Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kosh on May 02, 2005, 08:28:21 pm
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693580/site/newsweek/?GT1=6542
Discuss.
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The immediate future belongs partly to China, yes. The US will by no means disappear, nor will the EU, or India for that matter. A Latin American economic alliance (something along the lines of the EU) is also not inconcievable. But China, and Asia in general seems to be gunning for a bigger piece of the pie, and they'll probably get it, though not to the exclusion of everyone else.
Of course, how long any of them can maintain unrestricted growth is the real question. They're racing each other, but the race ends in a brick wall, and that wall isn't going to move.
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One would think that they would get fed up with communism sooner or later.
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And you have to take the superior asian work ethic into account also...
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indeed, if china went fully capitalist america would no longer hold the monopoly on cool stuff. it would also allow 3rd world countries to fill the labor vacume caused by the chineese move into the tertiary economic sector. the chineese are learning that the capitolist economy of hong kong is superior to what the chineese have now. capitalisim works because it apeals to the animilistic nature of the human race. surely there is a stage beyond capitolisim but for now its a good thing for the chineese at least. as for us i think weve outgrown it. th last thing i want to see is the world becoming a corprate dictatorship.
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I think that unrestrained capitalism is extremely bad. Can you imagine the effects that a country with 1.3 billion people would have if capitalism was unrestrained?
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Don't you already have a smaller example of that in the USA? :P
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Well, if you ask me, China already is capitalist. They started moving to a market economy quite a while ago, and these days its mostly the big industries that remain state-owned. What the Chinese realize is that there is definite advantage in a strong government presence, at least on the national level. Sure, there might not be quite as many millionares, but the nation as a whole is in a much better position due to the greater state control.
As for the "superior Asian work ethic", well what exactly is superior? Frankly, I think they're overly comptetiive, both at work and in school, though this is out of necessity. Sure, they can win out of other peoples, but at the cost of any sembelance of a happy life. The purpose of work is to provide means to happiness, it is not an end in itself. To sacrifice happiness for productivity is to starve yourself so you can have more money to buy food.
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Unrestricted capitalism (at least) = just as bad as communism
Originally posted by MatthewPapa
And you have to take the superior asian work ethic into account also...
That is a stereotype and I'm a bit surprisd it was even brought up. Anyone can be lazy.
I agree with Nuke, we have most certainly outgrown capitalism. There must be a better system than this.
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China gives a massive outward appearance of starting to be capitalist, but, at least inside their borders, there are very very few industries that one or more of the 8 main ruling families do not have their fingers in. Oddly enough, this is not as far from US capitalism as you might think.
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china apears capitalist mainly because of hong kong, which had been under brittish rule until awhile back. the chineese decided that it would be a good idea to maintain that economy, as hong kong is a thriving and very modern city and to change it over to a comunist system would destroy the good points about it. so when you see pictures of a capitalist china, it was most likely taken in hong kong. most of china is still agricultural. so there are still alot of comune farmers there and state-owned factries.
the word communisim is often misused anyway. most americans think comunisim means dictatorship, but that is not always the case. there is and you still have money and you still get paid for your job. its just the state makes stuff more organized. here you have too find a job, which is a time consuming and otherwise ineffietient process, in china the state assigns you a job based on your reigon, training and talents. instead of working for a company you work for the state and in theory the lack of competition should allow the whole of the state to thrive by means of shared knoledge and resourses. all the major communist soscieties try to make a dictatorship out of it (thus giving comuinisim a bad name). the word socialisim was kinda used to mean a friendlyer form of comunisim and to compensate for the bad name that capitalisim had aquired. this is where social democracy becomes important.the people are free and working for the betterment of the whole of the society.
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China... is basically a 'state' country; for all the gigantic industrialisation you see on the TV, there are countless millions more rural peasants living in what is effectively a fuedal life.
I remember talking to a guy who worked as an english teacher in (IIRC) Shanghai about 5 ish years ago; there was then, and is now, still massive building work going on there in the cities. It's wrong to assume it's 'just' Hong Kong.
