Framlings, raman, or varelse? was Re: Making a nation democratic

[Owen Byrne]

> But that's just opening the door to constant extortion.
>
> Note that we are *already* constantly extorted, and to sugar-coat the
> process we've crafted a complete mythology and idealism to justify the
> process;  specifically, I'm talking about all the humanitarian, economic,
> and other aid and perks we provide to various nations in an attempt to buy
> our way to our own self-interest.  Look how well that works:  look at all
> the US dollars that went to Afghanistan alone last year.  Look at all the
> aid sent yearly to Israel *and* to Egypt.  In our own country, the trend
is
> to consider no person as responsible for anything at all, but with the
rest
> of the world we view ourselves as responsible for everything.  We are the
> world's mother (didums get a booboo?  here's a band-aid) and father (as in
> father knows best, here's your allowance if you behave) and banker and
baker
> and farmer and educator and gadget maker and policeman and entertainer.
The
> net result is that we are viewed by large parts of the world's population
as
> a global bully.
>
Its interesting that you forgot to include military assistance in your list
of the ways the US subsidizes the rest of the world. It seems that most of
the aid to Israel and Egypt is military aid and a proportion of it is
required to be spent in the US - that bastion of free trade. In other words,
its not aid, its mercantilism
Owen
.
owen@permafrost.net
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