Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00428)

Ali: "Karma has nothing to do with it?"

I don't see any evidence that "karma" as most people think of it 
exists. The good die young and in poverty, while bad people prosper, 
enjoy themselves, live long and healthy lives and die painlessly with 
perfect teeth and eyesight. The usual notion of "karma" is supposed 
to somehow nullify ratr fact by assuming scores will be settled 
later. I am also reluctant to dismiss someone else's misfortune as 
karma.

Ali: "When one thinks of China reinventing itself, even the millions 
of casualties under Mao and the Japanese before him, seem like a very 
clean rebirth, overall.

Are you kidding?

Ali: "From even a double digit I.Q., that sounds like the bleating of 
a Rush Limbaugh. A certifiable idiot. 200 years ago, there were 
entrenched royalty and nobility who were very rich? they were the 
CEO/management class of their day. Everyone else was poor.

You need to learn something about history. 200 years ago kings and 
popes were less comfortable than you are today. They wore wigs 
filled with lice and plotted to kill each other. Cathrine II had her 
own son imprisoned at Lubyanka at an early age. He was released on 
her death to become Czar.

Ali: "When America was Europeanized, one remarkable thing was the 
continent was so rich that any industrious person who wanted to could 
become quite well off.

If that theory made any sense, the Indians would all have been rich.

Erica: "Your affirmation that there is no solution is quite
pessimist and is based on what?

What I said is, I don't think anyone KNOWS a solution. Look at the 
cynical Bush effort to take over Iraq and run its oil wells for the 
personal profit of certain individuals in the US and you can see what 
would happen if someone tried to impose their wlll on Africa. Or 
look at Oil Man Bush I's effort to take over oil rich Somalia while 
at the same time pretending he was concerned about the poor people 
there. If outsiders cannot impose their will on them, then they have 
to do it themselves, unless you believe in miracles.

I don't think visiting web sites and making meaningless statements of 
sympathy counts for much. Everyone I have ever met limits himself or 
herself to just that and no more. It makes them feel good but it is 
meaningless.

Erica: "We don't have a political system build upon noble
principles

Yes, if you are talking about the characters who invaded Iraq and 
destroyed the place so its oil money could be funneled through 
Halliburton, which just happens to be the company of the fellow who 
instigated the whole thing in the first place, then you are certainly 
right. We have not seen that kind of blatant corruption since the 
Civil War.

As for Plato's comments, you would not want to live in the republic 
he envisioned. Furthermore, most people do not have a clue 
what "democracy" is or why it is any better or worse than any 
alternative.