The Bone Doctrine Revised

[Jeff Bone]

To elaborate on the previous points...

FUNDAMENTAL RECOGNITION:  we've been viewing the world through rose-coloured
glasses for decades.  The notion that our system is / can be fundamentally
compatible with all cultures and nations is an illusion propped up by our own
economic and geopolitical ascendancy, one that is being shattered by recent
events.  It's a liberal fantasy that we can no longer afford to indulge.  We
must recognize that fundamental cultural incompatibility / multilateral
survival of cultures and memes is not in all cases possible.  From there, we
must learn to recognize these incompatibilities where they exist, and adopt
policies which work to eliminate / reform such incompatible cultures.

LINE IN THE SAND:  Nations of the world must be responsible for the actions of
their citizens, and citizens must share responsibility for the actions of
their nations.  Two of the fundamental problems we face come from systems
where there is incomplete separation of church and state and systems which
grant asymmetric rights to citizens based on ethnicity, etc.  We must
recognize that nations which engage in these behaviors are dangerous,
illegitimate, and incompatible with our own system.  In order to strongly
encourage reform away from these kinds of bias, we should adopt and
aggressively apply certain policies and disincentives.  We will define what it
means to be a member of the civilized community of nations in terms favorable
to us;  we will hold all nations to these standards and exclude those whose
political and cultural composition are not compatible.

ILLEGITIMATE NATIONS:  a nation will be defined as illegitimate and be treated
according to the policies for dealing with illegitimate nations if its
legislature / political system is not adequately separated from its religious
system.  No legitimate nation's body of law gives any special preference to
any particular religious belief or, indeed, has anything to say about religion
at all.  A nation will be defined as illegitimate if all its citizens are not
treated symmetrically under the law regardless of race, creed, language, or
other factors;  apartheid will not be tolerated.  A nation will be defined
(perhaps temporarily) as illegitimate if its own military force is deployed
against any of its own citizens.  Any nation which exports mercenaries /
terrorists / allows its own citizens to travel to fight in wars not engaged by
their own state will be considered illegitimate.  We should consider whether
certain political systems (i.e., feudalism) and economic systems (i.e.,
communism, socialism, etc.) might not be sufficient grounds for judging a
nation illegitimate.  Free speech / press might be another criterion.  And any
nation which does not follow our own policies for dealing with illegitimate
nations will be considered illegitimate;  this effect is transitive.  The net
result will be a transitive closure of illegitimate nations to which the
disincentives below apply.

INCENTIVES / DISINCENTIVES:  We will withdraw diplomatic recognition of all
illegitimate nations.  We will cease all trade with them, close our borders
and our markets to them, cease all forms of aid by both government and private
organizations and individuals.  We will deport their nationals living in our
borders.  We will freeze the assets of all organizations and individuals
within our grasp.  We will ban tourism to their lands.  We will give them a
true, active reason to hate us rather than just benignly neglect them.  A
system of symmetric repeal of these sanctions in return for specific types of
reform encourages nations to join the community of legitimate nations.

Just some thoughts,

jb