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In April, the Chinese government seemed to encourage anti-Japanese protests over history textbooks, only to find them mushroom into mob demonstrations, riots, stone-throwing at the Japanese Embassy and widespread calls to boycott Japanese goods. Last March it ushered through passage of an "anti-secession law" threatening Taiwan with military force if it dared to anger China in any way. The result, among others, was that the European Union postponed its plan to lift an arms embargo on China in June. Also in March, China warned Australia to rethink its alliance with the United States, which created a backlash among Australian officials. In July 2003, Beijing tried to effect passage of an "anti-subversion" law in Hong Kong, which produced the largest demonstrations in the city's history and created strong anti-Beijing political sentiment in a territory that was always apolitical. All these actions are making China's most powerful neighbors—Japan, Australia, India—pause. It is strengthening those in America who see China as a threat, not an opportunity. Is this so smart?
I would personally prefer to try and get as close relations to China as I could, but when stuff like this happens. China could end up getting slapped in the face rather quickly. Threatening western protectorates like Taiwan, Japan, and Australia is something they shouldn't be doing if they want a peaceful transition.
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(http://designjerk.com/illustrated/fidelkrusty-sm.jpg)
Works is good! Holidays are counter-revolutionary!
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:rolleyes: Great, that's all we need is a war with China. Then all the idiots here will be anti-Chinese.
Originally posted by Nuke
the word communisim is often misused anyway. most americans think comunisim means dictatorship, but that is not always the case. there is and you still have money and you still get paid for your job. its just the state makes stuff more organized. here you have too find a job, which is a time consuming and otherwise ineffietient process, in china the state assigns you a job based on your reigon, training and talents. instead of working for a company you work for the state and in theory the lack of competition should allow the whole of the state to thrive by means of shared knoledge and resourses. all the major communist soscieties try to make a dictatorship out of it (thus giving comuinisim a bad name). the word socialisim was kinda used to mean a friendlyer form of comunisim and to compensate for the bad name that capitalisim had aquired. this is where social democracy becomes important.the people are free and working for the betterment of the whole of the society.
In theory it sounds good, but in practice, it hasn't worked, because society doesn't work for the betterment of the people. They're not fulfilling their part of the deal. People have to put a great deal of trust in the government, and I doubt they would in such a direct manner at least.
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Communism in it's purest form has never, and will never exist, at least for a government. In a small community, it might work, but the simple fact is that it has no checks or balances, and in a large system, it's impossible to function efficiently.
And you know what? In response to Flipside: it is different. Sure, the major corporations are all over the place, but the difference between America and China is that any American can start a business if he has enough money, and a Chinese person can't.
God, even the stuff America does right it gets bashed for.
EDIT: And please don't turn this into a flame war because of that last sentence.
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Originally posted by Unknown Target
Communism in it's purest form has never, and will never exist, at least for a government. In a small community, it might work, but the simple fact is that it has no checks or balances, and in a large system, it's impossible to function efficiently.
And you know what? In response to Flipside: it is different. Sure, the major corporations are all over the place, but the difference between America and China is that any American can start a business if he has enough money, and a Chinese person can't.
God, even the stuff America does right it gets bashed for.
EDIT: And please don't turn this into a flame war because of that last sentence.
I think Flipsides point is that the nature of US capitalism - i.e that money required - is that it helps preclude the 'lesser man' from being able to challenge. And that the supercorps are so powerful the economy (and government if you factor in campaign contributors..) is effectively controlled by a small cabal of boardrooms.
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Originally posted by aldo_14
China... is basically a 'state' country; for all the gigantic industrialisation you see on the TV, there are countless millions more rural peasants living in what is effectively a fuedal life.
I remember talking to a guy who worked as an english teacher in (IIRC) Shanghai about 5 ish years ago; there was then, and is now, still massive building work going on there in the cities. It's wrong to assume it's 'just' Hong Kong.
indeed but perhaps the buildup of those cities is based on the chineese anallasis of hong kong's economy.
Originally posted by EtherShock
:rolleyes: Great, that's all we need is a war with China. Then all the idiots here will be anti-Chinese.
In theory it sounds good, but in practice, it hasn't worked, because society doesn't work for the betterment of the people. They're not fulfilling their part of the deal. People have to put a great deal of trust in the government, and I doubt they would in such a direct manner at least.
the point of a democracy is to make the people the government. the people should be able to trust eachother. the swiss are a good example of a functional social democracy. not entirely sure how there system works, but there neutrality and anti-war policy is certainly a good thing.
