Comments on: In this episode, The Wall Street Journal tries to come to grips with failure

By: Tobey Llop

Tobey Llop — Sun, 22 Jun 2003 03:32:50 +0000

Why am I uncomfortable about seeming to have had the almost last word on this mix of crucial themes?

I read, “…, terrorism is a far worse threat to the future of the human race than muscularly exported democracy….”

I am not sure that is true. Terrorism per se, as policy, is so obviously absurd to anyone but a psychopath it will never gain popular acceptance with any constituency. If vengeance and misguided “freedom-fighting” are dubbed “terrorism” by corporate media pandering with their spin to governmental propaganda, they do not suddenly become real terrorism just to spare the spinning interest groups the guilt of being liars. Obscenity and terrorism exist in the minds of the beholders. Megalomaniacs on both sides of the power struggles know this and use every means at their disposal to fan the bush-fires of fear. (Drug companies that sell mind numbing agents, however spelt, have ample interest in funding political campaigns of all combatants!)

The social consciousness that produced the American Constitution was centuries in the making. The progression from Magna Carta to government by consent of the governed was a slow and torturous path. If democracy means government by the consent of the governed, the “muscular export” of it is an Orwellian travesty.

By: Neal

Neal — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 19:55:00 +0000

Hey! That’s P-R-O-Z-A-C, bucko!

By: Tobey Llop

Tobey Llop — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 06:41:33 +0000

Terrorism is a non-ism, an idea mined from old psychopathic political tracts by bad governments so they can have the non-purpose of waring on it. “Terrorism” is based on the principle that if you stand up and say “boo,” a population will be frightened into doing the bidding of the boo-sayer. If it really worked, “terrorists” would be on to something! The crimes of 9/11 were not terrorism. The atrocities against one anotehr by both the Isralis and the Palestineans have only been followed by worse, not better, behavior on the part of those whom the acts were allegedly intended to terrify. O.K., they promote anxiety and sell Prozak. But the killings are really the misguided attempts at retribution by the self-appointed wagers of justice. Justice wagers always pretend to think that by committing murder they are creating a deterrent to crime. This is just an excuse to murder. But countries with capital punishment tend to have more murders than contries that don’t. There is a cause and effect relationship at work. Captial punishment is just another name for a particular kind of murder. If it really worked…

By: Saam Barrager

Saam Barrager — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 00:53:16 +0000

To be somewhat fair to the idea of a neglible affect that large military spending has on the economy is the comparison that some have made that the US spends a small percentage of its GDP on military spending – just that the GDP is really, really big.

My understanding also is that the US is the biggest investor in R&D of any other industrialized nation, and the university system here, in terms of quality, is the envy of the world.

That having been said, the US is wholly reliant on the rest of the world as a marketplace and for capital investment. We can solve the problem of excess capital consumption (fiscal responsibility), but we will never be able to get around needing the rest of the world as a marketplace.

I consider terrorism to be, within the context of US history, a footnote (as opposed to westward expansion, Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, etc. – there is no comparison). To risk losing the international marketplace, jeopordize investment inflows and do nothing about rectifying the budgetary situation is the height of folly.

(Nanobots and nuclear hand grenades?)

By: jb

jb — Thu, 19 Jun 2003 20:54:05 +0000

First, terrorism is a far worse threat to the future of the human race than muscularly exported democracy. Nuclear hand grenades and nanobots will mercilessly slaughter and destroy anyone who stands in the way of a terrorist, be they islamic or christian, hindu or buddhist.

Secondly, the technical dominance of the US is supported by the only large-scale free-market engine left in the world. This ensures that relative to every other kind of government, our technical dominance will only get larger over time. Capitalism wins (as far as I am concerned, this is axiomatic, and supported by well over 100 years of proof). As long as european and asian governments wallow in the false nepenthe of socialism, they will continue to fall behind technologically, and become more dependent on the US over time, not less so.

By: Pintard Dimmleson

Pintard Dimmleson — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 15:29:24 +0000

We all know that a strong arm is a long arm. But I’m also reminded of the one commercial years ago for Off! bugspray, where the well-honed male forearm reaches into the plexiglas box full of mosquitos, and you can almost hear their dinner bell clanging away in the little mosquito heads as they swarm and launch a full-proboscis attack on the guy. That said, it seems that the desire to make a buck precludes our caution as to who to make the buck from, and where. Like the junkie who doesn’t care that his coke is cut with all manner of dangerous powders. He needs to maintain the idea, the ritual, of getting high on the stuff, even if it’s not the same quality stuff that hooked him and made him all-knowing and all-saying in the first place. I submit that America’s entered this phase of addiction, where dangers are ignored, as long as the ritual is preserved. Indeed, the psychological ritual has entirely supplanted the physical need for the drug. Do we need to maintain economic superiority? Yes. At the cost of making sure we’re number one? Yes. Can we have the cake and sell it, too? No. Something has to give. An old math maxim comes to mind: To lengthen any one side of a triangle involves shorten at least one side to maintain the closed vertices that yield a complete polygon. Well, right now, two sides of the American trinity are too long, leaving a big gaping hole at one vertex. And the rot is seeping in.

By: Rook

Rook — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 02:39:36 +0000

Well said. Especially this comment: And, if examined in the right light and with the ability to read through the Journal’s coded attempts at alerting its readers to the world’s dangers without scaring them into shutting down their bank accounts, the possibility of winning the military battle while losing the economic war is laid out for all to see. You stated what I thought.
And you’re right. The bully never actually gets to play in the playground because he is too busy acting tough and watching over his territory.