So....reflecting on the nature of war makes me sad about the nature of humanity in general. While I admit, for most of our history, we lived in hunter gatherer tribes, the last 5-10,000 years have kinda sucked. The story of human civilization is such that we just spent all of this time killing and oppressing each other. And even today, the world is messed up.
On the bright side, I have the luxury of living in a relatively free country, that's relatively advanced and peaceful, and that wields the biggest stick. And let's face it, our society was founded by people who were high minded, and while their constitution wasnt perfect, it's definitely something, and the model of a constitution in a liberal democracy has allowed the highest level of human flourishing and well being to ever exist. They were actually onto something with that.
I just wish that our society wasn't run by work fetishists who value productivity above all else. It really does seem set up that our society is designed to enslave us. But to be fair, every nation on earth has this problem. And all of the ideologies of the modern age have this problem.
And honestly...part of the problem is functional. For as much as communists talk about capitalism oppressing people, communists forced people to work too, and their society was even more oppressive than capitalism is. The thing about capitalism though is even that has certain ideals based on liberty. it just doesnt live up to them, and my ideals actually would help it to. It maintains the idea that humans SHOULD be free and not forced to work, while doing it in a roundabout way. We get to claim the system is freedom when it isnt. It does, generally, offer the greatest level of theoretical freedom, it just doesnt deliver in reality. My ideas are actually more about making it do so. Again, we live in a society with very intelligent and high minded thinkers. Most of our failures to live up to our ideals are simply that. I mean, with a different society, we wouldnt even have these ideas where we can think about and discuss these things. And people would be more forcefully put to work.
Also, I will have to admit this. Coercion to work and our obsession with GDP growth is, to some extent functional. We actually have to pursue this at least to some extent so that we can defend ourselves. keep in mind, GDP was valued for its productive war capacity during WWII. Wars ultimately come down to economies of scale and a larger economy with a larger work force means more tanks and bombs and weapons. If we ever did face a state of "total war" like WWII again, we would need to leverage our economy to outproduce our enemies in order to maintain the tactical advantage.
As such, while I do believe that we CAN find some balance, and some balance can be reached, given we have the biggest stick and it isnt even close, we cant just rest on our laurels and stop growing and working at all. Sadly, to maintain our dominance, we do have to work to some extent.
But yeah. This world kinda sucks. I actually dont like the world being like this either. I wish we could all live at peace, and be left alone, and do our thing, and not even have to work. BUT...that's also why i support pax americana. My views are an outcropping of western culture and its ideals based on its high minded theories of liberal democracy and rule of law and freedom of speech. My ideals are just my interpretation of those ideals, but they are still an offshoot of those ideals. They are not based in leftism, or fascism, or other anti western ideologies. And if we lived in a society based on those ideals, or the strong man dictatorships of the past (which resembled north korea today, just an FYI), we wouldnt be having this conversation, because freedom of speech would not be respected, human life would not be respected, and things would be far worse.
Speaking of which, I just watched the daily show this week. And Jon stewart talked about Donald Trump, and the republican party's fake patriotism, and how they claim to love the constitution, but want a dictator. And, guys, I really am getting scared for this election. We literally are running against a fascist here. A fascist who could win this election. Someone who DOES want to suspend the constitition and become a dictator. And that's bad. Without our democracy, we have nothing. We're screwed. THat democracy, that constitution, is what allows us to have a relative amount of freedom here. Without that, we ARE north korea under the kim family. We ARE Russia under Putin. Trump is basically like an American Hitler, and we shouldnt mess around with that. If he succeeds in winning, and he can somehow break our constitution, which he tried to do last time on Janaury 6th 2021, we're screwed. We really are. Let's not mess around with this.
So, once again, I have to ask, if you care about democracy at all, and liberty, and the constitution, and our way of life, for the love of everything America, VOTE FOR FRICKING JOE BIDEN. I really hate to have to do the blue no matter who thing, but in the face of literal fascism and authoritarianism, I have to ask this. DO NOT allow this guy to win again. He is DANGEROUS. We could be screwed if we let him back into office. He could break our democracy like Hitler broke Germany's, or Putin broke Russia's. I'm not kidding. The republican party is just that far gone in 2024. They are psychos. This isnt 2016 where he was just a reality star talking about making america great again, no, he's a full on psycho, and so are his supporters. 2016 unlocked a real evil in our society that's laid dormant and has been growing for decades. We need to stop this guy. So please. Whatever you think about anything, just support Biden, especially if you live in a swing state. Don't mess around with this guy winning or America could literally turn into a hellish dystopia. Im not trying to be more alarmist than necessary. I opposed such alarmism in 2016 and 2020 because i hate this kind of hyperbole, but this time, it is REAL. DO NOT let Donald Trump win.
And yeah, that's all I have to say.
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