09-27-2020, 12:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-27-2020, 06:23 PM by Bob Butler 54.)
(09-27-2020, 10:28 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: The West has had a powerful innovation in liberal democracy, which is far better at smoothing ethnic divisions and mitigating class strife than about anything else. Liberal democracies at their best let people do as much possible for themselves and demand less than do despotic and dictatorial societies. Taxation had better connect closely to some public service and not simply be a means of enriching the Leadership. High taxes as in Scandinavian countries come back as economic opportunity as well as economic safety.
We now have questions about how liberal the structural democracies are in the USA and Israel. I look at the Bill of Rights in the Constitution as a political equivalent of the Decalogue, a series mostly of 'Thou shalt not's... as in 'Thou shalt not interfere with religion, speech, and the press"...
Donald Trump is by far the most despotic leader that America has had at the national level, which is to distinguish him from the ludicrous Imperial Wizards and Fuehrers that we have known. Part of establishing tyranny is the effort to divide people who might have everything to lose so that such people can be destroyed piecemeal. Trump tries that, but he fails.
The West at its best has government of the people, for the people, by the people. At worst, you get Republicans, governments of, for and by the elites. War is a racket. They are more interested in exploiting the resources and captive markets than helping the local people. The worst is colonial imperialism. Might makes right. They will redraw the borders and deal with puppet government that help the west exploit the raw materials.
Right now the locals have endured a good deal of the worst aspects of the West and find Agricultural Age tribal religious government to be the favorable alternative. In many ways it is easy to think religious powers like Iran and the Taliban are right. The West are anathema. A return to the true values and virtues of the region are for the best. Unfortunately, that leads to tribal thinking and old obsolete ethics with might makes right mentality.
The Lebanon explosion does not begin to change their minds. The local powers will be convinced the government is a tool for manipulating power and advancing their tribe. Those who believe in the best of the West have already immigrated.
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.
