David Brin on - Pax Americana

BWhite · 2005-03-24 17:16:09

Wow, I like http://www.davidbrin.com/neocons.html]this guy.

He makes the case for a "smart, agile and decent Pax Americana" Yup, I can go for that.

Lets stop arguing about "http://www.davidbrin.com/lrdogmas.html]Left v. Right" - - Brin asserts the French invented the idea of "left versus right" anyway.

So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool. :;):

= = =

Even if you generally approve of Pax Americana -- especially if you do -- this kind of behavior (goading foreigners for their impotence) should seem immature at best. At worst positively moronic

Well said.

= = =

David Brin on http://www.davidbrin.com/bullies.html]tipping over Saddam.

Well said, again.

On any playground, it is the duty of any big, good-hearted boy or girl to stop bullies from terrorizing the little kids. Americans know this in their hearts and feel no shame over knocking down a horror like Saddam. That's the good part. The part that resembles our role in the Balkans.
Liberals who ignore this -- criticizing the goal and accomplishment of toppling Saddam -- are cluelessly and needlessly shooting themselves.

Edited By BWhite on 1111706563

Shaun Barrett · 2005-03-24 20:35:03

Bill:-

So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool.

Huh?!! Oh the shame of it all! :bars:
All these years I thought I was thinking for myself and now it turns out I've been no more than a puppet of the French.

Interesting man that David Brin. He sounds just like you, Bill.
Hmmm .. Brin. That's not originally a French surname, is it? ??? [ ]

[Brin makes a number of fundamental errors in his assessment, of course; oversimplification of complex and ever-changing world circumstances being the main one.
Without going into a point-by-point counter-argument, it's obvious, for example, that comparing the Balkans in the 90s with the Middle East in the 00s is a nonsense. Different problem, different continent, different people, different world situation, and not surprisingly a different outcome.
The other main problem is his spurious assertion that an obviously pre-existing and already expanding militant Islamic movement was somehow brought into existence, or at least exacerbated, by the invasion and liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq. The build-up in the frequency and audacity of Islamofascist attacks on the West, leading up to the Twin Towers attack in 2001, was evident to everyone except Brin, apparently. There's absolutely no proof at all that Islamic terrorist attacks on Western interests since Afghanistan/Iraq are any worse than they would have been - in fact, the reverse is just as possible and there's no way of knowing. Yet Brin's assumptions become 'facts'

I could go on but there's little point to it. I won't convince anyone of anything, after all.
Many of Brin's points are good food-for-thought, though, and I like some of his stuff very much. But, as always, we need to sift carefully through the inevitable prejudices and consequent inaccuracies that show up in the work of even astute philosophers like him. ]

Palomar · 2005-03-24 21:25:04

Bill:-
So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool.
Huh?!! Oh the shame of it all! :bars:
All these years I thought I was thinking for myself and now it turns out I've been no more than a puppet of the French.

:laugh:

You're okay in my books, Shaun. :up: And how ironic: You've only visited this nation once, as a tourist from your native homeland of Australia, and more often than not *you're* called upon to defend American policies -- and at least twice have been mistaken for an American by political opponents.

--Cindy

BWhite · 2005-03-24 22:25:50

The other main problem is his spurious assertion that an obviously pre-existing and already expanding militant Islamic movement was somehow brought into existence, or at least exacerbated, by the invasion and liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq. The build-up in the frequency and audacity of Islamofascist attacks on the West, leading up to the Twin Towers attack in 2001, was evident to everyone except Brin, apparently. There's absolutely no proof at all that Islamic terrorist attacks on Western interests since Afghanistan/Iraq are any worse than they would have been - in fact, the reverse is just as possible and there's no way of knowing. Yet Brin's assumptions become 'facts'

http://www.davidbrin.com/afghanistan.html]The need to get al Qaeda was very clear to the US government before 2000.

Of course, had Clinton invaded Afghanistan in 1999 everyone would have screamed "its a distraction from Moncia-gate"

Note that Brin (and myself) view the pre-Iraqi effort in Afghanistan as having been well done. Had we consolidated that victory and not let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora (which is now being confirmed as true after years of denial) we would be very much further ahead in the war on Islamo-fascism.

(The heart and main funding for al Qaeda is still in Saudi Arabia)

Saddam is/was an evil MF - - but he was not an Islamicist and was deeply hated by bin Laden.

Ah well, been there done that.

