2,251 Reply by Justinian I

(89 replies, posted in Politics)

Hahahaha. The US is culturally diverse. For example, it's a common theme in the Northeast for them to believe that we have dirt streets that cows stampede down here in the Midwest. To be honest, different regions think others are "weirdos." An especially targeted region for ridicule is the bible-belt south.

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2,252 Reply by Justinian I

(32 replies, posted in General)

Sexhour, and actually that is a last name of someone I know.

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2,253 Reply by Justinian I

(89 replies, posted in Politics)

Just imagine if Kissinger were America's autocrat, you Euros would be toast!

Kissinger has yet to be outmaneuvered strategically. He is the most brilliant political realist on this earth.

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2,254 Reply by Justinian I

(89 replies, posted in Politics)

> BiefstukFriet wrote:

> Disrupt like China is disrupting the current global power balance? Because frankly it's not really th

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2,255 Reply by Justinian I

(89 replies, posted in Politics)

If the EU were to emerge as a strong superstate, then that would be a very very bad thing. I like to think of the EU as the Holy Roman Empire, it's Germany without any strong central authority. But if it were to develop a central government, like the German Empire in 1872, then oh shit and that would disrupt the global balance of power.

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2,256 Reply by Justinian I

(138 replies, posted in Politics)

Actually, it's working class muslims that do that. Inner city, working class white people do the same thing.

Upper middle class muslims, for example, tend to have looser sexual morals and dress just like Americans do. They have proper etiquette and follow civilized behavior.

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2,257 Reply by Justinian I

(57 replies, posted in Politics)

Who knows. Maybe we'll be able to regenerate our cells or something within our lifetimes.

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2,258 Reply by Justinian I

(57 replies, posted in Politics)

Though France is currently stronger than Germany militarily, I am sure the Germans could mobilize another army worthy of imperial expansion if they wanted to. However, I don't see why they would bother doing that given the political climate today.

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2,259 Reply by Justinian I

(56 replies, posted in Politics)

Yeah we'll have these nanobots that kill Chinese everywhere, a technology they will be decades from acquiring.

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2,260 Reply by Justinian I

(57 replies, posted in Politics)

The French pwned the Germans at Jena during the Napoleonic Wars. It was utter humiliation, and it secured the French victory against Prussia.

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2,261 Reply by Justinian I

(16 replies, posted in Politics)

As I said before, [flame]

Not to bash him or anything, he does sometimes make good arguments, but that's something I observed and I believe he should consider seeing a psychiatrist.

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2,262 Reply by Justinian I

(16 replies, posted in Politics)

Welcome back.

Well my conservative revolution will overshadow yours. It's about free-market economics, individualism, meritocracy and small government, but individualism extends to equal opportunity in education and the freedom to have an abortion etc. There would be a separation from the religious nutballs who have overrun the Republican party. The foreign policy would be political realism and balance of power politics, and the philosophy optimum results and positivism.

Yes, that kind of conservative philosophy, if held true, would totally blow out them liberals for eternity.

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2,263 Reply by Justinian I

(15 replies, posted in Politics)

To clarify.

When we observe the history of societies, the following pattern can be observed.

Practical circumstances ----> A political, social, and economic organization emerges ----> Resulting with a power structure ----> The power structure develops and disseminates an ideology to reinforces that organization

Now, this means that the ideology owes itself to the power structure, not that the power structure owes itself to the ideology as the racist/chauvinist theory implies. The R/C theory implies that the sequence of events is ideology --> power structures --> political action, rather than opportunity identified ---> the elite scheme together an action + justify their activity with an ideology. To me, the sequence of events implied by the racist/chauvinist theory is not intelligible like an economic or political one would be.

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2,264 Reply by Justinian I

(15 replies, posted in Politics)

Zarf,

Naw I meant European imperialism on the whole, beginning with Spain, but I found an article that justified my claim about the position of historians regarding imperialism in the 1800s. It doesn't mention imperialism on the whole, but it mentions views of imperialism in the 1800s.

