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Strategies & Market Trends : Angels of Alchemy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pareto who wrote (465)	5/26/2000 11:45:00 PM
From: SirRealist	Respond to of 24256

Pareto; Some very important points you made. I do understand that a demagogue like Hitler is a factor of one, that his adherents made the great evils possible, that the world has experienced similar episodes in many, many regions (Kampuchea, Uganda, Haiti, Kosovo, Armenia, etc. etc., ad nauseum), and defining responsibility is far less important than simply banding together to stop the evil. Your mention of Holland in WW2 brings to mind a perplexity faced by one of my favorite poets. Edna St. Vincent Millay, the grand libertine whose poetry defined the best roars of the Roaring Twenties, was a committed pacifist. When her husband's family & friends (he was Dutch) began enduring losses at the hands of the Nazis - well before the US populace was alarmed, she had to wrestle through her pacifist ideals and ultimately came to the conclusion that the Nazis had to be stopped and US citizens had to overcome their isolationist tendencies and fight. She published a book of poetry with advance notice that she considered it more propaganda than poetry. The critics ignored her point, and savaged her work. As a result of the hardest decision she'd ever made - surrendering her pacifism to take up a call to arms - her reputation as one of the finest poets ever was severely damaged. That is not uncommon when one chooses to do the right thing, as opposed to the consistent or easy thing. Each person typically has a point in life when they realize that there are things it is important to fight for, or against. I am grateful that there are many who choose, and chose, to fight for the right things. Your mention of tobacco is noted. I do not invest there, despite being (ugh!) an off-and-on smoker. I have invested too much already by ingesting their foul product. I'm certain I have erred at times, investing in some company or another that has some rotten product or lousy policy towards employees. The point is, I try not to, which is the best any of us can do. My dad spent 28 years in the Air Force, serving in Korea, the Berlin Airlift, Vietnam and other hotspots. I was opposed to the Vietnam War, which created frictions, but I was eventually able to distinguish the difference between my love of this country and the many good people who served there (and not all were good), and my extreme dislike of the government officials whose motives and decisions were decidedly rotten. Thank you, Pareto, for raising the points you did. I wish you and yours a great weekend of togetherness. Kevin

To: Pareto who wrote (465)	5/27/2000 1:37:00 AM
From: yossarian67	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24256

Pareto - Nice sentiments and some interesting thoughts...However, a lot of what you put out there is apples/oranges...Hitler and the environment that allowed him to come to power and rule with hate and anger was seeded directly by WW1, in which the Allies(Britain/US/France mostly) were so fatigued and horrified by this new modern warfare and it's horrible toll on mankind and life, decided that Germany, and Germany alone was going to bear the full brunt of the cost and economic post war pain. So that's what happened. They transacted such a tremendous price on Germany, that combined with the worldwide depression, left Germany in a much worse situation than the rest of the world...People were angry, filled with hate, and ripe for an outlet. Hitler, a monster, provided that outlet with an old tried and true strategy: "we are better and destined to rule the world.".....The biggest bestest call to action and mayhem ever. See: Napoleon. Thus was created the Nazi state...We know the rest. Lesson is not that capitalism created the Nazi state, nor did tobacco, or beer companies, or video games...rather it was revenge and anger by the victors, propelled by a world wide recession in large part exacerbated by failed US government policy that helped put in place an environment of repression, hate, and anger. Have we learned our lessons?....I hope so, but I don't know and I have less faith.....Actually I no longer have any faith in government to do what's right - just what is politically expedient and popular, which is definitely not what Jefferson and Madison had in mind. "We" created Saddam Husseain, Khadaffi, and especially the Ayatollah, because of shortsighted cold war policy......the fact that the cold war is over is not reason enough to say that we've learned our lesson and no longer look for short term retribution and power, without attempting to foresee the long term costs........The China bill passing does engender hope however. I'm guessing the only reason it passed though is not because of any oracle tendencies, but rather big business, fat and rich from the past 5 years, was able to fil the coffers more so than labor. The Germans(any) that participated in the systematic murder of a whole group of people, no matter how small the part period, are and will always be to blame; and that country and her people must carry that weight forever as they should. No matter the circumstances one must not blame nor hate a group or indivudual simply for existing...on that note you are absolutely correct. Next week: Stalin and the USSR industrialization at all costs, including any/all minorities and dissenters that "stood in the way"....stay tuned sports fans.