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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Power_and_the_New_Man...
As for the "80's and 90's" he's been writing this sort of article, IIRC, since 1940 or so, when he was 12.
I respect Chomsky very much, and I have learned a lot from him. But I do wonder to what extent his views are based on a possibly over-optimistic view of the world's potential, and a refusal or inability to accept that the the universe might be fundamentally unjust and that life is not always dignified or sacred. I would like to share his hopeful outlook (hopeful in the sense that he seems to think there ought to be a…
As to cooperation and competition, war is part of evolution that leads to the formation of modern human. But with invention of nuclear weapon the original rules that benefit to whole specie (but not individuals) are not applied any more. So Chomsky's view might just happened to match a modified better pattern then the politically incorrect but factually correct "fundamentally unjust universe" view that I partially agree with
Now that the U.S. has left Afghanistan, thus reducing our "imperialism" according to Chomsky, are Afghans better off? No, they are worse off, especially women.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He refers to himself as an anarchist, first and foremost. He has what would be seen as very “liberal” as in “progressive” views in US political terms.
I’m not American, I felt the word liberal referred to an American democrat party, centre-left line of thinking more so than classic leftist views - is that wrong?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do recall that the Soviets for a good bit had a leg up on rocketry and were more or less neck-and-neck on thermonuclear weapons. When your adversary has intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons aimed at your cities, you do whatever you can to avoid those being used, including whatever espionage you can get away with.
And when the Soviets found themselves in this exact situations, those rascals too had resorted to whatever espionage they could get away with! The nerve of them! In the early 2010 I've read a news story about Czechs finding and declassifying some old military plans from the 1970-ies (desgined in the USSR and then supplied to the rest of Warsaw Pact) which went along the lines of "launch the strategical nuclear strike…
I respect Chomsky very much, and I have learned a lot from him. But I do wonder to what extent his views are based on a possibly over-optimistic view of the world's potential, and a refusal or inability to accept that the the universe might be fundamentally unjust and that life is not always dignified or sacred. I would like to share his hopeful outlook (hopeful in the sense that he seems to think there ought to be a…
Now that the U.S. has left Afghanistan, thus reducing our "imperialism" according to Chomsky, are Afghans better off? No, they are worse off, especially women.
The Taliban were winning, that is why the US was driven out. Because it was clear the US was leaving the Taliban were willing to wait.
The reality is the US would have to defend the country for many decades. Spend huge amount of money against the will of the waste majority of Americans on propping up a group of warlords who are often as bad the Taliban (and some of them were worse).
The Afgan government was the most corrupt in the world. The whole economy was a based on US military presence and aid, plus selling of poppy. A country far, far more depended on exporting poppy even then Colombia at the peak of the 'Narco State'.
The money going to the army subsidies officers, equipment stolen and sold, often to the Taliban. Local officials pocketing funds for local administration.
Most woman in Afghanistan still lived according tradition, and laws in most of the country continued to be sharia based. Some studies even found that courts in government areas were stricter.
How do you avoid the 'we are ruling them for their own good'. Should British have stayed in India? All imperialist claim their rule was 'civilizing' the country. Can Afghans never rule themselves? What about other nations who have those kinds of laws? Should the US occupy all of the Middle East and Central Asia in a Pro Womans right campaign? What about Indonesia? Should the US rule those 100s of millions as well?
I respect Chomsky very much, and I have learned a lot from him. But I do wonder to what extent his views are based on a possibly over-optimistic view of the world's potential, and a refusal or inability to accept that the the universe might be fundamentally unjust and that life is not always dignified or sacred. I would like to share his hopeful outlook (hopeful in the sense that he seems to think there ought to be a…
He disagrees it must be a feature of our social life.
Clearly we have the capacity to move beyond blunt conquest of each other literally. Why not socially?
To him it’s a matter of how we instigate each other to solve problems.
I can prove a lot of math itself with an R Pi. Is the industrial churn to sell new iPhones each year necessary to humanity or the Ferengi Alliance?
What would society look like if we forced austerity on capitalists and put all our smart people on equality of condition? My bet is it looks more like 1950s-60s economically.
What we do instead is focus on semantics of abstract rules of trade originating from the Bible (40 shekels and 12 goats for a daughter please), repackaged by aristocrats into economics models the normies were too ignorant to understand are just a description of what happens normally in math not English.
We don’t need to LARP a physics textbook.
Why make music or anything if the goal is to RP we’re just animals? Be an animal.
I wonder how much of the authoritarian tendencies of the government of certain countries (e.g. Russia, China, Iran) is driven by a desire to maintain the stability and control presumably needed to resist hostile actions by the US empire that ironically professes freedom and democracy.
All communist parties had party cleansing before they even gain power in their own countries. And the first thing they did after they gain power was newer round of party cleansing, killing millions. No, communist parties are not book clubs. In mao’s expression: 干革命不是请客吃饭。
This is a good starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge