PeakOil is You
Reality or illusion? and the plot thickens
by PenultimateManStanding » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 20:31:28
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Free', 'T')hat is exactly the myth I want to destroy, that there is some hypnotizing power of getting a mass of people to do something. Of course they where in a hysterical frenzy, but why? ... Kill or get killed, that's what they learned throughout their life.
I read somewhere that the Einsatzgruppen death squads were drunk most of the time. I don't know that for a fact, I think it was Hanna Arendt who wrote that. What worries me sometimes is that the demoralized condition you describe the German People as having been in could well be the condition of all the nations, rich and poor, sometime in the not too distant future. We could see the worst sort of people trying to capitalize on the general misery to gain absolute power. The most cunning ruthless maniac will rise to power "Because he articulated, focussed the thoughts they had. He only was was the focus point of this energy of the masses, he didn't produce this energy, it was already there" as you put it.-
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by LeonDion » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 20:32:05
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BrownDog', 'A')s for corporate personhood, I'd like to see person-like penalties for crimes instead of just fines. The corporate equivalent of imprisonment would be that they would be disallowed from conducting business for X years. For serious (capital) offenses, they would be terminated (charter revoked).
I've suggested the following constitutional amendment in political discussion in the past:
"Any corporation may donate any amount of money it wishes to any political party, political action group, candidate, or campaign. Any corporation doing so will be dissolved within 5 working days."
I see nothing wrong with the above. A corporate charter is a privelege, not a right.
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by PenultimateManStanding » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 20:43:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Free', ' ')You can't rule with terror if the majority of people is against you, at least I think so - otherwise we would all still live in tyrannies, no?
Isn't that what Saddam Hussein was doing? But it isn't just terror, since propaganda is also an element of population control. As for the question you raised, I think Catton in his book 'Overshoot' made a compelling argument that the modern existence of relatively free nations with representational governments is due to the population pressure-releasing discovery and developement of the Western Hemisphere. The depletion of natural resources and the crowding of over population means that people get in each other's way and thus create social tensions which will inevitably lead to the loss of freedom, wars, and the rise of Tyrants.-
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by Free » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 20:50:46
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '
')I read somewhere that the Einsatzgruppen death squads were drunk most of the time. I don't know that for a fact, I think it was Hanna Arendt who wrote that. What worries me sometimes is that the demoralized condition you describe the German People as having been in could well be the condition of all the nations, rich and poor, sometime in the not too distant future. We could see the worst sort of people trying to capitalize on the general misery to gain absolute power. The most cunning ruthless maniac will rise to power.
')I read somewhere that the Einsatzgruppen death squads were drunk most of the time. I don't know that for a fact, I think it was Hanna Arendt who wrote that. What worries me sometimes is that the demoralized condition you describe the German People as having been in could well be the condition of all the nations, rich and poor, sometime in the not too distant future. We could see the worst sort of people trying to capitalize on the general misery to gain absolute power. The most cunning ruthless maniac will rise to power.
Some very good points there. I also read that the atrocities of the red army, as they conquered germany, the killings, mass rapes, could only take place in that scale because the retreating german army left huge stockpiles of alcohol on purpose for them because they thought it would weaken their fighting spirit.
Many german soldiers also where addicted to speed by the way, as the army command has experimented with it.
Not to say that otherwise they wouldn't have been capable of commiting ruthless, cold blooded murder, but it sure helps explain it.
Hanna Ahrendt did a very good job to help to explain how the ordinary guys could do such evil things, how ordinary became evil and the evil became something totally ordinary.
Yes I am worried too that somebody will focus the anger of the people in the wake of PO, for war mongering and installing some dictatorial terror regime. In fact, if PO will be really that bad, it will be a quite likely outcome.
It's not about democracy, in my opinion. It's mainly about the legal system. If every man, regardless of whatever, has untouchable, guaranteed rights which can not be taken away under any circumstances, it is impossible to let such a thing happen.
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