August1991

It was a wonderful interview/podcast. Two points: 1. He's not electable. (I'm amazed that he even got his majority in 2011.) 2. His change of opinion on sovereign debt in America: Republicans only care about reducing taxes and Democrats only care about spending more.

Something? Many guys were willing to die abroad to defeat dictators. How many Russians died abroad to defeat Napoleon or Hitler? How many Chinese? ==== We, in the West, nowadays live in a 21st century world.

Libertarians. Increasingly, the Democratic Party is pushing young white kids (college educated or merely high-school, guys more than girls) to agree with the libertarian perspective of society. ====== IMHO, this is wrong. A civilized society is not Libertarian.

Years ago (1980s?), I was flying in the Middle East. Beside me, a British engineer explained that he was returning to Saudi Arabia. I recall his comment: "Imagine that we gave several billion dollars to Henry VIII."

I'm reminded of Hemingway's response to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald: "Rich people are different from you and me." Hemingway: "Yes. They have more money."

Oops. The correct title is "Ladies in Black". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6684884/

Was Dieppe a victory? Certainly not. But it showed the enemy, and ourselves, that we were determined. IMHO, the Vietnam War is evidence of how much Americans are prepared to go to show that they believe in what their country represents to the world. ==== Like Dieppe, eventually, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed (ran out of money) and this threat to America no longer exists. Because, in part, of the guys who fought in Vietnam.

Argus, This is the key point. "China spreading out over the world buying up governments, industries and resources, telling all ethnic Chinese everywhere their primary loyalty should be to China... " So what? Let the Chinese do what they want in the world. ==== This so-called Chinese threat is nothing like the threat of Soviet Communism, Hitler's Nazis or the Japanese in the 1930s. Putin merely wants to consolidate Russia: an age-old Tsarist task. The CCP, like Lee Kwan Yew, merely wants to impose order. IMHO, neither are a threat to the West. ==== The threat to the West? The world has several hundred million people, born every year, and we must bring these kids into the world of the Enlightenment. No one is born with the ability to take a derivative.

It is still true today - and my example of unilingual Korean women abroad is evidence. Your example of Mandarin is well-placed. Many years ago, I found myself in the Canton train station trying to buy a ticket to Beijing. (On paper, I had written "Beijing" in Chinese characters and I walked from counter to counter looking for similar characters above the ticket counters.) Of course, many people stared at me. And eventually, I met someone who spoke English well enough to write a short note in, uh, Mandarin to explain who I was. ===== OftenWrong, I think that you don't quite understand how this world can intimidate someone who doesn't speak English. People have travelled abroad with me simply because they knew that I could manage in English. Years ago, a Frenchman once said to me: "If you speak English, it is like having $20,000 in your pocket." Some people are "born" with the ability to speak English; this is what I mean by privilege, and why I have some agreement of "Critical Race Theory". ===== Last Point: Why are the native anglophones so privileged? Why does the ability to speak English confer such privilege? What is it about the English language? Often suggested explanations: easier grammar, culture (The Beatles/Shakespeare), Churchill/WWII, the US, common law (vs civil code), less diverse accents, accident of history Whatever the explanation, native speakers of English have a privilege in this world.

Infidel Dog, IMV, you entirely miss the point of so-called "privilege" and "critical race theory". I take a non-American perception of the terms.

If I were a western leader, I would let China (CCP) have Taiwan and Russia have eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and even further west) . For what? Nothing. Maybe a guarantee that Estonia/Baltics etc will be free, protected, part of NATO. Belarus will be EU/Russian, as it chooses. A guarantee that Japan and Vietnam will be free, protected. Korea remains to be decided. As they say, oral Chinese and Russian guarantees are not worth the paper they're written on. But I figure that no dictator in China nor Russia now or in the future wants to dominate the world. Any Chinese or Russian leader for the foreseeable future simply wants to consolidate geography. At present, unlike Maoists or the Soviet Union of past, they are no threat to the western world. ====== It is not the job of a politician in the democratic west to enlighten heathens abroad, In this 21st century, a western politician's job is to ensure that heathens do not attack us. JFK famously said that he didn't care about the science of going to the Moon. He simply wanted to show that America could do it.

Yzermandius, Reading through your posts, I reckon that we have a different view of history - maybe life. IMHO, if something can't continue forever, it won't.

Several years ago, I was travelling in Asia. In a cafe (Cambodia? Phnom Penh?), I saw older women talking lively at a nearby table. Curious, as I paid my bill, I managed the courage to ask them - in English and in sign language, pointing at my passport - who they were, where they were from. In accented English, one of the older women answered that they were Korean. The other older women watched as she answered. First point: Koreans are the Maritimers/Newfoundlanders of Asia. Second point: Singapore is Toronto and Hongkong is Montreal (or they used to be). Main point of the OP: The older Korean woman, the sole sort-of English-speaking woman, was privileged. As she explained in broken English, they were friends on vacation abroad. Her unilingual friends watched as she explained their story. I wondered how difficult/frightening it would be to travel without knowledge of English. Heck, I know this only too well. ====== In this world, "privilege" is having the ability to speak English.

Strongly disagree. Britain did not pick Dunkerque, nor Russia choose to lose Rostov. But ultimately, Hitler lost. To defeat an enemy, it requires - as maybe Hitler would say - the triumph of the will. ==== America won the Cold War and defeated the Soviet Union because Americans had the will.