Friday, January 25, 2008

The Curse of Unreality

"Influenced by television, the culture is obsessed with imagery. ... Vital political energy is spent on fabricated political positions, so that the public is diverted by an unreal parade while grave dangers remain unacknowledged. Real debate, real issues, real problems cannot be discussed let alone solved because the 'actors' running for office have rehearsed a performance that has nothing to do with the dangers that confront us and everything to do with feeding our hunger for fantasy, for easy answers and slick solutions. ... The domestic political game in the United States, as it is currently played, threatens the country's prospects for long-term survival. ... Without an intelligent, painfully honest discussion of current economic and international problems, the world's greatest country is bound to fall into chaos while its enemies gather strength abroad. It is, first and foremost, a crisis of leadership. It is also an intellectual crisis. A system that stuffs the 'public' with political sweets easily loses touch with strategic as well as economic realities. Consider the sorry state of education--the collapse of historical knowledge in the face of pop fiction. ... There has developed a consensus around these fictions "(1) that the [US] is the world's only superpower, when in fact, a severe economic crisis would cripple America's ability to project military power overseas. ... (3) There is the fiction that nuclear war signifies the end of all life on earth. ... (4) There is the fiction that civil defense is useless. ... (5) There is the fiction that the U.S. economy is going to continue to lead the world economy; when in fact, the dollar is falling and the [US] no longer manufactures (at home) the items necessary to maintain its military or economic ascendency", J.R. Nyquist (JRN) at http://www.financialsense.com/, 11 January 2008.

"What we lack, as Westerners, is imagination. ... The appeasement strategies of the West are not evidence of 'stupidity,' [Robert] Conquest explained. They are evidence of the fact that men lack the scope needed to 'envisage alien minds'. ...Nuclear weapons have already fallen into dangerous hands. ... Russia is the West's most dangerous enemy. Al Qaeda doesn't even rate a distant third. ... History teaches that totalitarian regimes cheat when it comes to arms control. They always have and they always will. Anyone who does not know this, politically speaking, is a child. A nuclear-free planet merely signifies a nuclear-free West", my emphasis, JRN at http://www.financialsense.com/, 18 January 2008.

What don't our politicians understand? I do not feel Russia is an enemy today, however, we should base our military posture only on Russia's military capabilities as opposed to its intentions.

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