But regardless, the chauvinist and racist arguments don't make any sense either. The reason is that the interpretation has the order of things backwards. A people don't just have an ideology that emerges, and then they organize their society and make their political decisions based on that ideology. It's rather a facade to justify an elite's activity. Ideology is a product of the power structures within that society, and if people are expanding it's because the elite find it to their advantage and not because of that ideology. The ideology may cause the masses to be motivated to follow the elite, but it does not itself motivate expansionism.

To imply that a people are imperialistic because of their ideology is a big "WTF?"

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2,265 Reply by Justinian I

(15 replies, posted in Politics)

East,

Sure, here's a website that reinforces the opinions of what I said, though it's limited to 19th century imperialism.

http://science.jrank.org/pages/9121/Empire-Imperialism-Europe-Causes.html

Zarf,

Yeah but Mercantilism wasn't so popular in the 1800s.

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2,266 Topic by Justinian I

(15 replies, posted in Politics)

The traditional reasons given for European imperialism were economics. By having control over a large empire, your industrial goods could be sold to more consumers and you would have easier access to raw materials. A good justification for this theory is the British selling opium to the Chinese. "Yay, there's a hella lot of Chinese, lets sell them something. How bout Opium?"

But today historians, in my opinion pseudo-intellectuals, have argued that racism was the single most important cause for European imperialism. They cite examples of intellectuals questioning whether the expense of the colonies exceeded their worth, and the popular racist sentiments of the period. But I think it's all silly PC nonsense because states tend to make political decisions based on self-interest, and the norms and ideas reflect the organization of that society. Moreover, the organization of society reflects the practical realities faced by that society. For example, Sparta found that it needed to be militaristic in order to survive, and this created a militaristic political and social organization. Likewise, industrialization created a powerful merchant class, and it reshaped European political and social organization. This merchant class also used its political power to its own benefit. It seems to be that this new age of historians has it all backwards. They think that rather than the organizing forces of society driving ideology, they are essentially asserting that ideology was the driving force of organizing society. Therefore, things like slavery are not a result of economic needs, but people acting out on their ideology.

I am thinking to myself, "WTF? are these people on crack?" I can't speak for the other colonial powers, but I know Britain's expansion directly correlated with practical reasons. They didn't run around and conquer x because they were racist.

Will someone please put this in to perspective for me? Because at the moment I can't stop but think today's generation of historians has it very wrong.

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2,267 Reply by Justinian I

(71 replies, posted in General)

The Idiots

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2,268 Reply by Justinian I

(16 replies, posted in General)

Soth,

There is a car repair shop near CoonR blvd/7th ave.

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2,269 Reply by Justinian I

(63 replies, posted in Politics)

[Spam. Don't do that again...you who did it... (damn blackberry shifts entries around)]

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2,270 Reply by Justinian I

(10 replies, posted in Politics)

I disagree. They also drill oil and computer program. The ones that blow stuff up are terrorists, and terrorists are a group that do not represent the majority of members of the faith of Islam.

There's also one of my fwb who is a muslim, and she's one of my favorites.

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2,271 Reply by Justinian I

(30 replies, posted in Politics)

> [RPA] Zulu wrote:

> @ Justinia I.....why cause he's Black>

Sure why not.

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2,272 Reply by Justinian I

(30 replies, posted in Politics)

But Obama fits the description better than any others.

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2,273 Reply by Justinian I

(56 replies, posted in Politics)

Exactly. Our military has a lot more training, better equipment, and more important logistics.

But you forgot about their economy. Ours is twice their size, and while they are growing at a rate of 11% year and ours at 2% a year, China's growth is going to slow down.

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2,274 Reply by Justinian I

(63 replies, posted in Politics)

You know, I'm hoping the big 3 collapse smile. Just don't cross the border to WI, don't you dare!

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2,275 Reply by Justinian I

(63 replies, posted in Politics)

Gee.

Job offer postings everywhere here, lol.

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