Agreed. But isn’t there one very simple reason behind the reason? Elections!Captain Kirk wrote:This is one of the reasons I really despise politicians. Always asking how things are going to look for themselves before anything else.
Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
- Gaybutton
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Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
And money. I don't see very many elected politicians who appear to have missed many meals . . .fountainhall wrote:reason behind the reason? Elections!
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
Yes in a free Democracy, the hope is that bums will be thrown out in a new election. It does not always work at the speed some would like but it does happen.fountainhall wrote:Agreed. But isn’t there one very simple reason behind the reason? Elections!Captain Kirk wrote:This is one of the reasons I really despise politicians. Always asking how things are going to look for themselves before anything else.
Students demonstrated in Florida and changes were made . Not as many as I would like but still substantial changes in a very Pro Gun state .
We know what happens if students demonstrate in a Totalitarian state where individual rights except what the current rulers say do not exist.
Anyone remember Tiananmen Square ? Certainly China is not alone in their control of individual rights . However there are far too many who excuse their lack of freedoms by pointing to their Economic Successes.
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Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
I can't think of a single dictator, ever, in the entire history of humanity, who turned out to be a "good guy."firecat69 wrote:there are far too many who excuse their lack of freedoms by pointing to their Economic Successes.
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
I am sure all do - with good reason. But it’s interesting how we collectively tend to forget when other governments turned guns on their own people. Britain did it several times as workers tried to fight for rights in the 19th century. Even the USA did it! Anyone remember Kent State?firecat69 wrote:Anyone remember Tiananmen Square?
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Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
When I was a child, I sometimes would try the "he did it too" excuse. Didn't work. Didn't work out so well for the defendants in Nuremberg either.fountainhall wrote:it’s interesting how we collectively tend to forget when other governments turned guns on their own people.
Many governments are guilty of this type of crime. No one is denying that and there is no valid excuse for any of them. That, however, does not justify current governments continuing to do the same thing.
Why is it that the wrong people always seem to manage to get themselves into positions of power - and then are perfectly willing to do whatever it takes, including imprisoning, torturing, and murdering people, to stay in power?
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
Now there is a huge question deserving of a blog site all of it’s own. It has been said before on this Board that history is generally irrelevant. Yet we are where we are as a result of historical forces over which the average man in the street never has any control. And surely it has been largely a result of previous history that those in power got there.Gaybutton wrote:Why is it that the wrong people always seem to manage to get themselves into positions of power - and then are perfectly willing to do whatever it takes, including imprisoning, torturing, and murdering people, to stay in power?
The genocidal monsters like Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot immediately spring to mind. Now we have the ghastly, almost unbelievable, disaster in Syria with a host of nasties propping up an evil dictator who happily slaughters his own people, who has willfully destroyed ancient and historically important cities like Aleppo, and forced millions of Syrians into exile.
I don’t know the answer to “Why?” In this case, other than colonialism and arbitrariness played major parts, as they did in the partition of India and Pakistan with the consequent slaughter of millions. No doubt the destabilization of almost the entire Middle East as a result of Bush’s mindless doctrine played a part in the Syrian crisis. No doubt the rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS have also played major roles.
Could any of these madmen have been stopped? Can an analysis of why and how these murdering dictators rose to power help ensure the world will not see their like again? I fear not.
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Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
When it comes to trying to justify current evil, I would agree that history is irrelevant, unless of course someone thinks it would be right to use Vlad the Impaler as precedent.fountainhall wrote:It has been said before on this Board that history is generally irrelevant.
I would disagree if it means let's not bother to pay attention to or learn from history.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana
And in the USA, engraved in stone on the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. is a quote from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest':
"What is past is prologue."
I agree with both statements.
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
History is important so that the same mistakes are not made . It has never turned out well when any individual seizes complete power and eradicates the rights of its own citizens and usually will attempt to do the same to its neighbors or even the World.
The world should be very worried about China and its territorial ambitions even if they begin with Economic Control.
Absolute Power corrupts and Xi now has that power . It would be good if the world revisited the fairly recent history of Hitler.
The world should be very worried about China and its territorial ambitions even if they begin with Economic Control.
Absolute Power corrupts and Xi now has that power . It would be good if the world revisited the fairly recent history of Hitler.
Re: Is the End if the Korean War Finally in Sight?
I commend Hegel’s view on the general value of history and mistakes.firecat69 wrote:History is important so that the same mistakes are not made
G. W. F. Hegel"Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are wont to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience offers in history. But what experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. Each period is involved in such peculiar circumstances, exhibits a condition of things so strictly idiosyncratic, that its conduct must be regulated by considerations connected with itself, and itself alone."