insurgent wars make it harder to act like a warrior. No one profits from having a bunch of their factories nuked. Insurgent wars with somebody supplying weapons gives a big advantage to the locals, the people who can disappear into the general population. No major power has started a crisis war in the Information Age.
The Allies made the consequences of losing a war of aggression, committing genocide or plunder during such a war, or doing crimes against captive troops or people under occupation not worth the risk. The elites have too much to lose -- their lives, their liberty, and any pursuit of happiness. Since then, figures like Kabanda (President of Rwanda during the genocide), Milosevich, and Saddam Hussein have faced unpleasant consequences even if the people get masses with kid gloves.
I would not have problems if Trump faced the Hague Tribunal.
Quote:I see the federal aspect of regeneracy as having just started. The problems are just now being addressed in earnest. I don't see any of them as taking as long as a crisis war used to. I can see a mood coming where we will try to prevent the problems from happening again and turn towards materialism, but the bug is still running wild, the racial legislation has not past, the economy hasn't recovered, the red violence trials are just beginning. The crisis heart is just underway. It is just that the people who don't believe that government should solve problems will try to ignore problems.
However the 2020 election went, America was going to undergo sharp changes in the political culture. I don't want to say what America would be like now with a Trump re-election, and even if the consequence of the Biden Presidency is a reversion largely to old norms, much will change. I expect the more politically-charged material in K-12 textbooks to be altered to disparage conspiracy theories, political violence, and any compromise of the rule of law. I expect Donald Trump to become the scapegoat for almost all despicable tendencies in American political life. We will see reforms in education intended to make Americans less amenable to propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Something telling: the Canadian government just designated the Proud Boys a terrorist group.
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.