Hello Pezz,
<<It wuz then and is now especially expressed by the military... Franks duzn't know what the hell he is talkin about>> … he is not the only one out there, and he may be correct about what may be required for the possibly unnecessary. How is that for a hedged sentence ;0)
<<I see a similar fear over terrorism today>>
A bomb had gone off in Hong Kong a few years ago in a phone booth and a sports stadium, and I thought at the time that the perpetrators must be apprehended and disposed of. Every so often some bomb makers in China are executed, and I thought ‘good riddance’.
ACF Mike is always accusing me of being provocative, mistaking attempted thinking for deliberate antagonizing. Here is a genuine question, do you think the general American population would have used the term ‘terrorists’ as a generally accepted name to describe the North Vietnamese had they brought down the Empire State Building back in 1968?
I realize ‘the general American population’ is a far more difficult if not impossible concept than the idea of ‘the general Chinese citizenry’ or the meaning ‘the average Japanese salary man’, because the New Yorkers are a very different lot from the folks in Illinois, California is more of a foreign country to the folks in Connecticut than Tibet is to the people of Shanghai, while Los Angeles is altogether a different planet, and San Francisco another galaxy. I can imagine that had Montana been contiguous to Long Island, they would be at war with each other in the ‘good old days’ ;0)
The common denominator that ties the disparate lot together may be the media, to which the political establishment seems to pay attention to.
For mainland China and in mainland China, people everywhere generally understand, more rightly than wrongly, that the politicians have a great say in what appears in the media, although the reality is changing, however gradually.
Folks, meaning the little people, also understands and accepts that the big picture is controlled by a political elite, the Mandarin class, meaning the big folks, and has accepted this state of affairs for long durations, except when a thorough blood letting is called for, involving a lot of screaming, looting, killing, absconding, smashing, pulverizing, cleansing, and rebirth; you know, a typical party.
In America, from the overseas perspective, it may be that folks view that American politics is beholden to the media that in turn shapes public opinion. To put you on the spot, do you or anyone else on this thread think this is a fair description :0?
Because, if so, then what does democracy mean and is it meaningful as far as the ‘correct’ determination of a country’s direction is concerned?
And if not so, meaning the media is not the determining factor to popular opinion which in turn determines election outcomes, then who exactly are referred to in ‘by the people’, and in turn, who are the folks comprising ‘for the people’ as far as national direction is concerned? Never mind all that is involved in how any local community decides to upgrade its sewer system or fill in its potholes.
Chugs, Jay |