= = =

We broke Iraq - - we own Iraq.

= = =

And yes, I believe our FUBAR in Iraq is helping the terrorists recruit new terrorists faster than we are killing or capturing them.

But time will be the best judge of that and I would be very happy to be wrong.

BWhite · 2005-03-24 22:32:06

More David Brin, not Iraq:

Is this cuckoo? Or is our worst failing one of creativity and will? Let's experiment. I'll offer two true statements. You may, by political reflex, nod in sad agreement with one of them and seethe at the other.
The Right spent decades ignoring human-generated Climate Change. Conservatives sneer at the leading role that conservation must play in resolving this peril. Refusing to let efficiency and sustainability become Urgent Projects, they pray instead to the "problem-solving magic of markets," the way natives of Rapa Nui beseeched big statues to restore their ravaged isle.
The Left rejects any role for nuclear power, which helped lift millions out of poverty worldwide without adding appreciably to greenhouse emissions. Three generations have seen high benefit-to-harm ratios from fission reactors. Despite Chernobyl. Despite pollution that -- while frightening -- is intrinsically containable. (This outcomes-ratio stands, astonishingly, even if you include Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) Yet, liberals won't even debate adding carefully designed, next-generation nuclear plants to our toolset for crossing the Gap.
Did you fume at one paragraph while nodding at the other? Step back. Can you see a common reflex? To ignore contrary evidence and automatically say no? These "opposite" party lines share an underlying trait -- loathing distrust for the can-do spirit of modernity and science.

I agree with this as well.

When "liberals" oppose all nuclear power they overlook the ravages of excessive coal burning which is far far worse, like cranes with their necks stuck deep in the sand.

When Dick Cheney says conservation is a voluntary virtue, he is an idiot.

A plague on both houses.

Edited By BWhite on 1111725151

BWhite · 2005-03-24 23:01:13

David Brin on the American consumer:

In fact, the percentage of human beings who live in some degree of comfort and safety, with secure hope that their increasingly educated children will do better, has been rising spectacularly for two generations. And the principal driver of this change has been the U.S. consumer, purchasing the output of tens of thousands of foreign factories, wherein the same pattern gets repeated from one country to the next. Workers systematically move from exploited peons to hard-pressed semi-skilled assemblers, to unionized skilled labor... while roads and infrastructure get built all around them and their kids go to school, graduating into the bourgeoisie.
Let me reiterate this point. Far outweighing all "aid" the world ever saw, the greatest force for good in the world has consisted of Americans purchasing megatons of crap we never had to buy in the first place, under trade rules designed to favor those thousand of foreign factories.
Alas, we'll never get a scintilla of credit for this vast beneficence. Because it did not blossom out of motivations like guilt or generosity. To a large part, it flowed out of a childishly spendthrift love of shopping.

Actually, I do love America. Just not its foolish leaders.

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/03/a … .html]Link - the whole essay is great!

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Shaun Barrett · 2005-03-25 04:48:05

Well, Bill. Just to show I can actually vary my stance on an issue, I've recently become more concerned than I used to be about global warming.

The phenomenon of 'global dimming' has recently impacted on my consciousness via a T.V. documentary. Forgive me if this is all old news to everyone but, apparently, the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface has lessened by an average of some 10% in the last 50 years. Antarctica's been getting about 9% less solar energy and Britain some 16% less, if I remember some of the figures correctly. As far as I know, this conclusion was arrived at using light metering techniques.
Two Australian scientists, aware of this little-publicized anomaly in Earth's insolation but researching something different, serendipitously came across data about something called the 'pan evaporation rate' (PER). This is simply the amount of water that evaporates out of a pan every 24 hours. It appears there have been farming people in Australia, and I presume elsewhere, who've inspected a pan of water every morning for decades, and recorded how much water is required to top up the level to a given mark - something to do with drought investigations and associated record-keeping, I believe. (They deserve a medal for dogged persistence and the two scientists said as much on T.V.! )
Anyhow, the scientists noticed that the PER has been going down since the 1950s and they also determined that, among various factors which might contribute to this reduction, like temperature and humidity, far and away the biggest factor is sunlight intensity.
They did calculations involving the amount of water evaporating and the energy required to achieve that amount of evaporation, and lo and behold, they worked out that the figures for the PER were precisely consistent with a 10% reduction in sunlight at the surface.
This completely different experiment, running for 50+ years and never intended as anything whatsoever to do with the notion of declining insolation, had neatly and exactly corroborated the separate work of others on global dimming! ???

