Politics:
This is where I'll be putting up lively debates between Mike and myself. I don't tolerate fools well (in politics anyway, fools do throw the best parties). Mike is one of those rare individuals who is neither a liberal nor a fool. I actually now know two conservative persons named Mike, but I'm still getting to know the new Mike, and we're aware of our opposing philosophies, so we haven't sat down and chatted yet. Anyway, since Mike is far away, we write. I've saved most of our conversations, I'll post them later. For now an excerpt on waging peace:
CREATING
A NEW MIDDLE-EAST WITHOUT USING FORCE:
The
question was, "What catalyst can we use to change
the Middle East if not war?"
Catalysts are used to speed reactions. It’s good that
you used that word. Catalysts only speed reactions
when the right mix of ingredients are already present.
Bad historians cite the assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand as the cause of the first World War, slavery
as the cause of the Civil War, and taxes as the cause
of the revolutionary war. Good historians write long,
boring papers about the delicate interplay of the
social and economic environment.
If it were possible to kill the terrorists and be done
with the matter, then it would have worked in the
Palestine/Israel conflict. Instead, that’s the worst
region in the entire world. And it’s not for Israel’s
lack of trying. They have the best intelligence
agency in the world, they DO resort to torture when
necessary. They fly wherever they want in Palestine
and kill whomever they choose. While I think that the
Patriot Act overextends executive power, I don’t think
we are as bad as Israel.
If you want to know how to wage peace, read everything
you can from the Carter Center. Peace comes from
stable borders. Peace comes from education. Peace
comes from economic and recreational opportunity.
Peace comes from democratically elected officials.
Peace comes from a professional body-bureaucrat.
Peace comes from the certainty that food, shelter, and
healthcare are not threatened (threats to these are
the most important source of Middle Eastern terrorist
– the people blowing themselves up are doing it to
help their families). Most importantly, PEACE TAKES TIME!
What we as a nation can do is vastly increase our
spending in Foreign Aid (the US Government spends only
23ish billion dollars or 0.09%, by far the smallest
percent of any developed nation AND some of that is
military equipment!). Listen to the people that work
in the State Department (not the political appointee
Ambassadors), Peace Corps Volunteers, and other
International Aid agents. Offset costs by sharing the
financial burden and the burden of responsibility with
other nations in peacekeeping (not only is this the
right thing to do, but it is ALSO in our national
interests).
What we as individuals can do is to work to make the
world a more accommodating place for everybody.
Vacation more, be asshole tourists less. Go
colorblind. Stop answering violence with violence
(this should ring some bells of familiarity in the
Christian mind). Enforce rules regulating fair labor
practices (executives can make only 100 times what
their poorest employees make, something like that).
Clean up messes and apologize for making them
(Superfund sites exist only in the US). Maybe most
importantly of all though, don’t have more than three
kids, and scowl at persons who do.
When I can spare a moment there might be thoughts on the modern political process.
For your interest (always check sources) links to consequential sites like the Department of Labor Statistics.