To lucrecia,
That makes me think of the "original homeland security" memes and shirts showing four armed apache ready to protect their way of life. They did what they could, but what was the outcome? We americans have moxy for sure, and a vast resource base to boot, but a clarification of my intent is necessary. I won't think of armed conflict as even a possibility. Engaging in combat with any military might is part of their design, not ours. It perpetuates the military's very existence, and even expands upon it.
To agricola,
Any government that might actually benefit us is one that is designed to steadily decrease in size and scope, not increase or compound upon itself. It is important, though, to collect bits of what works, I agree. Think of the nitrogen fixers feeding fruit trees. We are those fruit trees, and the fixers get chopped and dropped until they might not even grow back, no longer being necessary.
Here are some quotes from plato's repermies. "Is there anything worse for a state than to be split and disunited? Or anything better than cohesion and unity?", and "For is it not a scandalous sign of bad education if one's sense of right and wrong is so deficient that one has to seek justice at the hands of others as one's masters and judges?", and my favorite "Good men and women need no orders." (laws) Plato also "solved" the military issue in his fantastical republic by denying rulers and soldiers the ability to own property. That's right, when senator x or general y can only feed themselves if the farmers have enough harvest, a whole different connotation of homeland security comes into view.
Let's think about the most general group of 10 people you can imagine. 9 of the 10 people will, in any event, likely work together to fulfill the needs of the whole. The 10th person uses the other 9 to fulfill his/her needs alone. I call these "10th" folks the elite because they need that "better than you" mindset to achieve their goals. We have great strength in our selfless group efforts and connectedness. The elite do not. They are not team players even with other elites. The best they can do is spread eliteist ideals through every kind of social framework (education, religion, government, money, etc.) in order to have people enslave themselves to a rigid heirarchy. Eliteism begets more eliteism. You want to be the best right? All those fortune 500 elite owners know the tools to manipulate their ambitious employees to no end. They need us badly to promote their ideals and to do their work, and we do it. It's very tricky behavioral engineering on a scale of millennia.
Thanks again everybody!
