From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Nov 09 2001 - 09:13:19 MST
Amara wrote:
> There are many ways to help other people and countries in trouble,
> however I've not seen the U.S. Government practice very many of
> those. There are indeed respectful ways to treat other cultures,
> but I've not seen the U.S. Government practice very many of those, either.
Are we not dropping food packets and was not the population facing
a situation where hundreds of thousands of people were at risk of
starving this winter *before* Sept. 11th?
What is the foreign aid budget of the United States?
Should we not be spending that money? (I'm sure many of the
libertarians on the list would argue against it...).
Should we just ignore the world entirely (as was the general
course before Sept. 11th)?
> I'd much rather support my practice of being a human living on
> this planet Earth with the other humans.
The question is *how* does one go about doing that when you know
for sure that there are people who consider you to be an "infidel"
and are willing to commit terrorist acts against you? Should we
all just go live in a bunker in the Mojave desert?
As has been discussed in other threads -- the "cultures" of the
world (including our own) are *not* sustainable. Sooner or later
once you have developed the technologies to cure diseases and
adopt the use of those technologies the world goes to hell
in a handbasket *unless* those cultures change. Those cultures
that value "boys" over "girls" will result in > 2 children families
which sooner or later will lead to overpopulation and a destruction
of the ecosystem. Our own culture being dependent on oil is
not sustainable and the global warming it will eventually cause
will at some point cause significant problems.
Amara complains about the U.S. being intolerant of other cultures.
We complain about others (e.g. greens) being intolerant of our
"culture". I think we need to truthfully acknowledge that all
of the cultures have problems and we should focus on finding
the common ground (e.g. sustainability and extropic freedom)
that will lead us out of the mess.
Robert
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