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Missile Defense

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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rshow55 - 08:53am Jan 4, 2003 EST (# 7312 of 7314)
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.

When actors, especially the best actors, in the best performances, get rattled enough, it can be a disaster. Or beautiful.

Actors know this. Directors do, too.

They hate each other, often, for very good reasons.

The have no choice but to sort it out among themselves - as best they can.

Some sorts are appreciably better than other.

Beyond a point, issues of order, symmetry, and harmony have to be clear - issues of order symmetry and harmony have to be made at several levels, and between the levels, and from the top down, and from the bottom up, and in more mixed senses, and a time comes when some things have to be checked. Ideal solutions happen very often - we can see many of them all around us.

Orderly in the ways they have to be, for what they are supposed to do, and fit to purpose.

Symmetrical in the ways they have to be, and fit to purpose.

Harmonious in the way things have to be, and fit to purpose.

There are also a lot of messes. Each of us can do somewhat better than we're doing, in our own terms and in terms of the people we care about - some a lot better. Systems can be better.

Almost all the time - it can happen step by step - and in ways aesthetically satisfying to the parties involved.

We can do better than we're doing - the incidence of death, destruction, agony and dry heaves ought to be lower, and can be - but we have to be careful - and with the best will in the world - mistakes will happen.

Damping, dither, contradiction - and a number of other things have to be tolerated. And eventually calibrated - lest the system blow up.

When everybody involved thinks about order, symmetry, and harmony in the ways that really matter to THEM - including the people they love and care about. A lot of things can be beautiful - we know that - because a lot of things are already, and the beauty didn't happen by accident.

Though maybe it did. At some levels, though not in others. Nobody can be sure - and things can be intractably complicated when we try. How should I know how things would be, if I'd made some other decisions, or others had? Sometimes, I can and should know. Other times, I can't.

Charity, mercy, and an ethic of common provision - reaonably defined and calibrated - are aesthetically necessary - and then - at higher levels of complexity - necessary for system stability and survival. In spots, these days, folks are short on these things - though in a few other spots, oversupplied. Charity, for instance - has to be contextual - and calibrated - in a system of competing-cooperating animals working together. God him-herself couldn't change that. If any diety exists. I'm quite sure I can't know. I've looked through a telescope.

rshow55 - 09:26am Jan 4, 2003 EST (# 7313 of 7314)
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.

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/12

"Can I assume that everyone has seen the movie CASABLANCA , and remembers it?

I'm sure the answer is no, and that's a pity just now, because if I were to choose a movie to illustrate issues important to our understanding of nuclear war, and important to the jobs we now face in peacemaking, I'd choose CASABLANCA as the text to refer to.

(addition for this citation: I'd choose Casablance if I had to choose a single movie. For discussions of exterminatory fights - fights to the finish - between different species there are others - Best Little Whorehouse in Texas being an exemplary one for that purpose. Mary Poppins, a much nicer movie, is also worth remembering. )

It is one of the most popular movies ever. It shows clear examples of peaceful harmony (for real manipulative, conflicting people) in a small society, RICK's nightclub.

It shows the core facts about psychological warfare, especially how damaging emotionally important and unresolved lies can be to minds, and to social function. It also shows examples of redemption in the practical sense, that I find genuine and compelling.

I think CASABLANCA rings true - I think it shows real human behavior.

Depending on how you look at it, it is one of the most romantic, or one of the darkest, movies I know. I think it is both romantic and dark. Everybody manipulates everybody else, sometimes with consent, sometimes without. Often, the manipulations are graceful, and work.

When lies are involved, the manipulations are rougher, and results are worse.

(addition for this citation - lies may be inescapably necessary - oscillating sequences of contradictions can be, too - but when deception is used, considerations about order, symmetry, and harmony are expecially important - and there are always costs and tragedies, or risks, associated with deception. But Adults need secrets, lies and fictions . . . to live within their contradictions for basic reasons. We have to do the best we can - and sometimes, there have to be reframings. They have to carefully done. Mostly step by step. Sometimes with big insights, or reorganizations, coming together at once - beautiful in some new ways - and muddled in some new ways. )

I do not believe that I am in any way unusual in the speed of my responses - though I'm sorted somewhat more carefully than some people (though no more carefully sorted than Ted Williams was) - and would enjoy, some other time - a chance to prove that. It would take equipment, and a team - but it would be interesting. Some lawyers might take an interest. )

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