I think you will see where this is leading now.
According to climatologists, Earth's average surface temperature has risen by about 0.7 deg.C in the last 150 years, purportedly because of man-made global warming. The small size of this increase has allowed some people, including myself to some extent, to regard global warming as less serious than some others have claimed.
In my own defence, I have come out on the side of caution and backed genuine calls for CO2 emission controls, though I freely admit my catch-cry has been "the sky isn't falling!"
But if this 0.7 deg.C rise in average temperature has occurred despite a drop of 10% in Earth's insolation over the last half century, that puts the whole question in a potentially very different light (literally and metaphorically)!

Of course, global dimming is not because of huge fluctuations in the Sun's output; astronomers know this is not the case. It turns out that the problem lies with particulate pollution in the atmosphere literally shading the surface.
And here's the conundrum. If we reduce particulate pollution, and we've been making some progress in this direction in recent years, we might well get back the 10% of insolation we've lost.
But imagine what that might do to global temperatures!
Those particles may have been masking the true extent of man-made global warming and it's difficult to say how far that warming might have gone already, in the absence of those particles.

On the upside, I still have a great deal of faith in 'Gaia'. My gut feeling is that Earth and its ecosystem, in concert, are very good at regulating the environment - probably within well constrained limits.
It may well be that, even with full insolation, global temperatures still wouldn't rise much more than they have already and may never be the threat they're touted to be. But the goalposts have been shifted somewhat and my level of concern has risen. On a scale of 1-10, my anxiety level has gone up from about 2 to about 4.

The need for an alternative to fossil fuels, in my opinion, just got more pressing than ever before.

[However, it's not impossible that the cavalry might be coming over the hill. I'm going to try and find the old thread about Cold Fusion and relay some recent information from New Scientist magazine. ]

Palomar · 2005-03-25 06:10:00

Lets stop arguing about "http://www.davidbrin.com/lrdogmas.html]Left v. Right" - - Brin asserts the French invented the idea of "left versus right" anyway.

*So, Bill, are you going to stop bringing up the Blue State vs Red State thing (which is another way of saying Left vs Right)? And if you don't, are you empowering a French way of thinking? :;):

--Cindy

BWhite · 2005-03-25 08:57:15

Lets stop arguing about "http://www.davidbrin.com/lrdogmas.html]Left v. Right" - - Brin asserts the French invented the idea of "left versus right" anyway.
*So, Bill, are you going to stop bringing up the Blue State vs Red State thing (which is another way of saying Left vs Right)? And if you don't, are you empowering a French way of thinking? :;):
--Cindy

Can we agree that being anti-George Bush and his policies does not automatically make one a LEFTIE?

Framing all opposition to GWB as "more leftie nonsense" or "mere politics" is a large part of why the "Left v Right" and "Red v Blue" develops.

Lets just say I love America the same way I would love a daughter to took up with an abusive man. The man of course says that by opposing my daughter's choice in men I really "hate" her but that is all part of the abuse, IMHO.

By Gennaro's definition I am very much not a "leftie" but I still think George W. Bush is driving America's bus off a cliff.

Anything in here to agree upon?

BWhite · 2005-03-25 09:14:34

On the upside, I still have a great deal of faith in 'Gaia'. My gut feeling is that Earth and its ecosystem, in concert, are very good at regulating the environment - probably within well constrained limits.

I agree with this.

On the other hand "Gaia" don't give a bleep about the species homo sapiens. It's not malice, its just the same as asking a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake "to care"

Gaia will balance. DNA will not go extinct. We might.

= = =

And yes, the traditional "leftie answer" to all this is totally bull$hit. "Lets join hands, sign Kumbaya and love our planet"

Crap!

We need an enginnering fix. But first we need to understand the science better (cutting funding for NOAA satellites collecting climate data is a bad idea) and also accept that we are messing with the climate even if we are not quite sure how. And even if "we" are not doing it, climate change threatens our future.

One good first step? Accept and teach good science which means "evolution" cannot be a swear word.

But we might well need a massive engineering fix.

google "methane burp" if you wish to become very afraid.

Staggering amounts of methane clathrates are frozeon in the Arctic. Thaw those materials and a terribly powerful greenhouse gas is released. Runaway greenhouse.

One possible solution would be to increase particulate pollution on purpose to diminish insolation. Ugly but it might work.

