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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (13233)	12/9/2001 1:06:58 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Unclewest, I should have added 'for now' to 'USA citizens are ruling the world'. The USA citizens will only rule the world while the rest of the world considers them worthy. Rulers often get confused about where their power comes from. The Poms seem to be getting used to the idea that they no longer rule the world, but it took them half a century after they'd lost it to adapt [I think the time was required because old dogs don't learn new tricks so it required new people to be born and brought up to the new conditions]. The Romans no longer rule the world and they got used to that centuries ago and developed the fine art of chasing women, enjoying wine, pizza and surrendering to any megalomaniac who showed up [they knew he wouldn't last long]. Japan tried having an empire but never really made much progress, so took over economically instead, by understanding what wealth was really about [though they haven't got it quite right yet]. France has floundered around and while enjoying some 19th century glories, never really amounted to much and sulks around the place as though they SHOULD be Numero Uno. Germany. Oh hell! They seem to just keep coming. Fortunately, goose-stepping around the place never appealed to the world at large. China has enjoyed some Big Time. Maybe again soon. USSR? Well, communism held a lot of appeal to people in the early 20th century after millennia of aristocratic, feudal, serfdom and slavery under totalitarian rule. Since property wasn't so apparently linked to creativity, it was easy for people to think that the rich had the wealth simply because of conquest and hereditary rule. Why bother having the rich rulers who had never done anything to produce wealth other than inherit it from their murderous ancestors? Nowadays, more people understand that capitalism and creativity are the source of wealth. Freedom, private property and contracts are the enablers. Governor Gray has ensured that I will NOT invest in electricity supplies in California although they need some. Investors voting their capital with their feet are the new rulers. They will move their capital to places which best enable them to function and which provide the best returns. I'm thinking that Americans are voting themselves too much of my money for purposes that I find wasteful. I'm very happy to pay for USS Enterprise and I am happy for Mike Spann's family to never have to worry about anything. His little girl should know that people around the world are grateful to him for his heroism. <WINFIELD, Ala., Dec. 6 -- Alison Spann, 9, a small girl with a brown ponytail and a red blouse, stood quietly beside her grandfather in the Winfield Church of Christ as he read the last letter she had written to her father, the one she wants placed in his casket. "Dear Daddy, I will miss you dearly," she wrote. "Thank you, Daddy, for making the world a better place." Here in this four-stoplight town of 4,500 people, hundreds came today to remember a hometown boy who is now being hailed as a national hero. > washingtonpost.com Make that international hero. I would feel terrible if he had been conscripted [not that conscripts would perform as he obviously was] and killed. I would feel that my income was tainted by a form of slavery and would not be happy. From what I read of Mike Spann, he conducted himself in a way which I consider the best of the USA. While people like him, Irwin Jacobs and their ilk are keeping the USA humming along, I am proud to say, Ich bin ein Yank. But it's a competitive world and not all that the USA does is admirable. It's the individuals who matter. Not the state and that's crucial. And time's change. The USA produced Mike Spann, but it also produced John Philip Walker Lindh and Charles Manson and Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski. It was Mike Spann, the individual, who is my hero. The USA is a patchwork quilt, which can swing in bad directions and lose the impetus, just like all the other empires. The USA doesn't have a monopoly on the good guys. I know almost nothing about him, but Hu Jintao looks as though he might be one of the good guys. We'll see. If he is, it would certainly get the world off to a good start in the 21st century. Mqurice