Jason, you were a bit selective in what you picked from my message to attack, weren’t you?

I always am. What I agree with does not need mentioning, since you already did; it’s what I disagree with that I’m going to pick up on. Why would I launch a comprehensive attack against your entire argument, attacking even the parts I agree with? That wouldn’t make any sense at all.

haven’t actually been keeping up with current progress after Katrina, because I honestly did think the largest, wealthiest, and ‘most free’ democracy on earth might just be able to cope, just as so many other countries with far less advantages, after earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, destructive bombing campaigns, etc are forced to do after the disaster news has gone out of the headlines.

It can’t, because this is a case of diminishing marginal returns on complexity. We won’t be able to rebuild New Orleans because we’re “the largest, wealthiest, and ‘most free’ democracy on earth.”

I’m no anarchist, and I’ve always felt I enjoyed my state’s protection, so long as it allowed me, within reason, to do what I wanted to do.

Where it defines “within reason” at its sole discretion, and provided your loyalty—usually in the form of taxes—is regularly provided. We are anarchists, because we don’t believe it’s ever good or necessary to coerce obedience from others through such bullying.

He’s thinking more about his future executive position with the Carlyle Group than he is about me or my country.

This is not new at all. This is the very nature of the state. For 10,000 years, states have used their people as fodder to gain power for elites. That’s what established states do, and what would-be states like Hizb’allah aspire to.

I certainly wouldn’t classify any local resistance group, genuinely defending themselves, and not going out of their own territory to attack others, as terrorists, or as inherently evil states in the making.

I’m quite familiar with that war, and have been following it for some time, and I couldn’t think of any better way to describe the NPA. Like Hizb’allah, they were created in response to state aggression; like Hizb’allah, they aspire to statehood themselves, so that they can do the raping and pillaging, rather than being raped and pillaged.

I haven’t actually been keeping up with current progress after Katrina, because I honestly did think the largest, wealthiest, and ‘most free’ democracy on earth might just be able to cope, just as so many other countries with far less advantages, after earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, destructive bombing campaigns, etc are forced to do after the disaster news has gone out of the headlines.

I’m no anarchist, and I’ve always felt I enjoyed my state’s protection, so long as it allowed me, within reason, to do what I wanted to do.

Now, I actually feel personally threatened because my Prime Minister has gone so goggle-eyed crazy that he’s sending our military to places they’ve got no business to be, and in both of which we’ve had previous ignominious defeats.

He’s thinking more about his future executive position with the Carlyle Group than he is about me or my country.

An innocent British tourist was shot dead this morning in Amman, Jordan, by an angry local. I spent much of 20 years going back and forth there, and never felt less than safe. I can’t say I could go back now with the same confidence.

Just 50 miles from where I now live in the Philippines, there’s an almost wholly unknown war going on. The US and EU have decreed that the NPA, a local resistance group, trying (for the last 50 years) to keep the forests and people of Mindanao from being raped by exploitative business interests, are ‘terrorists’, so anything goes, with the heavy weapons (helicopters, bombs, etc) supplied by the same US and EU doing the business.

I certainly wouldn’t classify any local resistance group, genuinely defending themselves, and not going out of their own territory to attack others, as terrorists, or as inherently evil states in the making..

regards

Richard

I’ve met one of Hizbollah’s senior leaders, and I know they’re not “terrorists”.

Sure they are. Terrorism is nothing more or less than acting like a state, when you’re not one (as defined by other states). Like all other states, Hizb’allah provides services to try to legitimize itself, murders innocent people in order to terrify others into obedience, and provides help only to those loyal to it. That’s what makes a state. The difference between “state” and “terrorist” is whether we like to pretend they have a right to behave in such a manner or not. Hizb’allah does as much good as any other state—i.e., exactly as much as is necessary for its tyranny to be tolerated. Same goes for Israel and the U.S.

We happened to find that we were educated about half a mile apart in England, I at a boarding school, and he (much better) at a university built next door.

Is this surprising? Terrorists are simply states in formation, and their leaders are educated in precisely the same manner as our own.

What also shocked me about Katrina was the total lack of interest from ethnic leaders - why weren’t Jesse Jackson, Usama Barack, and even Colin Powell making their voices heard, even for charity appeals?

You weren’t paying attention, were you? They’ve been all over the news this past year, doing precisely that.

Sure, Shi’a Hizbollah get their money from Shi’a Iran, but they got it, and handed out (in cash) 6 times as much as America did for the Katrina refugees.

I’ve met one of Hizbollah’s senior leaders, and I know they’re not “terrorists”. I was trying to sell him some kitchen and laundry equipment for his new hospital programme, about a decade ago. We happened to find that we were educated about half a mile apart in England, I at a boarding school, and he (much better) at a university built next door. The two new hospitals we discussed were entirely destroyed last month.

What also shocked me about Katrina was the total lack of interest from ethnic leaders - why weren’t Jesse Jackson, Usama Barack, and even Colin Powell making their voices heard, even for charity appeals?

I’m sorry, Americans, but you’ve lost the plot, and you’re getting quite ridiculously introspective.

regards

Richard

Having read this just now two days after your target date, I would say your prediction is basically accurate in its nature, but you jumped the gun a bit. Big systems such as our fossil-fuel energy infrastructure have a lot of intertia built into them, so it might take a while for the changes you discussed to become apparent to people who watch CNN and Fox News and read Time and Newsweek.

Evey: All this riot and uproar, V…is this anarchy? Is this the Land of Do-As-You-Please?
V: No. This is only the Land of Take-What-You-Want. Anarchy means “without leaders;” not “without order.” With anarchy comes an age of ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order. This age of ordnung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course. This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos.

And in case you’re wondering, V for Vendetta is my new favorite comic book. But Jason and Giuli are probably sick of listening to me rave about it by now, so I’ll stop there.

Ironically, that article ends with the phrase, “We will rebuild.”

This has as much to do with the “state of nature” as Frankenstein has to do with natural birth.

In a City Without Rules, is Looting OK?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9160453/

Excerpt:

City reverts to ‘state of nature’
But as the looters have grown more brazen, law enforcement has begun to crack down, especially when thieves have taken guns or preyed upon innocent people with food and water.

“It isn’t that it justifies it,� she said, “but where there’s no laws that can help anybody, one way or the other, obviously people need what they need to survive.�

I bet Nature’s pretty pissed off at that comparison…