Thread: I want to thank you all!

I can't remember who said it, and I am definitely paraphrasing this, but it goes something like: the people who put themselves up to govern the rest of us are typically not the sort of people we'd want governing us.

I've noticed just on a micro level, when former colleagues move into managerial positions, even if initally for "good" reasons, they end up making decisions about the rest of us that they used to sit in my office and complain about previously!

I think in the end it is the power that attracts most people to want to govern others. And if you are the sort of person who wants power over others you will compromise at some point, big or small, to maintain that power.

As Groucho Marx said: "These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."

The trick for me with politics is to find the party with a philosophy that matches as closely as possible with my view of the world. That sort of worked for a while, but either I have gotten more cynical or the political parties have, or both: because it seems to me that all the major parties completely subscribe to Marx's quote. Today it seems they'll do anything to keep power, including completely going against everything they have traditionally stood for.

And I think, not to be a doomsayer or anything, that we are seeing the cracks starting to appear globally and economically of that "power at all costs" nationalistic approach to politics. No tough love anymore, people don't want to hear that.

We get the governments we deserve. Especially in a (supposed) democracy. I say supposed because economics, money, corporate power all corrupt true democracy as it is defined on paper.

Rant over.

James.

The most misquoted proverb probably of all times is, "money is the root of all evil." What the proverb actually says is, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." So what is meant by the love of money? In a nutshell it is greed. What, at its root, is money? Money is a physical manifestation of power. So what that proverb really is saying is that the lust for power is where many sorts of evil spawn from. There is also the adage that if power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hardly a truer word has ever been spoken. As Jimbo said it infects like a virus. Even good people with noble intentions wind up being drawn in by it either from being drunk with the power itself or corrupted by the desire to do something noble which necessitates that they make unsavory bedfellows. You wash my back I'll wash yours or if you want me to help you then you have to help me with this. I don't think there's any cure for it. I've even at times thought that perhaps anarchy was even better but what anarchy becomes is a power vacuum. That, in turn leads to a feudal state and the cycle starts all over again. It's a symptom of the fallen nature of man.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Sorry couldn't help myself. In some ways I agree. All things are situational and everything is intertwined. I was just thinking that if FDR had not lied and withheld information from the US population we might not have gotten into World war II at all. I The idea of entering another European war was very unpopular until he let Pearl harbor happen. Ignoring intelligence reports allowed him to stop having to go behind the American people's back. These days people think that each and every American citizen has to sign off before we take military action so that may have even been exaggerated.

Oh no not another conspiracy theory.

Folks have been writing about that since, well... the 1940s. No hard evidence has ever been presented. Just circumstance and wild claims.

I remember in the 1960s when talk TV was big they used to have these syndicated guys like Joe Pine and Alan Burke and they had these guys on who used to insist on all kinds of wild things and this was one of them.

In the real world this has never been taken seriously.

okay then
I guess we all believe what we want to believe

Look up "lend lease WWII." Public information brah.

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...hawaii-attack-

Originally Posted by Jimbo

the people who put themselves up to govern the rest of us are typically not the sort of people we'd want governing us

'Politics is like golf and buggery, not a suitable pastime for a gentleman'

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

These days people think that each and every American citizen has to sign off before we take military action so that may have even been exaggerated.

They don't though, do they?

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...hawaii-attack-

failure to act on intelligence, hmm where have I heard that very recently?

All I'm saying is if you review the literature you will see mainstream researchers don't consider this to be a credible thing.

They have hung their hats on that along with breaking of the Japanese Code and the fact the carriers had left prior to the attack.

Hey you're going to believe what you want to believe. Likewise am I. There is truth and there is falsehood but it is not up to me to decide that except for myself. Personally I am going to believe what I think is the overwhelming evidence. Each of us has to do as he sees fit in that regard.