Originally posted by aldo_14
I think Flipsides point is that the nature of US capitalism - i.e that money required - is that it helps preclude the 'lesser man' from being able to challenge. And that the supercorps are so powerful the economy (and government if you factor in campaign contributors..) is effectively controlled by a small cabal of boardrooms.
indeed. this is why i worry about big corporations. they have more power and only a few people at the top in control of that power. large corporations are like reble factions in unstable countries. theese companys could go out and buy there own country if they wanted to. its amazing that there has yet to be a corprate govenrment in existance today (microsoftistan). aside from that the power they have over a govenrment is huge. especially in the us system . with mere campaign contributions they can easily influence elections. free enterprise has got to go.
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God, even the stuff America does right it gets bashed for.
EDIT: And please don't turn this into a flame war because of that last sentence. [/B]
Actually I wasn't bashing America ;) You'll find that this is the case in almost every country in the world that a few large groups are influencing most of the countries actions. I made absolutely no comment as to whether that was good or bad, simply because I said 'America' doesn't mean I'm bashing it :) Please try to not be so defensive.
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Originally posted by Nuke
free enterprise has got to go.
And what are you going to replace it with? Communism?
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Originally posted by Nuke
the point of a democracy is to make the people the government. the people should be able to trust eachother. the swiss are a good example of a functional social democracy. not entirely sure how there system works, but there neutrality and anti-war policy is certainly a good thing.
Actually, Switzerland is a confederacy, the world's only. That explains their neutrality. They can never agree on anything as a whole. Each individual state of a confederacy is on its own for the most part. Government has very little power compared to the states. The US was originally going to be a confederacy, but that didn't work out.
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Interesting read.
Interesting in particular the comments about the tours with W.Bush and Wu. How Bush was always about terror, where-as Wu was about local economics, environment, and other things as well as Terror.
Guess China isn't as gullible as the usual people W.B. preaches too.
IMO, he doesn't come across as a very intelligent individual. Which pushes the fact further that the U.S. President is more of a public puppet than a man of power...
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by the way, as a native-born chinese, i'd like to point out that the asian work ethic _does_ exist and it _does_ make a huge influence on our lifestyle and culture, but it does _not_ preclude happiness, since happiness is largely dependent on what you think it is.
i've grown up with competition and industriousness, and the only reason i'm unhappy with that mindset is because i live in australia where (no offence) the white kids never did any work cos their parents didn't care enough to force them to, so i had something to compare my own lifestyle with. when you're living in cities full of other people for whom promotion and getting a better quality of life is pretty much everything, you define what makes you happy differently- i know people who quite happily worked their fingers to the bone during their prime years for a big retirement package, even though they may not be able to enjoy the money in the same way.
another reason for the hard working thing is the family- you work hard to make sure your family has enough support when you're gone, especially if you're the husband of the household.
okay, i'll stop lecturing on asian fiscal culture now.
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Originally posted by Unknown Target
Communism in it's purest form has never, and will never exist, at least for a government. In a small community, it might work, but the simple fact is that it has no checks or balances, and in a large system, it's impossible to function efficiently.
Communism in the sense of hunter-gatherer societies (which is what Marx based his theories on, but incorrectly tried to apply the same ideas to agricultural and industrial societies) did exist and worked. Effectively each family unit would gather their own food, or did other tasks for the village as a whole if unable to do that. Balanced reciprocity was the norm. (unlike negative reciprocity which is the basis for capitalism)
Such a system could be returned to with a sort of "techno-hunter gatherer" where the infrastructure to produce or gather energy and food is so available and prevalent that it is a non-issue. The sort of utopias seen in scifi such as Star Trek is close to this.
Centralized planning schemes imposed on societies is a sure-fire way to make communal living fail. The one thing close to successful centralized planning of this nature has been religion, look at the ultra-orthodox kibuttzes. Oddly enough, Marx didn't like the idea of engineering religions to fit with the ideals of communism as it would have given a strong backing to it.
Anyway, Marx was wrong on so many levels but communal living isn't bogus. It's just not feasible right now.
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That so called "asian work ethic" does indeed exist in asia. I do not think you realize just how hard it is to get work there, simply because there are A LOT of people after the exact same job. Are there lazy people? Of course, but most are quite the opposite.
But that work ethic tends to get lost with the first generation of families who come here. I know several asian-american students at my university who have at least been here since a very young age. They are even more lazy than I am (and I admittedly am pretty lazy).
China's development has been concentrated in the eastern parts (the side most people live on), so of course there are going to be lots of peasants. It is only now starting the develop the western parts. It isn't called a "developing country" for nothing Aldo. But in terms of economics, it does change very, very fast in the cities.
