Dare I wade into the quagmire?
May. 25th, 2004 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptOr should I just let people decide what to think about this?
Here's one good view. And here's another. I would have a third, but it's behind a locked entry. Still, good to know that there are people with functioning brains out there.
So, if you don't want to listen to yet another opinion, then don't click on the cut.
Okay, then. Here we go. Having not lived in any other governmental system than this one, I cannot pass judgment on "better" or "worse" amongst those that are viable. In addition, I haven't yet fully participated in government yet, having acquired the right to choose my own destiny one year too late for the last fiasco. So, take my opinion with a grain of whatever saline compound you use.
Working from the top-down: I'd like to posit the naive-yet-optimistic viewpoint that I don't think it's always this way. The evidence does continue to mount again being able to hold that position. That sucks, because it means that all those horrible stories really are true, and not some media propaganda blowing things out of proportion (I waffle between those two points depending on what's being covered.) Having not been through judicial proceedings, either, I don't know whether that account is an exception or the rule. Regardless, the people involved who were so cruel to that writer, if his story is true to its details, deserve to be fired. The kinder people may stay on.
On the second entry, Loweko makes a useful point. America is like an AOL chatroom: lots of lusers, script kiddies, l33t wannabies, boasters, posers, and other sorts of stuff like that. There are, of course, the rare Normal Users, and the rarer Intelligent Users (they have to exist, at least statistically...). Generally, it's all the bad ones that are flooding the channel or spamming it with advertisements, and that's what most people hear about. It sucks to have that kind of image. But, in America, the majority rules, and it's almost a guarantee that the majority are idiots at any given time.
His other point about Americans fighting dirty is fairly obvious - just have a look at our internal politics, and you'll see exactly the same sort of playground fighting that he'd rather not partake of.
Bob's defense is stellar. America is very much a land of freedoms. The freedom to fuck up. The freedom to try again after fucking up. The freedom to say that someone's fucked up. Even if someone were to try (and believe me, it would be a try in vain) to somehow skew his opinion by saying "well, he's a military man, he's been indoctrinated", allow me this simple, yet hopefully clear point.
Fuck You, whomever you may be to have the presumption to say such a thing.
America doesn't care about your background. Americans might, and they show it in some very cruel ways. Americans fall short of their goals every day, but America gives them the opportunity to try and achieve them fully every day of the week.
Both of those guys had someone comment (or said it themselves) about how Americans hold, or project the illusion of holding, higher standards than the rest of the world, and are either hypocrites of the highest order or expected to behave perfectly according to that standard all the time. Both acknowledge that looking at one's own governmental system is a wise thing to do before accusing another, (specks and planks, to make reference to the Christian Foundational Writings) and hopefully both come to the useful conclusion that none are perfect (throwing stones at adulteresses) and thus it is best to avoid pretension, no matter which side you're on. (They're intelligent people. I can safely say that they've at least thought about it.)
And hopefully, to complicate my position and avoid being pigeonholed into some category (something I abhor), if a draft legislation should be signed into law, I will be a conscientious objector. By whatever means that needs to be.
Today was a lucky-ish sort of day. Put in two more applications, bought a couple games used that were exceedingly cheap (too bad the roomie with the PS2 took it home.)
Maybe tomorrow cool stuff happens? Maybe not. Either way, it is beginning to look like June is the target date for employment. And that's okay.
The apartment is a bit lonely without the people in it. Not enough to be worrisome, since I know where they are or the most part, but a bit lonely anyway. That's the day in the nutshell. That's about all I did anyway.
Here's one good view. And here's another. I would have a third, but it's behind a locked entry. Still, good to know that there are people with functioning brains out there.
So, if you don't want to listen to yet another opinion, then don't click on the cut.
Okay, then. Here we go. Having not lived in any other governmental system than this one, I cannot pass judgment on "better" or "worse" amongst those that are viable. In addition, I haven't yet fully participated in government yet, having acquired the right to choose my own destiny one year too late for the last fiasco. So, take my opinion with a grain of whatever saline compound you use.
Working from the top-down: I'd like to posit the naive-yet-optimistic viewpoint that I don't think it's always this way. The evidence does continue to mount again being able to hold that position. That sucks, because it means that all those horrible stories really are true, and not some media propaganda blowing things out of proportion (I waffle between those two points depending on what's being covered.) Having not been through judicial proceedings, either, I don't know whether that account is an exception or the rule. Regardless, the people involved who were so cruel to that writer, if his story is true to its details, deserve to be fired. The kinder people may stay on.
On the second entry, Loweko makes a useful point. America is like an AOL chatroom: lots of lusers, script kiddies, l33t wannabies, boasters, posers, and other sorts of stuff like that. There are, of course, the rare Normal Users, and the rarer Intelligent Users (they have to exist, at least statistically...). Generally, it's all the bad ones that are flooding the channel or spamming it with advertisements, and that's what most people hear about. It sucks to have that kind of image. But, in America, the majority rules, and it's almost a guarantee that the majority are idiots at any given time.
His other point about Americans fighting dirty is fairly obvious - just have a look at our internal politics, and you'll see exactly the same sort of playground fighting that he'd rather not partake of.
Bob's defense is stellar. America is very much a land of freedoms. The freedom to fuck up. The freedom to try again after fucking up. The freedom to say that someone's fucked up. Even if someone were to try (and believe me, it would be a try in vain) to somehow skew his opinion by saying "well, he's a military man, he's been indoctrinated", allow me this simple, yet hopefully clear point.
Fuck You, whomever you may be to have the presumption to say such a thing.
America doesn't care about your background. Americans might, and they show it in some very cruel ways. Americans fall short of their goals every day, but America gives them the opportunity to try and achieve them fully every day of the week.
Both of those guys had someone comment (or said it themselves) about how Americans hold, or project the illusion of holding, higher standards than the rest of the world, and are either hypocrites of the highest order or expected to behave perfectly according to that standard all the time. Both acknowledge that looking at one's own governmental system is a wise thing to do before accusing another, (specks and planks, to make reference to the Christian Foundational Writings) and hopefully both come to the useful conclusion that none are perfect (throwing stones at adulteresses) and thus it is best to avoid pretension, no matter which side you're on. (They're intelligent people. I can safely say that they've at least thought about it.)
And hopefully, to complicate my position and avoid being pigeonholed into some category (something I abhor), if a draft legislation should be signed into law, I will be a conscientious objector. By whatever means that needs to be.
Today was a lucky-ish sort of day. Put in two more applications, bought a couple games used that were exceedingly cheap (too bad the roomie with the PS2 took it home.)
Maybe tomorrow cool stuff happens? Maybe not. Either way, it is beginning to look like June is the target date for employment. And that's okay.
The apartment is a bit lonely without the people in it. Not enough to be worrisome, since I know where they are or the most part, but a bit lonely anyway. That's the day in the nutshell. That's about all I did anyway.