= = =

Next, how can we do planetary enginering without first accepting that all humans are legitimate stakeholders in the decision making process? China and India have nukes.

Can we tell them you must remain 2nd world nations while we remain 1st world nations until the climate issues are resolved? Will they accept subservience without lashing out?

China's potential for coal burning will threaten humanity as much or more as anything.

So its not the "evil West" - - not at all.

How do we give the Chinese a decent standard of living without burning a gadzillion tons of coal which might kill us all?

BWhite · 2005-03-25 10:04:02

Bill:-
So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool.
Huh?!! Oh the shame of it all! :bars:
All these years I thought I was thinking for myself and now it turns out I've been no more than a puppet of the French.
:laugh:
You're okay in my books, Shaun. :up: And how ironic: You've only visited this nation once, as a tourist from your native homeland of Australia, and more often than not *you're* called upon to defend American policies -- and at least twice have been mistaken for an American by political opponents.
--Cindy

Very funny!

Of course, I love America as would a parent watching his/her child take up relations with an abusive partner.

Palomar · 2005-03-25 10:21:24

Lets stop arguing about "http://www.davidbrin.com/lrdogmas.html]Left v. Right" - - Brin asserts the French invented the idea of "left versus right" anyway.
*So, Bill, are you going to stop bringing up the Blue State vs Red State thing (which is another way of saying Left vs Right)? And if you don't, are you empowering a French way of thinking? :;):
--Cindy
Can we agree that being anti-George Bush and his policies does not automatically make one a LEFTIE?
Framing all opposition to GWB as "more leftie nonsense" or "mere politics" is a large part of why the "Left v Right" and "Red v Blue" develops.
Lets just say I love America the same way I would love a daughter to took up with an abusive man. The man of course says that by opposing my daughter's choice in men I really "hate" her but that is all part of the abuse, IMHO.
By Gennaro's definition I am very much not a "leftie" but I still think George W. Bush is driving America's bus off a cliff.
Anything in here to agree upon?

*Yes, I see your points Bill. Definitely.

I just thought it was a bit odd, though, what you said to relative to "the French way of thinking" (Left vs Right)...when you often bring up "Blue State vs Red State" and in the manner (perhaps my perceptions are wrong) of siding with the Blue States. :-\

Guess I didn't catch Gennaro's definition.

Politics, blah. You and I are on 2 entirely different wavelengths (nothing wrong with that -- to each our own), Bill.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-03-25 10:29:48

Bill:-
Huh?!! Oh the shame of it all!
All these years I thought I was thinking for myself and now it turns out I've been no more than a puppet of the French.
:laugh:
You're okay in my books, Shaun. :up: And how ironic: You've only visited this nation once, as a tourist from your native homeland of Australia, and more often than not *you're* called upon to defend American policies -- and at least twice have been mistaken for an American by political opponents.
--Cindy
Very funny!
Of course, I love America as would a parent watching his/her child take up relations with an abusive partner.

*That's not the way I meant it.

Shaun definitely seems to have his points of disagreement with various American policies, our President, etc., too.
But it's not for me to speak on anyone else's behalf (besides what he's already said).

Seems to me some people aren't willing to give Shaun credit for his points of *disagreement* with the President/American policies -nor- credit where he *agrees* with you, DonPanic, etc., about various issues.

Also, there are 2 people here who generally keep their cool and stay on-track when disagreed with...and 2 others who become scattered and defensive when disagreed with. Regarding politics, I mean. Names withheld. And I find the attempts at putting a non-U.S. citizen on the defensive regarding U.S. policies as rather odd, especially when 1 or 2 American regulars to New Mars would "do just as well" for those sorts of tactics.

My opinion. And that's enough said already.

America might be wed to an abusive partner, Bill. And there won't be a divorce until January 2009.

Bill: And yes, I believe our FUBAR in Iraq is helping the terrorists recruit new terrorists faster than we are killing or capturing them.
But time will be the best judge of that

I dunno...doesn't seem to me like you are willing to let time be the judge. You seem to have your mind made up that nothing BUT bad will come of the Iraq situation. And no, I'm not overly optimistic myself.

--Cindy

BWhite · 2005-03-25 10:59:08

IMHO, all political questions pale in comparison to this one:

How do we help a billion Chinese (and a billion Indians) attain a decent standard of living without burning gadzillions of tons of coal to do it, which might very well kill us all?