And in modern China, you CAN open up your own private businesses. There are probably more hoops to jump through (for permits, etc), but you can still do it.
If you want to buy an appliance (like a refrigerator) in the US, there are only a few major brans to choose from. But if you want to buy an appliance in China there are at least a dozen (local) brands. I haven't actually been to China yet, but I heard of that in a forum a couple of weeks ago from someone who is there.
The chinese political system is still very much communist. The country is essentially ruled by a small council called the "Politburo". But I suppose that communism without the command economic system is really an Oligarchy.
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Originally posted by Shrike
And what are you going to replace it with? Communism?
im honestly not sure an improved successor to free enterprise exists. i do know that when free enterprise was invisioned, noone could have imagined how far it would go. noone thought that a buisness could become bigger than a government. the appropriate checks and balences were not implemented to keep companies from gaining to much power, especially by immoral or otherwise unwise means. credit for example, while it helps you get a car or a house has forced everyone into debt and probibly is a big contributor to the national deficit. we live a high lifestyle but refuse to pay for it. advertising is another buisness that has gone out of control, spam for example. excessive use of advertising is probibly directly responsible for the overuse of credit. another big issue is the fact that we delegate most of our primary and secondary economic sectors to other countries (china being one). weve become a country of salesmen. i dont think its fair to give the rest of the world our dirty laundry.
if china were to go full capitalist it would create a labor vacume. especially if they go as far as we have. i havent a clue what this will do to the rest of the world, its one of those wait and see things. we should find a better balence between capitalisim and communisim, we lean to far to an extreme.
Originally posted by EtherShock
Actually, Switzerland is a confederacy, the world's only. That explains their neutrality. They can never agree on anything as a whole. Each individual state of a confederacy is on its own for the most part. Government has very little power compared to the states. The US was originally going to be a confederacy, but that didn't work out.
i musta been thinking about some other country. i was under the impression that social democracy was a stable and effietient system. my bad
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Originally posted by icespeed
by the way, as a native-born chinese, i'd like to point out that the asian work ethic _does_ exist and it _does_ make a huge influence on our lifestyle and culture, but it does _not_ preclude happiness, since happiness is largely dependent on what you think it is.
i've grown up with competition and industriousness, and the only reason i'm unhappy with that mindset is because i live in australia where (no offence) the white kids never did any work cos their parents didn't care enough to force them to, so i had something to compare my own lifestyle with. when you're living in cities full of other people for whom promotion and getting a better quality of life is pretty much everything, you define what makes you happy differently- i know people who quite happily worked their fingers to the bone during their prime years for a big retirement package, even though they may not be able to enjoy the money in the same way.
another reason for the hard working thing is the family- you work hard to make sure your family has enough support when you're gone, especially if you're the husband of the household.
okay, i'll stop lecturing on asian fiscal culture now.
I stand corrected. As 1/2 ABC, I don't like stereotypes. I feel they promote ignorance. They sometimes can get to me, and this particular one did. Don't get me started on other Asian stereotypes. Besides, with society today, you can't tell what's real and what is merely fabricated. Only a native born could've confimred this as truth however, so now I know. *Hangs head in shame*
Originally posted by Grug
Interesting read.
Interesting in particular the comments about the tours with W.Bush and Wu. How Bush was always about terror, where-as Wu was about local economics, environment, and other things as well as Terror.
Guess China isn't as gullible as the usual people W.B. preaches too.
:rolleyes: Now that is a generalization. We are not all stupid idiots that take "King George's" words as gospel. We just unfortunately seem to be the minority. I hate what he's done. I resent that remark.
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Originally posted by EtherShock
:rolleyes: Now that is a generalization. We are not all stupid idiots that take "King George's" words as gospel. We just unfortunately seem to be the minority. I hate what he's done. I resent that remark.
To be fair, I don't think you're included in that; chimp-boy Bush usually only preaches to the converted, after all.......
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shave your bush!
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Apparently the HLP seems to be strongly liberal, eh? Or strongly against Bush. Or both. And don't take this post wrong it is in no way an insult nor does it express my opinions.
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:lol: I don't like that kind of bush either.
Well, we could have everyone take the politics test to find out where they stand. The questions on those are always horribly worded though.
Oh, I guess you're right Aldo. Sorry, I got a little carried away there, it happens. We're just humans.
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[q]Well, we could have everyone take the politics test to find out where they stand.[/q]
Suggest that again, and I'll have to cut off your typing fingers for the greater good.
