Marty, did ppl really discuss these things more 25 years ago? Or 50 years ago? Or 100 years ago? Was there ever a "Golden Age"?

To take your example of 25 years:-

- Vietnam had just finished, not bcos of discussion but bcos the Americans were beaten.

- The Northern Irish of both sides and the British Army were busy killing each other.

- The Israelis and Palestinians had just finished the October War and were busy with border conflicts.

- Not too long afterwards (1979), Khomeini and co took over Iran.

The bad news is that extremists have always been. The good news is that mostly they're seeing that it usually doesn't work, since the total disgust that the majority feel towards them makes them outcasts - this is as true of rogue nations (Afghanistan) as it is of individual people (Tim McVeigh). The downside is the "mostly" and "usually" qualifiers. The rogue nations that decide to go the extremist route can only be cut off from trade until they decide the game isn't worth the candle; this seems to work long-term, but short-term this is not much help. And some extremist individuals (eg. Ian Paisley) can manage to get a coterie of other extremists to stop themselves feeling lonely.

Graham.

Graham.