teribus - You are a cynical fellow, aren't you? I think that you have a lower opinion of the human race than it deserves, but I'm sure you feel it is a reasonable and practical one.

All it comes down to is you are saying we are the way we have always been and nothing will ever change us and so the strong and vigilant shall rule...by force or by the threat of force. And I'm saying we can do better than that. That's what Bobert is saying too, although his spelling is lamentable at times. :-)

My example regarding Hitler was not intended in quite the fashion you took it. Hitler DID try to bring about the complete destruction of his own society (at the bitter end) and take them all down with him, since he felt that having failed his vision they did not deserve to survive. Of course his people (most of them) disobeyed him. A few (like Goebbels) did not. I guess you'd call those few the "true believers"...well, Goebbels would undoubtedly have been tried and executed anyway, so from his point of view better to go out under his own auspices, I suppose. It's the last possible gesture of still being "in control" of one's own life.

Now, I was suggesting that the last possible national gesture of still being "in control" (if you are a primitive-minded fool) is to fire off one's nuclear weapons at the "enemy". Certainly this is what America and Russia were contemplating doing on a few occasions, most notably in the Cuban missile crisis. Recent revelations about that have indicated that it very nearly happened.

If it had happened, it would have been a futile and idiotic gesture, self-defeating to both combatants, as well as to all humanity and to nature as well. It would have been remembered as folly, not heroism.

It amazes me the pickles that supposedly rational people get themselves into merely because they are too fearful and unimaginative to be able to grasp a simple concept like "we are all one humanity and we have a common interest in cooperating with each other".

Is this too idealistic for you, teribus? If so, I suggest that you are trapped in a form of thinking which leads nowhere useful, but simply repeats a savage and primitive past. It's caveman logic.

Are the North Korean leaders inclined toward the same caveman logic? Yes. So? They can be characterized as a very small, stunted impoverished little caveman with a tiny little club. The leaders of the USA can be characterized as a caveman 700 feet tall with a steel ax weighing 5,000 pounds in his hand. Ask me which set of leaders worries me more when I go walking through the forest that is the world of today.

It all boils down to one thing, teribus...you apparently TRUST those guys at the top, and I don't. I'm cynical about the leadership, while you are cynical about humanity in general, as far as I can see. I have observed humanity in general all my life, and I see that the vast majority of them prefer to live quiet, peaceful lives and get along with each other, unless they are very scared and under great stress.

There is great stress in the world, and it's because of poverty and inequality. Do something about that, and you will not need to build more weapons of mass destruction.

- LH