Solve this and humanity might survive long enough to actually colonize space. Successfully become a genuine multi-planet species and human extinction becomes a very, very unlikely prospect.

Edited By BWhite on 1111770034

Shaun Barrett · 2005-03-25 19:17:25

Bill:-

On the other hand "Gaia" don't give a bleep about the species homo sapiens. It's not malice, its just the same as asking a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake "to care"
Gaia will balance. DNA will not go extinct. We might.

This is absolutely correct and a suitable parry to my point about Gaia. I've thought about it often myself. And the point about Chinese coal is well taken too, fitting in well with a similar concern of mine in Brazil - how to stop the relentless logging and clearing of the Amazon basin on environmental grounds, when we First Worlders did the same thing ourselves in our respective countries before the word 'ecology' was thought of.
It appears to me that petty international rivalries and 'primate politics' will probably cloud these issues long enough to allow very serious environmental degradation to occur before a recuperative strategy is agreed upon. China is, as we speak, engaged in mega-projects like the Three Gorges Dam. Projects like these were undertaken, with disastrous results, by the Soviet Union back in the 50s and 60s - go and look at the Aral sea .. or what's left of it. God knows what ecological mayhem will result from China's efforts! And you can't tell them to stop because you'd simply be trying to use your 'evil imperialistic ways' to impose your 'evil capitalistic will' on the good socialist people of China. :bars:
Bill:-

One possible solution would be to increase particulate pollution on purpose to diminish insolation. Ugly but it might work.

This was discussed on the program I watched about global dimming and found to be untenable. Apart from the health issues of all that particulate matter in the air, it turns out that there's a problem with rainfall patterns also.
As we all know, dust and pollen particles act as nuclei for the formation of raindrops. When enough water gathers around one of these nuclei, the mass of that water becomes sufficient to overcome the support of the air molecules around it and it falls to the ground. But we've added so many particles to the upper air, there's not enough water available to coat all those particles with enough mass of water to reach that threshold and allow the droplet to fall as rain. i.e. The water is spread out over too many particles to reach the critical mass required for rainfall and the water remains aloft.
It's been found that the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s is directly attributable to a shifting of the monsoonal rain belt away from those arid regions by the particulate problem inhibiting rainfall.
We really can't go on pumping particulates into the upper atmosphere for these reasons. And yet, to eliminate those particles risks a surge in global temperatures.

Your "engineering fix", Bill, may be all that's left to us. But I doubt the Third World will be interested if they perceive any such fix as stifling their right to progress or imposing economic restraints they feel they can't afford.

That's why I'm excited about the possibility that, in cold fusion, we may have stumbled across something fundamental that would, if it can be exploited, revolutionize energy production and availability worldwide.
Many years ago, in one of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's essays, he pointed out that, with abundant cheap clean energy, everything would change! It would mean plenty of everything for everybody; a genuine socialist Utopia that would actually work this time.

My view is that we would need to simultaneously go about reducing the numbers of humans on this planet by strict birth control - something I've been strenuously advocating since 1969, when I learned that we'd just passed the 3 billion mark. If we could get the human population down to, say, 1 billion, our ability as a species to withstand a sudden climate shift or similar natural calamity would be very greatly enhanced. And, as Cindy has been saying for years now, a massive drive to encourage condom use all over the planet would be enormously helpful in the fight against AIDS also. (I have serious issues with the Catholic Church about this but that's another story.)
???

By the way, Cindy, I'm flattered by your support and your compliments (blush, blush ) but I don't take Bill's schoolyard baiting as seriously as all that:-

So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool.

Neither one of us has taken taunts like that seriously since about the third grade, I suppose, and it was all very tongue-in-cheek!
Mind you, being accused of thinking the way the damned French would want you to think, is enough to make any self-respecting person stop and reconsider!! :laugh:

BWhite · 2005-03-25 19:50:43

Post 66666, I think.

= = =

Yup. Confirmed!

Edited By BWhite on 1111801938

BWhite · 2005-03-25 20:00:28

Brazilian rain forest logging? I agree, that is a very bad thing. But how do we get them to stop?

I agree with Shaun 100% on the Three Gorges dam and the Aral Sea disaster. IIRC, the USSR wiped out entire villages (of people!) with radiation accidents.

If I am harsh on the West, it is because "those who are given much, owe much" or in other words, if "we" do not solve global ecological issues, who will? Also, having such excellent comfortable lives, we have farther to fall if it all goes "Ka-boom!"

