06-13-2020, 09:31 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-13-2020, 03:51 PM by Bob Butler 54.)
Well, I don’t fear people either. Autocratic governments are still aggressive. They need containment or they will seize resources and territory. But that is a different mechanism than people fearing or hating one another.
I think the hate is more relevant than the fear. The leaders who have decided that it would be profitable to use violence will have an advantage in force before they make that decision. The aggressor is more apt to hate another culture than to fear it. The Rape of Nanking was not about protecting Japanese women. It was the about the aggressive culture aggressing.
I might add that I am more interested in the reasons the elites and leaders might think a war profitable than what the army fears or hates. This seems to me to be more relevant. War has long been a racket, with the profit of the leadership more important than the feeling of the troops. Like, why were the Japanese near the Marco Polo bridge in the first place? The leaders wanted an excuse, and encouraged the troops to go make one.
Agree that xenophobia is not the same as racism.
I am a bit amused by the crisis war predictions. China will make war with India, Tiawan, the Philippines, the US, Japan, Hong Kong, China…. Anyone else? It seems to me the bigger racket would involve peaceful trading. They would gain more in Africa leveraging their economy and at lower risk than with war. That may be why most of the crisis interval has gone by without their committing to anything.
I think the hate is more relevant than the fear. The leaders who have decided that it would be profitable to use violence will have an advantage in force before they make that decision. The aggressor is more apt to hate another culture than to fear it. The Rape of Nanking was not about protecting Japanese women. It was the about the aggressive culture aggressing.
I might add that I am more interested in the reasons the elites and leaders might think a war profitable than what the army fears or hates. This seems to me to be more relevant. War has long been a racket, with the profit of the leadership more important than the feeling of the troops. Like, why were the Japanese near the Marco Polo bridge in the first place? The leaders wanted an excuse, and encouraged the troops to go make one.
Agree that xenophobia is not the same as racism.
I am a bit amused by the crisis war predictions. China will make war with India, Tiawan, the Philippines, the US, Japan, Hong Kong, China…. Anyone else? It seems to me the bigger racket would involve peaceful trading. They would gain more in Africa leveraging their economy and at lower risk than with war. That may be why most of the crisis interval has gone by without their committing to anything.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
