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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?

dirac_10 - 12:40am Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4807 of 4809)

almarst-2001 - 12:34am Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4806 of 4806)

It seems Americans have a very high tolerance to inequality...

It's racist. The Europeans won't tolerate it so much for racist reasons. They are related.

Same thing for the US. Except the converse.

Only Russia rivals the US in it's diversity, and it's not even close.

rshowalter - 06:21am Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4808 of 4809)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In MD4806 almarst-2001 6/12/01 12:34am

almarst asks lunarchick some key questions.

Promising questions, related to promising points she made.

Dawn's right when she says . . . . "It all gets back to levels of education and tools to use to invent, innovate, process, make .. and the minds of the people have to absorb and accept and embrace opportunities as they arise. " . . . but doing that is not simple.

Almarst connects to two key logical loci:

almarst "As far as I know, the US does not represent the best example of a public education. At least on the even today's Russian standards (however sadly fading). "

It would be a life sentence to have to listen to all the bad, true things one can say about American education, one place or another. But still, for crucial kinds of complex cooperation, where Americans do very well, we commit great resources, with much sophistication - - and have skills in negotiation and team-making, widely distributed within our population, that most of the world lacks, and that Russia sorely needs.

almarst "As for "embracing the opportunities" - that has a lot to do with a culture and morality."

It also has a great deal with information flows and their evaluation and use. Russians need to learn more than they now know about talking to each other in ways complex cooperation needs, and they need to know better how to communicate, at the levels of detail real sustainable cooperation takes, with people of other cultures.

So do Americans, and of course these things are hard. But Russia, as a culture, is almost tone-deaf on issues where Americans and many europeans do considerably better.

almarst is right about tolerance of inequality in America. But just as Will Rogers pointed out that "we're all ignorant, only about different things" -- we're all of us very intolerant, and willing to exclude others. Some of us more willing than others, some with more ugly consequences than others would tolerate -- but all of us are significantly willing to cut off others, and let them come to harm. Only, sometimes, in different ways.

rshowalter - 06:22am Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4809 of 4809)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I think, if we could get clearer about why we didn't like each other --- and get to solid reasons that could be supported, we'd be along way towards real peace, and a more entertaining world.

It seems to me that there's a lot not to like about Americans. I'd say the same for Russians, myself.

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