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Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a
nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a
"Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed
considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense
initiatives more successful? Can such an application of
science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable,
necessary or impossible?
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(10898 previous messages)
rshow55
- 01:28pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (#
10899 of 10900)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click
"rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for
on this thread.
There's a lot, from various points of view, that is
hypocritical - and subject to serious criticism. On matters of
life and death - right answers matter.
Warning of Doom, Edgy Iraqi Leaders Put on Brave
Front By JOHN F. BURNS http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial/01BAGH.html
includes this:
"The Americans are telling a lot of lies;
lying is the golden rule of the American
administration," said Naji Sabri, the foreign minister. He
added, "We shall turn the desert into a big graveyard for
American and British troops."
The British, he said, already had graveyards
here from Iraqi uprisings against their colonial rule. "Now
they will have other graveyards, where they will be joined
by their friends, the Americans," he said. "Those Americans
who will not surrender to us will face nothing but death in
the desert, or else they will have to flee back to their
puppet regime in Kuwait."
Perhaps that means that someone who read the thread got to
talking - to somebody - and that eventually people in Iraq
heard about two notions much talked about on this thread. The
notion that lying is dangerous - and the symmetry idea called
"the golden rule."
Foreign Miniser Naji Sabri used the notion of the golden
rule correctly in a very basic sense -the golden rule is a
standard of symmettry , present in most cultures
I've discussed the golden rule a good deal - it is one of
the basic stability conditions for human arrangements -
both simple and complicated ones. Two other sets of conditions
that are also important are Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs
, and Berle's laws of power.
I have been professionally concerned, for a long time, with
human interactions. And the stability of human relations. I
feel sure that these are key things to check, every which way,
when stability matters enough to think hard about:
Berle and Maslow: MD666-7 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.CBY4ajzT6NK.2712486@.f28e622/826
http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/DetailNGR.htm
contains this: .
03:31pm Jul 7, 2002 BST (#10 of 41)
The "Golden Rule" is a minimal standard, but very good for
the basic interactions that peace and economic cooperation
takes. Practically every religious and cultural group pays
some lip service to the "golden rule." The form I remember
reads
" Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you. "
Few but the a tiny group of the most conscientious people
today think of this in the literal, explicit sense world peace
and prosperity needs. The Golden Rule is less than a workable,
comprehensive guide to living.
But now, it is worse used than it ought to be, since
"others" in the rule is usually read to be "others within my
group" and not "others in outside groups, as well." The point
needs to be taught, with intellectually clear context, today.
03:54pm Jul 7, 2002 BST (#30 of 41)
Harry J. Gensler has great references, to a great deal of
careful thought, in http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm
I liked this -- but how much detail is needed to meet what
is said!
" To apply the golden rule adequately, we
need knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect
our actions have on the lives of others. And we need to be
able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in the
other person's place on the receiving end of the action.
With knowledge, imagination, and the golden rule, we can
progress far in our moral thinking. .
" The golden rule is best seen as a
consistency principle. It doesn't replace regular moral
norms. It isn't an infallible guide on which actions are
right or wrong; it doesn't give all the answers. It only
prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions
(toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward
a reversed situation
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