Are Americans a Broken People?
POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 18, 2026 03:15
VIEWED: 19858
PAGE 14 of 29
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Originally posted by Kwicko:Quote:
Huh? I was going for a more of an Al Murray moment
Ah, then the misunderstanding was all mine! :)
I thought you were ticked about my "Adequate Britain" snark. Sorry 'bout that.
"Dozy Yank" :p
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows.
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Gino, I like the definition and explanation of "middle power" you provided, and I wish we could become one, rather than crash altogether. I also think that "Empire" is more of what we've been and have been dwindling as such for decades now. To me, "empire" has the connotation of wanting to expand their domination outside their own nation, and we've done that--as much by economic influence as military. Tho' we SAY we haven't "conquered" any country, we certainly have, and have put puppet governments in, same as any Empire.Quote:
I've long said America is too big to be run effectively, but at the same time I'd be sad as hell to see us break up. Given the conflicts between smaller nations throughout history, I think the same would happen to us. JMHO
Anyway, I think the smart money would be on a break up for the united states. It's a country founded on division, still fighting a civil war that ended over a hundred years ago. A nation that has purposefully constructed itself on the notion of being a union of states. Historical precedent would seem to indicate that as the Federal Government's power wanes, state governments will begin to exert more power, and you'll end up eventually with something like the Holy Roman Empire circa 1600.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Gino, I like the definition and explanation of "middle power" you provided, and I wish we could become one, rather than crash altogether. I also think that "Empire" is more of what we've been and have been dwindling as such for decades now. To me, "empire" has the connotation of wanting to expand their domination outside their own nation, and we've done that--as much by economic influence as military. Tho' we SAY we haven't "conquered" any country, we certainly have, and have put puppet governments in, same as any Empire.
I'm pretty happy with Gino's definition, and I think the Mexicans and Native Americans would have an issue with the concept of America not conquering any one. Canadians too, 'cept they fought the Yankee's off in 1812.
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Yes, like I said, "we "say" we haven't conquered any other country" (at least, most Americans would disagree with that idea--or excuse the conquest of THIS country by saying it was a good thing 'cuz it was full of savages, or some other excuse), and Native Americans and Mexico are two good examples that disprove that claim! Also, can we claim Hawaii, Puerto Rico, etc., come under the concept of "conquest"?
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So, I keep getting back to the title.
It seems to me that there are many deep, structural problems in the US - especially economic problems. And it's not as if the problems are 'out there' somewhere in a remote country. They are here, in our cities, factories, paychecks - or lack of them - and homes.
How is it that you can have so many people - virtually all of us - working so hard and seeing so little for our efforts ? Seeing a society that has so little to go around that few have anything to spare ? And then, you look to the inevitable future. Sooner or later we will be in a position to not be ABLE TO. To not be able to work. To not be able to take care of ourselves. To not be able to afford health care. To be as dependent as the day we were born. What then ? Should we get thrown away like human trash ? Do we believe in 'work or die ' ?
Are we SO habituated to our mantras that we fail to realize that there are no shackles, no chains, no whip, no overseer - in fact, no force that keeps us in this state except our own ideas ?
How else can you explain the abject apathy of the vast majority of those who have the least ?
In that regard, yes, we are broken.
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"Arbeit macht frei" - or so I've been told.
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I think it can be extended to the whole world. Often, those who have the least are the least able to imagine or fight for anything better. Billions... billions... slave away in a system that really only benefits a few thousand. Why is that???
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Oh, no, not discarded, at least not all at once. They still need their peons, for labour and such, so they'll keep breeding us after they've refined most of the worker pool to the strongest, dumbest, and least questioning. This is happening even now through social engineering education to be completely ineffective and through creating "opiates" (to borrow from Marx) and other distractions.
But they do want a smaller, more manageable population so they don't have to share as many resources and so their quality of life improves.
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Are we SO habituated to our mantras that we fail to realize that there are no shackles, no chains, no whip, no overseer - in fact, no force that keeps us in this state except our own ideas ?
It's true, though either everyone has to give up the system at once to become truly unshackled, otherwise working for pay will continue to exist. Unless people become self-sufficient.
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How else can you explain the abject apathy of the vast majority of those who have the least ?
Too busy to look around at the people around them or to care about strangers, which is bitterly funny, because even considering a 40 hour work week, there actually is time for charity. I know I could do charity work myself, and I really want to. Yet I never seem to get around to it.
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Charity is what you make it.
A lot of my actions benefit people I will never see, never meet, who often as not have not a clue that they have benefited or even any awareness of what might have been - gratitude ain't and never was the point of it, as much as trying to benefit humanity as a whole thing, irrespective of governments, states, corps, etc...
I suspect you're giving yourself short shrift there, Byte, cause I know for a fact you have taken upon yourself to help folk, one of which should have received notice of reconsideration by now, mind you.
S'funny - I couldn't even glare at the salvation army bell banger this afternoon on my way out of the store because the girl looked so damned happy to be doing what she was that I couldn't bear to darken her day like that, despite how much them bells irritate the heck outta me, heh.
-F
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Sig: I agree with what you said.
Byte:Quote:
Me, too. Unfortunately, the work I did and would return to, I am no longer able to do physically, which saddens me greatly because I'd LOVE to do it again. Didn't know what I had...sigh...
Too busy to look around at the people around them or to care about strangers, which is bitterly funny, because even considering a 40 hour work week, there actually is time for charity. I know I could do charity work myself, and I really want to. Yet I never seem to get around to it.
So I content myself FOR NOW with giving to charities and supporting two chidren via Save The Children. I always give a dollar every time I pass those damned bell ringers, tho' they irritate me too. ;o) When I worked in SF, I made sure to carry a lot of dollar bills, and gave one to every begging person I met. I also got to know a few of them and gave clothing and dog food to them. It's pretty much all any of us can do besides give our labor, 'cuz everyone's hurting. I buy clothes from the Salvation Army and sometimes Goodwill, as much for myself as them, and at one time I engaged in LITA (Love is the Answer) with my dogs--where you take them to convalescent homes and hospitals. Unfortunately they were so screwed up, sent me to the wrong place or at the wrong time, that my time with them wasn't very long.
I'd rather work with people than animals, I'm afraid, but that's just me. I figure anything anyone does to help another counts, and it doesn't have to be through organized charities; a helping hand like Frem aluded to counts just as much, in my book.
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But in a land where so many work so hard - why are there so many of us poor ? Why are so many of us desperate ? Why are people so ground-down ?
And don't you think - dollar bill hand-outs are not the answer ?
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Silence is consent.
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