lwien said:
While I don't deny what you have stated above, in my opinion, the US would be hated by some regardless what her foreign agenda was. The US is the world superpower with a LOT of wealth and a very high standard of living. When ANY entity has that kind of power, there will ALWAYS be those that will hate her. It's human nature. Doens't matter if she's a person, or a country.
* may take some brickbats for this but i had a dbv session so we'll see what goes. these are just my thoughts, not meant to offend anyone. please...
(lwien, you know i respect you, man, and my thanks still remain for your kind offer. some parts we agree on but pls allow me to take some artistic license to rant a bit, eh? )
well, frogbmth commented about wealth, and maybe those french (sorry no offense to any french tokers) or some european diplomats may have an issue with the power an american politician wields during those world summit meetings, but as a person on the street in a faraway land (ex british colony), the power of USA has never been an issue. never been with me or any of the guys i grew up with so your statement of 'power creating hate' is a big misconception, at least with me.
If anything, i grew up on a steady diet of american culture (bonanza, hardy boys, battlestar, knight rider, a-team........rocky, rambo) and have been sentimentally pro-biased towards america. even during the cold war, it was US as good guys, and Russians the bad guys. and i never had dreams of going to exotic places or climbing the highest mountain, i just wanted to ride a harley to grand canyon, route 66 or one of those 'easy rider' trips. maybe to las vegas or new orleans too.
But as you grow up and you see & read things, u discover shades of grey exist and white & black often mix. yeah, it was clear cut that america was kickin' ass the right way in ww2 but i came back from vietnam awhile back and i can tell you the victims of agent orange don't really care how wealthy america is. they just don't want their kids to be born with one eye, 3 legs, one hand and half a dick. And were those 3000 lives lost in 9/11 any more precious than 400+ unarmed civilians (including children and babies) killed in the My Lai Massacre or the people of vietnam who paid so heavy a price in the war ? more precious than the supposed 60k innocents that perished in the iraq war? does the answer depend on where you are from?
i'm no world history expert but it is kinda shifty what happened in those latin america countries (like panama, nicaragua, chile etc) where the US conducted so many operations or coups to protect 'America's national interest' or 'restore democracy' or some slogan that jives with the american public. some would say that with so many tinpot dictators in these '3rd world countries', shit was gonna happen anyway to those people. maybe so, but it certainly doesn't help when america government trains military muscle and helps enforce exploitative and destructive policies for the benefit of US businesses (oil, logging, pharma etc). those countries resources are targeted, they are then systematically raped without regard to the long term consequences of the people or the environment. and god help you if you were a dissident trying to fight 'the good cause' for your country cause chances are you and your family would have their asses thrown into jail, tortured or just plain disappeared.
And now the action is in the middle east, lots of them black gold ripe for the pickin'. great that democracy is being restored in iraq, and afghanistan is about to discover 'peace'
. yeah, you all killed some bad guys and all, too bad some farmers or their kids had to die in the process, collateral damage y'know but what the fuck, it doesn't affect the supply of the american public's playstations, xboxes, diet of hollywood movies or their supersized meals. and who gives a shit about some farmer in iraq who lost his family, or his house, his land ravaged; basically he's got nothing so what the fuck he thinks - he hangs around the jihad group for some 'emotional support', maybe get a free meal and then he's offered the chance for revenge
. and the cycle goes on.
and that, makes me a bit sad. america, with all it's power could have led this world to a new, better age for humanity, and for a safer environmental future for our planet. instead, it is a place where big corporations lead the actions of politicians. all these players are no ordinary gangsters. they have both the law and the gun at their disposal. so men in shadowy places plan wars in faraway lands, while giving the public enough consumer distraction to.....make it ok. So (imho), we are led to a new age of consumerism and shallow materialism, the age of capitalism. this western based concept basically entails corporations that are expected to show growth every quarter (show a growth but less than expected and it's a disappointment); the consumer now buys more, more, more of things to satisfy both the corporation's growth/greed and to feed into the american illusion of success. yes, the american dream, supersized.
i mean the financial crisis was just another reminder that the american money-men would fuck anyone over for another buck. starting wars is just "another day at work". then, i read stuff about the chinese businessmen selling contaminated food and killing people n all, and everyone's like 'fuck the chinese!'. what's the difference between the chinese $ men and the american $ men? answer - the chinese have lousy pr.
and lwien, when you mentioned "a very high standard of living" and how some might be jealous of it, could be true but then again, not everyone wants a million dollar penthouse, flash cars, 50" HD tvs and vaporizers in every room or the ability to supersize their meals. some people have a different definition of a 'higher standard of living' while some others may be just happily contented living in a longhouse next to a jungle or being able to feed their family with their farm goods grown on a patch of their farmland. To some happiness is having basic shelter, food & clothing and the chance to see their kids grow up right. and if they get screwed, they should get screwed by their own people, not collaboratively with some foreign power who's looking to rape their country's resources and make a whole load of blood money in the process.
those damned politicians or 'people in higher authority' (or the corporations who bankroll them) are dealing with what, the US defence budget for a year being usd600-800b? w some extras when war happens like development contracts, security contracts, what-the-fuck contracts, trade agreements etc and that's a lot of money involved. If you were part of the gravy train, would you want it to stop? you might just systematically take out any idiot stoopid enough to try. i'd probably feel bad, but i'll take him out too.
in a way, i sympathise with the victims who have paid a price for this 'stance', this tactic of systematic oppression/aggresion by the authorities in higher power against those who don't stand in line with their interest because that is exactly what is being done to us marijuana users. the US drug war has pressured many asean countries into setting very heavy penalties for mj trade & use, and you know who that benefits. even american medical mj facilities with licenses get their doors kicked down sometimes, so 'they' don't give a fuck about what rules are in place (or maybe they do but they know how to circumvent the whole issue into the bureaucratic system). yeah, they really don't give a shit. in fact, we're fuckin' irritants to them.
yeah, i believe the whole system is basically flawed (my opinion is biased of course) and i also believe it will reach a tipping point before anarchy begins. how long? my wild guess, 1-2 generations if things don't change (maybe some star trek tech comes out that just changes the whole picture n creates some equilibirum among the masses). if not, imagine the technological impact of explosive devices in the future, 50 years ahead, could be so much easier to take the war to the enemy's city. maybe it just takes one fundamental nutcase/dissedent/revenge seeker that slips by with a hand held 'briefcase' bomb to take out a whole city. fuck, in a way i'm glad i won't be around to see the future.
so, after all this writing about world affairs, what am i gonna do? since it's a friday night, i'm gonna toke (again) with the legendary da buddha vaporiser. yeah, i'm exercising my personal right of freedom. it's too bad this notion means jackshit to some who because of their 'might of arms' choose to blatantly yell out thru their actions "you are with me, or against me, and to hell with the consequences, for there are none".
thanks.
p/s - i saw Thor! 3* out of 5, a good marvel movie. excelsior!