From: Kevin Freels (megaquark@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Aug 21 2003 - 11:33:49 MDT
Actually, no. It isn't odd. Rather than simply complaining, maybe it would
be nice if other countries that receive help from us actually offered some
form of constructive criticism rather than just hating us.
That being said, I do have to admit that our foreign policy leaves a lot to
be desired. The problem is with the people. We've been brught into a cycle
of dependency where the masses have realized that they can vote themselves
money from their own treasury. People are more interested in what the
politicians promise to "give" them rather than the soundness of their
decision making abilities. Most voters are completely ignorant of our
foreign policy and how it affects the rest of the world. The decision makers
simply do what they feel they need to do to get re-elected so ultimately
there are bad decisions made only to increase the pocketbooks of the voters
accompanied by "feel good" actions that show the voters that we "care"
The only way I see to solve this is to have the majority of the people
properly educated. Unfortunately, most people seem to be satisifed with
their current (mis)understanding of the way the world works. They see no
benefit in increasing their mental abilities. And to make matters worse, the
less educated they are, the more likely they are to reproduce offspring and
raise them in the same way.
Popular culture only helps to intensify this. We have created a society
where people are proud to be a redneck. A society where Jerry Springer could
become successful.
Hopefully this is only a phase. I see that at some point, drastic changes
will have to be made in the way this country works. It will most likely hurt
many people. Maybe through that, the mentality of people in this country
will change much like the depression created a generation of people that
were extremely frugal with money. Maybe people will begiin to care about
their education and open their minds.
In the meantime, I would like to do something about it. I have some vague
ideas on how to do a small part at least. What I want to do is start a small
afterschool class in Natural science. Something kids can do besides sports
that would challenge their minds and ideas. It would be set up similar to
the way youth soccer is set up, with no government funding or intervention.
I am a long way from doing this as I am just now getting an idea of how it
would even work, but this is how I plan to help.
As Smoochie the Rhino said, "I can't change the world, but I can make a dent
in it."
Kevin Freels
----- Original Message -----
From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: Land of let's only talk about whats wrong with the US
> On Wednesday 20 August 2003 23:58, Kevin Freels wrote:
> > Isn't it odd that everyone loves to complain about the "evil" U.S, but
when
> > something bad happens they always come to US for help?
> >
>
> Isn't it odd that we seem to have right at hand really intelligent people
who
> get all defensive if someone points out anything that really is a problem
in
> their country? Shouldn't we more extropicly attempt to address real
> problems instead of getting defensive? This sort of defensiveness is
> generally a sign of immaturity.
>
> - samantha
>
>
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