Re: Inclusiveness demands tolerance
>You remind me of Heinlein, who was convinced that WWIII would inevitably happen and the US would lose, because our naïve moral constraints would stop us from pushing the button while those immoral Soviets would go ahead and do it.
I think we should be glad the Soviet union expired. Shooting down KAL 007 demonstrated beyond doubt that the Soviet had no moral inhibitions. Also remember the purges under Stalin, the terror under Beria and much, much more.
Still, in many ways we are in WWIII, the war on terror. It is global. And it costs us billions each year, just check the budget for Dept,. of Homeland Security. War is never cheap.
>I think that the US economy can survive us treating each other like human beings. Yes, even women.
Sure. Unfortunately many western countries treats the population as suspects to be put under mass surveillance. That too is a tangible result on the war on terror.
>For that matter, California, which this thread cites as the epicenter of this so-called "rot," has had economic growth that's twice the national average over the last several years. Clearly it's not as crippling as all that.
There is no contradiction here. Rome was magnificent during the rot, Germany looked dominant in tech and military, Greece was the centre of culture towards the end. But all came to an end that surprised those that had been in the centre of it, people who one would have thought should have been the first to see what would came. They never did.
The rot always grows, society holds on longer than one would expect. And then it all falls down.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