Fusion is much to be desired. Lunar platinum (see Wingo's book Moonrush) offers another option and is the theme of my 2nd novel in progress. The "Mormons on Mars" novel is in editing and I am seeking publication options. But in the meantime, novel #2.

Lunar platinum for fuel cells and globalization issues and humanity returns to the Moon. I would prefer Mars, but GWB did win and called for "Moon First"

Ah well, water under the bridge.

Palomar · 2005-03-25 20:04:47

*Well...okay.

Here's http://www1.dragonet.es/users/markbcki/ … ]something for you both to read then.

And no, I've not read it myself.

Guess I'd better lighten up in some respects and not take certain things so seriously. :-\

[Hmmm...I should try the Slash-Mouth Guy the other way:
:-/ ]

Cya.

--Cindy

reddragon · 2005-03-27 16:19:56

That's why I'm excited about the possibility that, in cold fusion, we may have stumbled across something fundamental that would, if it can be exploited, revolutionize energy production and availability worldwide.

Right now I don't think there's much good evidence for cold fusion. Certainly the majority of scientists still don't accept it. Which experiments are you refering to in which people "stumbled across cold fusion."

"Hot" fusion may be a viable option for energy production, although at present I don't believe anyone has built a reactor capable of producing a sustainable reaction which yields more energy than is needed to get it started. Theoretically this should be possible, though, and it's a pitty we're not funding more research into it. It could solve our energy problems.

Shaun Barrett · 2005-03-27 17:57:45

Hi Reddragon.
I wasn't referring to any specific experiments when I said "stumbled across something fundamental" with cold fusion, just the general idea that, in the course of investigating electro-chemistry, we appear to have found reactions perhaps better explained by nuclear processes.
The heat produced in some of the experiments simply cannot be explained by chemical changes; the only processes we know of which can release that much energy are nuclear.
But it's not impossible that the energy is emerging from reactions which are connected with fusion but are actually something new - perhaps something which could open up new fields of study all together.

However, this isn't really the thread in which we should be discussing cold fusion. May I direct your attention to http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3084]THIS THREAD?
(Especially the article I linked in my post dated: Mar. 25 2005, 06:51, which I think is quite informative.)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-08-07 07:57:37

The Decision to Use Atomic Weapons in Japan, a lecture by Richard B. Frank

https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org … frank.html

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-05-30 10:48:09

'Among my predictions - e.g. the AI crisis - most accurate was US deficits.'
https://twitter.com/DavidBrin/status/16 … 0568324096

The scifi writer, a movie Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner. His grandfather was drafted into the Russian army and fought in the Russian-Japanese War of 1905.

Barbados won’t be toasting Charles’s coronation – we’re still celebrating being rid of the monarchy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr … mmonwealth

Pax Britannica, the Latin for "British Peace" the period much like the Roman Empire can claims of periods of relative peace between the great powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power, they continued selling Tea after Americans dumped it not wanting to pay King's taxes and adopted the role of a "global policeman". They were beaten by a rising USA rebellion, Anglo-Spanish War with no conclusion, Boer War, they attempted rule of Afghans but overall British were winning, a defeated Napoleonic France and then had no serious international rival other than Russia in Central Asia. When Russia tried expanding its influence in the Balkans, the British and French defeated them thereby protecting the the Turkish Occupation of Constantinople and supporting the Ottoman Empire, the Occultist Victoria also had a thing for 'Abdul'.

Video

Pax Americana: The Global Liberal Order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqtIoZxwfXs

90 Seconds to Midnight: Hiroshima, President Biden and the Doomsday Clock

https://www.governing.com/context/90-se … sday-clock

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-03-29 13:46:30

quote

Modern Western civilization has extraordinary empathy compared to its power. This is also arguably its greatest weakness.
With the nuclear bomb, America could have subjugated every nation on Earth with ease. Hitler and Stalin would certainly have done so.
Instead, America helped rebuild Germany and Japan!
There is no historical precedent for a nation with so much power helping, rather than destroying, its defeated enemies.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1773477116979646691

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#16 2005-03-25 19:50:43

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#17 2005-03-25 20:00:28

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#18 2005-03-25 20:04:47

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#19 2005-03-27 16:19:56

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#20 2005-03-27 17:57:45

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#21 2022-08-07 07:57:37

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#22 2023-05-30 10:48:09

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

#23 2024-03-29 13:46:30

Re: David Brin on - Pax Americana

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