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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 01:17pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3800 of 3808)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We see some things pretty similarly -- and I can see how you feel like you do. All the same, I think you're making the "rest of the world" seem better than it is.

Just now, the rhetoric of "enemy making" is getting more and more far-fetched -- and that needs to be resisted.

But I think that, in many ways, just because enemies are so unconvincing, it is a hopeful time.

A big thing, now, is that "military-industrial complex" people want to keep on going as they have, not only for financial reasons, but for emotional-psychological reasons, too. People have a hard time changing, and in some ways, they can't. A poem about that that I like a lot is The Virginity by Rudyard Kipling, which is only very tangentially about sex. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/1295

I'll keep working on your questions, and I respect your disagreement -- but I need some time to think.

I believe we're closer to good reasons for hope than you may think.

rshowalter - 05:24pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3801 of 3808)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

3532: rshowalter 5/8/01 6:51pm ... 3533: rshowalter 5/8/01 6:53pm
offer a compact summary, and gateway to much discussion with many links, giving a compact understanding of where this long thread has been.

I think anyone tracing through these links will be powerfully impressed at how much clarification dialog can deliver -- if people keep talking, and references to facts and arguments from others can be made available to discussants and any and all people watching the discussion.

My conclusion from the dialog here is that very much improved levels of understanding seem to be possible with improved and more extensive discussion processes and that the internet, in a format such as this, is making improvements in negotiation possible.

On inherently difficult, complex, and emotional issues, such as missile defense and the spectrum of defense issues in which the issue of missile defense issue is embedded, these new techniques may make negotiations that would previously have been impossible humanly possible, though inherently difficult.

rshowalter - 05:37pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3802 of 3808)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

At least for those with fast modems, the crosslinking and format of the internet supplies the possibility of presenting information, in new, powerful, valuable ways. An example of this, that has been very important to me, is the presentation of a theoretical argument, connected to much context, in the 91 postings, containing more than 100 internet links, from 2090 rshowalter "How the Brain Works" 12/23/00 9:16pm ... to 2181: rshowalter "How the Brain Works" 1/9/01 8:06am

This is a sequence I've used to good effect with some neuroscientists, that I would want to be able to offer to people at a scientific meeting, where good scientists are listening to me in an open-minded and interested way, this coming weekend. If the HOW THE BRAIN WORKS board is archived, or moved, so that the links can be used, I will be able to do so.

possumdag - 05:55pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3803 of 3808)
Possumdag@excite.com

Interesting thinking happening above & i noted :

How is evil defined ?

Waking the evil within a person.

Killing without qualms.

An assumption that primitive people have peace.

Humanity is improved as it evolves via the locking in of laws and standards.

Chaos via economic and cultural breakdown is the way in for Evil people to climb over others and take control, then control others.

It is said that 'tradesmen' are the most competent at killing without qualms ... because they see it as a job, a day's work, a stint to be completed within a time frame .. and they do what is expected of them.

Primitive people don't live in 'peace' with tranquility. They often mark out territory and defend it's borders .. see Amazon natives. They live in a different world, a spirit environment, with a different reality.

Primitive people who are absorbed and taken over, often have an identity crisis. Within the new civilization they are marginalised. They don't cope with rationalising the two different systems, and violence, death, inhumanity and uglyness increase .. the two law frameworks - traditional and modern are often in conflict. The victims of dispare are many.

On evil - it has many and varied definitions depending on the cultural norms. Here the Golden Rule can be a measure.

possumdag - 05:55pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3804 of 3808)
Possumdag@excite.com

.. have commitments ..

rshowalter - 06:50pm May 13, 2001 EST (#3805 of 3808)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Space Cowboys Inc. by MAUREEN DOWD http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/13/opinion/13DOWD.html

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