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My new favorite book of all time

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Re: My new favorite book of all time

#91

Post by adventured »

kiliantics wrote: post #68
adventured wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which wars did the US start on a lie for oil ?

You could easily argue that most of the conflict the US is currently involved in - and there are many! with boots on the ground or otherwise[0] - have some motive involving petrodollar or other resources. [0] https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-16/us-now-involved-134-w...

So let me see if I have this straight.

Highly respected, four star general, Wesley Clark says that the Iraq war was about attempting to strip Russian influence out of the Middle East. That the plan was to knock over several of the dictatorships there, which were overwhelmingly friendly toward Russia and hostile toward the US and its allies.

You're saying it was about oil primarily. Yet the US didn't take Iraq's oil. The US didn't even secure an outsized share of contracts related to Iraq's oil. The US vaporized a trillion dollars, along with suffering tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, trying to stop the Iraqi civil war in which Iraqis killed hundreds of thousands of each other.

Simultaneously over that decade the US technologically unlocks its massive shale oil resources, making Middle Eastern oil almost entirely moot strategically. So much so, that the US is now merely about 10% of Saudi oil demand.

And the US got what out of all of that Iraq mess when it comes to oil? The US stuck its military where it shouldn't have been, and it did so for geo-political reasons, not economic reasons. The US was a massive loser economically from that effort to try to weaken Russia, it was an economic disaster. The net 'benefit' over two decades will be perhaps close to a negative two trillion dollars all-in.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#92

Post by rjkennedy98 »

This article/video explains why so many people have completely lost faith in our technocratic elite.

The idea that "You’re 37 times less likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than you were at the turn of the century" makes a large difference in the happiness of people is ridiculous.

Why are people pessimistic about the future?

Maybe its because the rates of addiction (including to smart phones and other screens), of psychiatric disease, and of suicide are all on the rise.

Maybe its because rates of marriage and church attendance are on the decline.

Maybe its because of the debasement of our culture and education.

Technological progress is not the same as progress of the human condition. Our technocratic leaders would like to believe it is, but it is not.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#93

Post by martin1975 »

topleveldomain wrote: post #17

" War is illegal. This idea seems obvious. But before the creation of the United Nations in 1945, no institution had the power to stop countries from going to war with each other. Although there have been some exceptions, the threat of international sanctions and intervention has proven to be an effective deterrent to wars between nations." I would argue that something else that happened in 1945 has been a much bigge…

Nothing has had as large an impact on the maintenance of relative peace, at least between large/nuclear nations, as the atomic bomb. It's the MAD principle - mutually assured destruction. I think our discovery of nukes is actually pretty cool.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#94

Post by sooheon »

iamcasen wrote: post #88
chippy wrote: post #47

The British philosopher John Gray is a good counterpart to Pinker's idea of progress. He focuses on the myths of progress, civilisation and freedom. This is his response to Pinker: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/13/john-gray-stev... "A new orthodoxy, led by Pinker, holds that war and violence in the developed world are declining. The stats are misleading, argues Gray – and the idea of moral progress is wi…

Thank you. I couldn't help but feel like Pinker is peddling feel-good nonsense to sell books, and give people hope to cling to. Progress or betterment is entirely subjective, and when considering the human condition, relies on too many variables to even count. Of course, the variables the Pinker focuses on have gotten better overall. The way I see it is a chaotic scatterplot that is trending slightly upwards towards…

It's telling that one of the richest, most well off men on Earth is helping to peddle this narrative. It behooves those in positions of power and wealth to hoodwink the masses into being satisfied with their given stations. Research and statistics say the world is a better place than ever, put down your protest signs.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#95

Post by agumonkey »

hodgesrm wrote: post #56
agumonkey wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember something called like frontpage or coverage effect; by the time mainstream people talk about something big, it peaked.

It's a well-known superstition in sports: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Illustrated_cover_jinx .

thanks, didn't know the english idiom

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#96

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

melling wrote: post #15

I don’t get it. It’s a feel good book? Something more interesting would be learn how to more quickly improve the world. The world of 2100 could arrive in 2050, for example. Gates has around $100 billion to improve the world. How to most effectively leverage his money, for example? Build a better pharmaceutical company and cure some of the diseases on his list? Help to create better economies in Africa? [UPDATE] This…

Holy downvotes, Batman.

My two cents on population: cars are a cancer on modernity. For a hundred years we have structured cities and societies around the automobile. As a result we as a species are largely bound to an expensive machine and a design of society that cannot function without that expensive machine. Many cities (especially in America, which is an enormous country with lots of space) are so sprawled out and gutted from public transit (thanks GM!) that transportation is impossible without the automobile. It’s even worse when you factor in the fact that a lot of freight is also required to be moved by automobile.

Sprawl increases costs of transportation and infrastructure (roads, water, gas, electric, sewage) by an enormous degree. This in turn raises the cost of everything else to everybody.

Even a perfect Jason Statham self-driving car would serve as a band-aid over a diseased organ.

The very difficult question we must ask if we expect to maintain our standard of living with a growing population and a planet rotting from overconsumption is how do we redesign ALL cities to operate at the lowest possible cost per person. Otherwise we continue to pass along the cost to the planet and the next generations...assuming there will be any...

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#97

Post by sooheon »

antman wrote: post #90

A comment of his previous book that whitewashed in the most absurd way modern era's industrialized warfare and other horrors, through data selection about thunders and other less important metrics: http://energyskeptic.com/2015/13-fallacies-of-steven-pinkers...

Gates and Pinker are rich, ivory tower dwelling opiate peddlers.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#98

Post by dragonwriter »

adventured wrote: post #91
kiliantics wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could easily argue that most of the conflict the US is currently involved in - and there are many! with boots on the ground or otherwise[0] - have some motive involving petrodollar or other resources. [0] https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-16/us-now-involved-134-w...

So let me see if I have this straight. Highly respected, four star general, Wesley Clark says that the Iraq war was about attempting to strip Russian influence out of the Middle East. That the plan was to knock over several of the dictatorships there, which were overwhelmingly friendly toward Russia and hostile toward the US and its allies. You're saying it was about oil primarily. Yet the US didn't take Iraq's oil.…

> Highly respected, four star general, Wesley Clark says that the Iraq war was about attempting to strip Russian influence out of the Middle East. That the plan was to knock over several of the dictatorships there, which were overwhelmingly friendly toward Russia and hostile toward the US and its allies.

> You're saying it was about oil primarily.

Those aren't conflicting explanations; the US is concerned about the friendliness of governments in the region largely because it cares about how they manage oil supplies (both for price and geostrategic reasons like making sure we have access and our enemies do not in a major crisis.)

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#99

Post by beebmam »

topleveldomain wrote: post #17

" War is illegal. This idea seems obvious. But before the creation of the United Nations in 1945, no institution had the power to stop countries from going to war with each other. Although there have been some exceptions, the threat of international sanctions and intervention has proven to be an effective deterrent to wars between nations." I would argue that something else that happened in 1945 has been a much bigge…

If war has become illegal, then perhaps it is time that we make Nuclear weapons illegal as well.

It only takes one bad actor to light the fuse that ends the world.

Re: My new favorite book of all time

#100

Post by barrkel »

Fricken wrote: post #40

Pew research did a survey where it asked 42,000 people in 38 different nations how their day was. Respondents could answer 'particularly good', 'typical', or 'particulary bad'. Nigerians are having the best time, with 73% of respondents saying they were having a particularly good day. In Japan on 11% were having a particularly good day. The outcomes of this pew study correlate inversely with studies that objectively…

People are biased to want to grow and be challenged. An easy life is an unsatisfying life.

Are games the answer?

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