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I type by means of telekinesis. :p
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Originally posted by icespeed
by the way, as a native-born chinese, i'd like to point out that the asian work ethic _does_ exist and it _does_ make a huge influence on our lifestyle and culture, but it does _not_ preclude happiness, since happiness is largely dependent on what you think it is.
i've grown up with competition and industriousness, and the only reason i'm unhappy with that mindset is because i live in australia where (no offence) the white kids never did any work cos their parents didn't care enough to force them to, so i had something to compare my own lifestyle with. when you're living in cities full of other people for whom promotion and getting a better quality of life is pretty much everything, you define what makes you happy differently- i know people who quite happily worked their fingers to the bone during their prime years for a big retirement package, even though they may not be able to enjoy the money in the same way.
another reason for the hard working thing is the family- you work hard to make sure your family has enough support when you're gone, especially if you're the husband of the household.
okay, i'll stop lecturing on asian fiscal culture now.
I was one to grow up on the side that wasn't pressured to study very much etc. After coming through the educational system (and am about to go back into it) I got a good understanding of myself and the system.
I can look back and say that I honestly wish my folks were harder on me and made me concentrate on study. I virtually got no orders to do Homework etc. Luckily I hung out with smart friends, and partly through peer pressure and some friendly competition I made myself study and work harder.
Looking back I wish I'd had the pressure much earlier. I realized the sensible thing to do a little to late, and wasn't really as much effort as I could have put towards it. I walked away from highschool with an OP of 8, which is not bad at all. But I fully believe I could of achieved an OP1 had I learnt to concentrate on my work much earlier.
But I still enjoyed the freedom I did have. If an equilabrium could be found between the two, that would be perfect paranting. Some day, I hope to accomplish that. (In the distant, distant future that is :p)
Originally posted by EtherShock
:rolleyes: Now that is a generalization. We are not all stupid idiots that take "King George's" words as gospel. We just unfortunately seem to be the minority. I hate what he's done. I resent that remark.
I'm sorry mate. I was quite tired while typing that so my grammer was out a bit and I didn't really get across what I meant properly.
I meant that the people who usually listen to and believe most if not all of what Bush says appear less conscious of all the facts. I'm gathering from the fact that George is still in Presidency that the majority of voting american's agree for the most part in what he has to say.
I know that not all American's think one way. I recall how an American comedian touring Australia was saying how the majority of the public are so misinformed. How he reads news articles online and from non-american writers to get all pieces of the story.
Also, whenever a political item comes from america, there always seems to be a focus on Terror, a fine example being the China article. Even the way the article was written the writer IMO slightly came across as "American's should be afraid of China". The government always seems to be instilling fear in the people, something that China obviously did not buy.
So sorry if I came across as stereo-typing the american people, it was not my intent.
Though I have to admit, I honestly cannot recall one instance where George Bush appeared / acted intelligent.
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I'm not sure how I feel about China being labelled a "new" power. I suppose modern China is a pretty new fixture on the global scene, but man... before the modern era, China was powerful beyond imagination for eons before that. Pity about the Cultural Revolution.
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China went through a fairly long low period. It can basically be traced to when China became isolationist, and it lasted until the Cold War or so. Since then, it's been recovering. Sort of awaking a sleeping dragon...
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i dont worship bush, but i certainly dont pretend to have even the foggiest idea of what goes on in the white house every day. he's the president...it's not an easy job...people need to realise that it's just as sheepish and "in" to criticize someone as it is to listen and follow blindly....
people want gas prices to be lowered...people want us to stoip killin them iraqis, but they also dont want us to get attacked again...damn bush for not getting our asses to mars, but damn him more for ignoring our education system while he takes a minute to consider nasa...c'mon people, it's a lose-lose situation...come up with a list of all the "jobs" that the president is supposed to do...it's rediculous...in all reality, it's IMPOSSIBLE...not just for bush, but for any one man....that's why the government is bigger than just him
the president is just the scapegoat and figurehead for the rest of government; if you honestly think youre involved with politics, then you should be keeping track of every single senator and representative that votes contrary to what you think
but most of all, if you disagree with something, dont just b--geez-i'm-itch-y about it and complaign...come up with a better idea! run for office! complaining and doing nothing helps no one
for example....testing the coding work, etc., done here....if you just say "OMG it cra5hed!!11! h3IIPPP!1!!!!!1" or "this mod sucks", it's useless....point out exactly where the problems are, explain the circumstances, etc...or ideally, fix it yourself! basically, strive to be an elite haxor coder like bob or whoever, except in real-life (tm) :)
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History depicts that new nations of power will always rise and fall, each successor more powerfull than the last. I don't think there's much that America can do about it, I don't know why they feel so threatened. As long as a nation endures, keeps its culture and lives peacefully, what more could you want?
