UN authoizes all measures including no fly zone on Libya.

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Are you comparing people who live under dictatorships to people who are consumers thriving on faddism?
 
souggy said:
Are you comparing people who live under dictatorships to people who are consumers thriving on faddism?
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Wait - did you just say that our use of Twitter is faddism and Libya's of Twitter is democracy?
 
souggy said:
Take a look at what social networking is doing to us. We're becoming like ants. It's hard to wage wars when there's hive mentality going on.
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you anarchist.

oh wait..... you utilize all of those... and I don't..... I must be an anarchist.....
 
TheOracle said:
Donno, Alex, if we've been warring for a hundred thousand years, what makes you think that a thousand years will make a difference?
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Carl Sagan makes me think different.

We're at a very interesting time in the evolution of our species. We have amassed incredible amounts of technology and intellectual discourse, which is allowing us to achieve almost everything we want. Also, the internet, more than anything, has united the entire world in a single web of communication and information access. It's like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press on crack/cocaine/meth/X.

40 years ago, Star Trek introduced the idea of a matter teleportation device. A few months ago, scientists at a university in China were able to teleport a single atom about 3 meters in a lab experiment (similar experiment has been duplicated several times since, including right here at Purdue. Yeah, what!?) It's a start.

How will we use all this information? Well, if we continue using it for aggressive or defensive purposes, we'll just eventually destroy ourselves, and that will happen soon enough, possibly in our lifetime.

If we survive our "technological adolescence," and do not destroy ourselves, I have no doubt we'll eventually achieve a society free of war and violent tendencies. There will always be conflict. We need conflict. It keeps things interesting, but we will just evolve to a point where we solve conflict without the use of guns and coercion.
 
TheOracle said:
Wait - did you just say that our use of Twitter is faddism and Libya's of Twitter is democracy?
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Absolutely.

Twitter/Facebook/et al are just tools. It's how we use them that matters.

"We make our tools and then our tools shape us" - Marshall McLuhan.
 
I'm saying that McDonald's, TV, Internet, newspapers, etc., were all things that could've "united" the world.
 
TheWriteAlex said:
Actually, since recorded history began, there has always been some war or skirmish being fought, and it has only gotten worse in the last few hundred years with the advent of advanced weaponry and military science.
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Yes, the frequency of warfare has always been with us. The degree of destruction has increased though.


War is part of our nature, indeed, but that doesn't mean we can't evolve and leave it behind as a legacy of our past. It won't happen in our lifetime, but in a thousand years? Maybe...
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Someday wars will end but not thru man's evolution. Things will get a lot worse before then.
 
TheOracle said:
I'm saying that McDonald's, TV, Internet, newspapers, etc., were all things that could've "united" the world.
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Actually, Thomas Friedman pointed out that no two countries with a McDonalds have ever ever fought each other since getting their McDonalds. I think he called it the "Golden Arches of Diplomacy theory" or something like that.

Not sure if it's still the case, but... makes you wonder.
 
Beowulf said:
We are supplying weapons now. No good will come from this.
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That's always the risk. The weapons we supply today could be turned on us tomorrow.
 
TheWriteAlex said:
Absolutely.

Twitter/Facebook/et al are just tools. It's how we use them that matters.

"We make our tools and then our tools shape us" - Marshall McLuhan.
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Interesting. Yet social networking was considered a secret weapon by America's underdogs not too long ago -- Democrats.

edit*

The Revolution Will Not be Televised by Joe Trippi
 
souggy said:
It's an arm race between singularity and annihilation.
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The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'

But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say
Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?
If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away
There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'
I'm sitting here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace
And… tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe
We're on the eve
Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

(Barry McGuire)
 
TheWriteAlex said:
Actually, Thomas Friedman pointed out that no two countries with a McDonalds have ever ever fought each other since getting their McDonalds. I think he called it the "Golden Arches of Diplomacy theory" or something like that.

Not sure if it's still the case, but... makes you wonder.
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Hmm. Not sure.

Yes, well, no two countries with nukes have ever unleashed them on each other. :P But that doesn't mean the people in charge will always be sane.

Here's the essay I was thinking of - Jihad vs. McWorld - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and here's the other viewpoint I was thinking of -
The Clash of Civilizations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
TheWriteAlex said:
Actually, Thomas Friedman pointed out that no two countries with a McDonalds have ever ever fought each other since getting their McDonalds. I think he called it the "Golden Arches of Diplomacy theory" or something like that.

Not sure if it's still the case, but... makes you wonder.
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Or it could be that McDonalds sets up franchises only in areas that it feels are already secure and friendly to them.
 
Also, the tools for human communication seem to work across all societies, no? In a year, Twitter in Libya will be Faddism.

Anyway...plenty of tribal societies have managed to keep their identities amongst the McPeoples.
 
TheOracle said:
Also, the tools for human communication seem to work across all societies, no? In a year, Twitter in Libya will be Faddism.
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That's what we call progress. :cool2:


Anyway...plenty of tribal societies have managed to keep their identities amongst the McPeoples.
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"Keep" is a relative term.
 
TheWriteAlex said:
That's what we call progress. :cool2:




"Keep" is a relative term.
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Yes, people in Mongolia might have the same access as we do, but they are not immersed in technology 24/7. Immersion and access are two different things, albeit not exclusive of each others.
 
Donno, my friend. This idea that Western ideals - and Twitterism ;) - is universal and will spread throughout the world if we just let it (or encourage it) sounds a little...naive, yeah? Somehow the internet has become synonymous with democracy. (I'm not out right objecting to the latter idea, but look at Al Jazeera.)

Libya is classic tribal v. new world order. But we've seen this before (especially in many African countries post-colonialism). Newest democracies are always the most unstable.

Some guy is a hero and takes over, rules way too long and then there's an uprising.

So what happens next?

(And since when do Muslims eat McDonalds?)
 
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