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#106112 06/21/03 05:21 PM
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The question in my mind is, have we matured enough to be able to recognise and stop dangerous trends.

sometimes (Caribean crisis) but not always

Let us hope the current fiasco militates against mofe of same.

what do you call the fiasco? the swift small wars in Afganistan and Iraq?


#106113 06/21/03 08:34 PM
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By fiasco, I meant no WMD found, populace far from feeling liberated or grateful.


#106114 06/21/03 09:15 PM
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> the swift small wars

Sounds like window cleaner - wipe on, wipe off.

> As history moves on the circles of the helix of development are becoming smaller.

This point, although self evident to many, has rarely been discussed by historians. The idea regularly coupled with this notion is that history is self-similar through scales, so that one need only apply the right formula and one can find analogous occurrences in exponential increments. This idea is of course pretty readily applied to the physical world.
One exponent of this theory, whose name escapes me, saw many similarities between Egyptian pharaohic history and that of the Third Reich.



#106115 06/21/03 09:30 PM
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could someone expound a bit on the "helix of development"?



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#106116 06/22/03 01:38 PM
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"the helix of development" is just my clumsy English, I don't know the exact term. hopefully, somebody will help us.

if you look at history you can see that all civilisations go through similar stages of development: they raise, stay in zenith of their power for a while and fall. after their fall a new civilisation arises. but the succession of circles is non-linear. Roman Empire was more developed than Babylonian, for example. so it is not " circles"; it is circles in 3D, circles on ascending levels, therefore "a helix"




#106117 06/22/03 03:52 PM
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thanks, vika. it's an interesting term that deserves more discussion.



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#106118 06/23/03 02:45 PM
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By fiasco, I meant no WMD found, populace far from feeling liberated or grateful .

it might be another sweeping generalisation but I though that people are divided into two groups according to their opinion on WMD:

1. those who after UN inspectors report never believed in existence of WMD in Iraq.
WMD is just a pretext ( as good as any) to get hold of some oil
I belong to this group

2. unconditional supporters of the war on Iraq

I am not disappointed by the lack of WMD in Iraq. I rather respect British and US governments because they haven't try to concoct an evidence. and people who always support their governments will continue to support them no matter what. So what all this fuss about?



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