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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>As a superpower the USA has acted ...
... and as former superpowers, many of us in Europe (Britain, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Germany ...) have spent years thinking about (and protesting about, sometimes) the sins of our fathers, mothers, grandparents, great-great grandparents ..... I suppose that at the time we were building "our" empires we were able to do it away from the arc lights of media attention. A small note in The Times about shipping a new consignment of slaves or whatever would have hardly made the ten o'clock news of the day. Some of our actions will fail to stand up to the standards of the future.
Whatever the USA has done in terms of foreign policy, the rest of us in the West have either a) helped or b) done very little to stop. By examining the current situation we are applying our own standards of political introspection, rather than simply accepting the initial pulp (inevitably) put out by the media. My own experience is that people of my age (too young for Vietnam) in the USA, have in the past, tended to go along with the political status quo, especially in world affairs, less than those people that I know in Europe. Maybe it is just that the rest of the world seems further away. Maybe it is a reaction to the huge internal discussion during the latter stages of the Vietnam war. Maybe it is just that political discussion is frowned on in polite circles. I don’t know the answer.
The grieving process is traumatic and even the thought of access to weapons including weapons of mass destruction by any untested world leader (without even thinking about the "other side", whoever they are) is a great way to lose a few days sleep. I think that in any ordinary situation we would have felt that it was appropriate to give a little space for the victims before heading off into analysis. It was the very real impact on all our lives that made some of us feel that we could not be complicit in any action taken based on some of the initial reactions to this sad affair. As tsuwm says, the same kinds of discussions are everywhere now. That is good, it is appropriate that the media should reflect the whole range of opinion, if we don't express ours, how could they know? I had a quick look through other boards (have a look at Google's own current affairs discussion) to see that the same thing was going on, with a little less civility, especially as people were talking to strangers, we are talking to people with whom we share at least some common ground.
We seem to be heading off in the direction of the other sections of the board now, I just hope that we don’t have any great need to come back here. This morning British Airways, following the lead set by other airlines, especially in the USA, announced 7,000 redundancies. I don’t expect that other countries are immune from the economic impact of this terrible affair.
I don’t apologise for the discussion on a few threads of the board. They are pretty clearly labelled and people can choose not to read them. If you remember, it all started with our very real concern for those board members who were in Manhattan and at the time. We are all grateful for their safety and empathise with the experience they have had in the last week.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
If a bunch of linguaphiles can't disagree in a civil manner what hope is there for the rest of the world?Indeed, Bingley. Jo, you made some excellent points, too. I have been nothing but impressed with how everyone, and I mean everyone, has posted with such consideration and courtesy toward each other. Emotions everywhere are higher over this than probably about 'most anything, and yet--the anger, when it appeared, was directed at ideas, not people, and apologies were offered before being asked for. Kudos--you all are great. J. Love (thanks, mav!  )
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
were any of the urls on this thread related to the virus"Vote for Peace"?
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