Slightly OT: They say if a WW3 were ever to occur, the world would be run from Australia in the aftermath.
There's also the saying of Einstein, 'I don't know what WW3 will be fought with but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones'.
I personally think that give Australia a century or two and we could become the next major power. :)
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During the Schiavo fiasco, it was very disturbing to see how far Congress went in order to attempt to circumvent the law, kind of makes you wonder exactly how separate church and state are. I feel sorry for whoever becomes the government's pawn in those kind of situations. What we need is a true democracy, but there's too many holes in the potential methods for that. In an ideal world, it might work however.
Originally posted by Setekh
I'm not sure how I feel about China being labelled a "new" power. I suppose modern China is a pretty new fixture on the global scene, but man... before the modern era, China was powerful beyond imagination for eons before that. Pity about the Cultural Revolution.
I once read somewhere that China was as "developed" as medieval Europe during the middle ages. After all, they invented gunpowder, the compass, and many other things. Then they fell "behind" because of strict rules or something. I don't remember. They were constantly invaded however, seems like everyone liked to pick on China, right up to the communist revolution.
No worries Grug, I just got a little stirred up. I can't even listen to the president speak because he's such a horrible public speaker, but that's enough Bush bashing for one thread.
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Originally posted by Setekh
I'm not sure how I feel about China being labelled a "new" power. I suppose modern China is a pretty new fixture on the global scene, but man... before the modern era, China was powerful beyond imagination for eons before that. Pity about the Cultural Revolution.
Yeah, it's fairer to say that China has just had a few bad centuries, and now they're back.
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I once read something about WWIII. It was meant as a joke. All I can remember is that it would last 12 years, start in the Middle East, and Russia would suffer heavy casualties.
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the Schiavo thing...i'm sorry, but that was all wrong
we need people who strive to do what is RIGHT over what is LEGAL...the laws were made to guide us towards doing what is right, not to be some damn bible-rulebook--instruction-booklet for how to run things; the laws are flawed...only a fool would disagree; with that, the law should move towards what is right...it shouldnt be the other way around
living by some written paragraph of text is idiotic and robotic
her "husband" should not have had any authority in the manner...hell, if you live with someone for a certain amount of time, youre married by commonlaw nowadays...the same should be true for the opposite; his interests were not with her, whether he had good intentions or not; a simple solution would have been to sign the rights to her over to her parents, who WANTED her
and that's not even getting into the matter of whether she was alive or dead...seriously, if she even really did say that she wanted to be killed if she ever wound up like that, wtf does she care at that point? if she's a vegetable, then it doesnt matter! let the parents do what they want and be happy! they WANTED to be burdened with her
many people make recoveries from her situation...neurobiology is still a mystery; judging her to be "dead" is equivalent to making a judgement on whether aliens can communicate telepathically...we dont even have the beginnings of the knowledge required to determine that, lol
and even then...after the judgement, they let her STARVE? what the hell? they feed retards with tubes, why not her? is starving someone humane?
damn world is all becoming Nazi germany is what it is...they started the same way....kill all the handicaps, theyre not even human, what good are they? sure, abortion is fine...they arent human anyways...why bother with self-control? let's just do what makes life easier on us...let's go kill some people that annoy me now
ahem...anyways....there needs to be a global government (the UN doesnt count), obviously...who is the "superpower" shouldnt even matter, nor should it even exist...but, that's not the way things are gonna go, sadly...not for a good long while atleast
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Sounds vaguely like biblical prophecy when you put it that way,
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lol, well, i'm no prophet :)
the bible implies that a world government will be near the end of times for us all, but alas....it's not the world gonvernment that is the bad idea...it's just that apparently, the bad men, aka satan and company, will manage to gain control over it
but, so far as me saying it's a ways off...that's just because i dont think people are near enough in that kinda mindset to get along and play nice...unless, like mentioned elsewhere...some vasudans or something attack us...being united against a common cause would do wonders...of course, at this point, if we were attacked by ET, sure, maybe we'd all unite, but there would be no Independence Day computer-virus-bomb-destroys-mothership.....we'd be toast, and all die together :)
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We could learn to tolerate each other, as opposed to like each other. I'm a bit of an idealist though, so I'd prefer we actually get along instead of faking it. I think they joked about that once on Futurama. :)
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people are too afraid to be able to do it....i dont know, it'd take a big thing to change it all...
