I'm all warred out!

[Machjo]

With all the war news and war discussions and war debates in the last 5 years, followed now by more and more silly riots, increased anti-Americanism and Anti-Islam and anti-semitism, and anti-.... world... I've reached the stage that I don't care what politicians do anymore. Go ahead, use nukes, declare war, dismantle the UN... Just go for it, have a party and rock this world!

I've come to the conclusion that the situation has become so ugly that politicians have lost control. Examples:

If the US strikes Iran, all hell breaks loose.
If it doesn't, Iran might get nuclear arms, and then we go from there.
DPRK has nukes, US fears attacking it, sending every other rogue nation the message that having nukes is good!
China and Russia need Iran intact for oil.
Muslims in Europe and North America are raging fanatics, but then so is the Christian Right in the US and banning the veil in France is not the way to solve the problem, unless France is looking for a fight.
US determination against Iran is only fuelling Iranian nationalism and determination. Iranian determination is fuelling US nationalism and determination and the far right.
French suppression of the veil is fuelling more Islamic fanaticism. Islamic fanaticism is fuelling anti-islam. Anti-Islam fuels more anti-Europe and US and West in general.
Non-Americans are reacting emotionally rather than rationally towards the US. The US condescendingly brushes the emotionalism aside rather than acknowledge it, which only fuels more emotion, which only fuels more condescention as the wheel keeps spinning!

So where do we go from here? I get the impression that politicians on all sides have lost control, and so now unless the situatoin can be diffused at the grassrots, I think we're heading for a major clash of civilisations. Question is, what can we do outside the political sphere to diffuse this situation, to educate the people.

Honestly, it's gotten so ugly I'm not even sure if it's worth voting anymore seeing just how powerless politicians have become anyway. And I feel powerless in a way seeing that the brightest option I can come up with outside the bacruptcy of political solutions is having penfriends in "enemy countries" and studying heir culture. That's the best I can do as far a bright and innovative ideas of the sort go.

So what do we do?

Just pray?

Give up?

Just speed up the inevitable anyway and let the nukes fly?

What do we do?

 

[Jay]

Why isn't China doing more to stop these problems?

 

[missile]

I've been hearing nothing but Doom and Gloom since the day I was born,and The End of the World As We Know it,too & somehow,we are still here 60 years later. I have little doubt that many future generations will hear the same things over and over....somehow the world will muddle thru.

 

[Sassylassie]

Weary sigh. I too am tired of all "The Waring" it reminds me of Tim MacGraws new song "Why ya gatta be angry all the time". Lifes to short to let what ails the world--make you ill.

 

[jimmoyer]

Do I have this right ?

You guys are whining about whining ??

Ah there's nothing better than a fine whine, except
voluptuously giggling naked
women crushing grapes with their feet in a big
wooden vat.

 

[Haggis McBagpipe]

Re: RE: I'm all warred out!

Ah there's nothing better than a fine whine, except
voluptuously giggling naked
women crushing grapes with their feet in a big
wooden vat.

Well, there is one thing better, voluptuously giggling naked women and men, crushing grapes in their frenzied rush to get at each other.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to drink that whine.

 

[Machjo]

Re: RE: I'm all warred out!

Why isn't China doing more to stop these problems?

I suspect Chinese politicians are just as cluelss as all the others.

 

[Jay]

I have a funny feeling China could easily solve the N. Korean problem if they wanted to.

 

[missile]

I never liked Fred Waring either! Him and his damn Pennsylvanians :?

 

[Machjo]

Re: RE: I'm all warred out!

I have a funny feeling China could easily solve the N. Korean problem if they wanted to.

I don't know about that. First off, culturally, even as individuals, Chinese is a communal culture, but one which tends to mind it's own business, and also a hierarchichal one. People are quite unjudgemental of one another as their government is towards other naitons. People like to aks personal questions (are you married? How old are you? What's your salary? etc. but they're pretty indifferent and unjudgemental re: the answer)

I don't know the historical backdrop, but I'm sure that, at least at the political level, foreign invasions of China in history have played their role. China doesn't like foreigners sticking their noses in its affairs, and so naturally tends to be very hesitant to stick its nose into other nations' affairs. Very closed culture really. Welcomming, friendly, but insulated.

Add to that that while in theory the PRC and North Korea are friends, the PRC at the moment is somewhat embarrassed by the extremism of its neighbour. So that might also explain its deisire to keep the relationship between the two countries low profile. Of course their relationship is still good overall, but this embarrassement has certainly isolated the DPRK from China at least somewhat. This is a very typically cultural reaction on the part of the Chinese; instead of trying to change the DPRK, they just gradually pull away.

I think the only way to get China to become more active on the world stage, judging by its cultural norms, would be to strengthen the UN. China tytipally doesn't feel comfortable telling another nation what to do directly any more than a Chinese would feel comfortable telling his neighbour what to do (extreme cases aside of course). China would need to feel particularly threatened before it does so. So the fact that China is even remotely involved with Iran and the DPRK on a diplomatic level shows their level of concern.

In China, if there is a major dispute, it is typical to turn to an authority figure (police, courts, applicable government department, etc. Or in the case of siblings, to the parents, or parents to the grandparents, very hierarchichal). By extension, China as a government tends to look to the UN in the same light, a source of neutral authority, again very much in line with Confucian ethics. Even within China, the local government gets orders from the provinival, provincial from central. Within government departments, people are appointed according to perceived merit. This whole notion of hierarchy permeates the culture, which might also explain why communism was able to hold ground in China for awhile too.

This could be why China feels comfortable sending troops to Haiti for exmaple. Since it's done under the UN banner, it gives China the legitimacy it needs, according to its cultural world view, to do so, just as children might turn to parents, or parents to grandparents, in an in an unsolvable dispute. On an internaitonal level, Chinese perceive the UN as just a natural extension of this hierarchical culture.