the world is still very primitve so far as society goes...we're all a buncha monkies ready and willing to smash the skull of any other monkey who even looks at our bananas
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I think tolerance for races have come along way. Its rare that you see racism anymore these days, and if it does occur its immediatly stamped out and frowned upon. (Well where I am anyway)
I think people are losing respect for each other though. Schools are appaling these days. Swearing starts in Preschool for goodness sake. Respect for eldars is falling. It dreads me to think what the majority of the next generation are going to be taught and thus become. =/
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i agree there....respect for the fellow man is being replaced with selfishness and trying to gain authority over that fellow man
where ya at grug? racism still around in the USA...even if it's not as overt as it used to be; people in black communities, people in asian communities...and yes, those odd occurances of only white people going to a certain school when there's like...a billion black people in the next city over...it's just quiet racism now, and it comes from both sides
"racism" isnt the end though...i mean, the kurds and whoever got their beef over there in iraq...theyre all brown to me, but they still hate each other and live seperately; racism is becoming social-cism...or something
even in switzerland or whatever...the confederacy thing...ok, sure, it's been that way, and it works, but still...why do they needa be split up with the german-bloods on one side, the french-bloods on the other, etc? ( i dont know the actually divisions, i'm american, i'm too powerful to be concerned with being taught that stuff in school...we have important things, like....learning about...uhh...yeah, our education system sucks)
why the need for borders to our countries at all? why the need for countries? so long as there are countries with borders, there will be that sense of seperate-identity, that sense of "you stay there, this is MY kind of people"
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Switzerland is comprised of French, German, and Italian speaking people (at least). Makes you wonder how they break down the language barrier. It's pretty self-explanatory how they do, they learn the other's. I think they learn both in school, not sure. Btw, I'm an American. :)
Yeah, our education system blows. Racism is still prevalent in many areas of the world. Most people no longer have the balls to say anything racist in mixed company, but it's still there, and there's all sorts of other discrimination, age/sex/gender/class, you name it.
I lived with two different black roommates in school. Let's just say I learned a lot about how society works, and had my patience put to its limits. Each generation becomes more understanding or more tolerant at least. It's a very slow process. It will be some time before we embrace our differences significantly. I feel a big problem today here in the US at least, is that groups flaunt their differences way too much, blacks are too "black," Asians are too "Asian," Hispanics are too "Hispanic," you get the idea.
Btw, the monkey remark was well said Kris.
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i dont mind bush too much, il vote for whichever guy i think stands the best chance of starting a global thermonuclear war. irradiate this rock!
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lol....live up to your name, eh nuke?
i voted for bush for one reason: he didnt support abortion
i dont love him, i dont hate him...i figure he's prolly a nice guy in person, i also figure he has a tough as nails job....i figure he could be better, but then again, who cant stand to be better? he's prolly made some mistakes, and screwed some things up, but, i didnt even try to get the job, so what do i know? i do know, that besides the constant doom-and-gloom from those who dont like him, we're still here, essentially the same as we've always been (except gas costs a little more...but the american people have little reason to complain about gas prices...how much you guys pay for petrol over there in the UK? i heard it was like...atleast twice what we pay)
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Yes but then we have an equally dictatorial government as you. The problem is they're determined to get us off the roads, even if we do get more fuel efficient cars.
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Originally posted by Swantz
Apparently the HLP seems to be strongly liberal, eh? Or strongly against Bush. Or both. And don't take this post wrong it is in no way an insult nor does it express my opinions.
Both, I think. Albeit a lot of use come from europe and have a vastly different perspective, tending (IMO) to judge Bush/Republicans/America on the basis of its foreign policy, which is a particularly contentious issue of late.
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Krisvek, please stop spamming the forum with OT stuff.
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*zip*
(i wasnt the only oneeee :-P)
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i actually do hope china surpasses us. they would have done it without much aid of religion, which could really hurt the church. yay! :D
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Isn't the Communist party/Chairman Mao their religion, though?
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:lol: You could call it that. I think the primary religions of China are Buddhism, Confuciusism, and Taoist. Go punch it in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#Culture_and_religion).
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none of which are practeced by any major portion of the populace.