> > Yes, ancient history can provide lots of such examples, but recent history
> > shows that a society that's good only at making war is doomed, consider
> > imperial Japan, Nazi Germany or the USSR. I think there are two reasons for
> > the change.
> >
> > 1) When technology is primitive it's difficult to create wealth;
> > the best way to get it is to steal it from somebody else who has
> > fewer weapons than you do. Technology is no longer so primitive,
> > wealth is not conserved it can be created, and there are easier
> > ways to get power and money.
> >
> > 2) The power of offensive weapons has increased enormously while the
> > increase in defensive weapons has been much more modest. War is
> > no longer profitable.
This point would indicate to me that war has become enormously profitable, to the
winner. Witness the Gulf War, which cost the US less than $5 billion (while US
weapons industries raked in $60 billion, mostly from other countries, a handy
return on investment...). If the US were more interested in becoming an empire,
it really would not have much opposition. Numerically yes, but technologically
not in any way, shape or form.
Fortunately Americans have found, and proven to most of the rest of the world
that it is much easier to build an empire through business shenannigans than
through outright force, its more stable in the long run, and nobody gets shot.
I would say that the reason why nations like Imperial Japan, nazi Germany, and
the USSR are no longer in existence is that the rest of humanity know how rude it
is to be a military agressor nation, and cooperated to bring down the first two,
while they defeated the third by simply giving it the silent treatment.
> An interesting factual tidbit to ponder: no two countries that
> both have a Macdonald's franchise have ever gone to war against
> each other.
What I worry about is when The Corporate Republic of MacDonalds declares war on
the Corporate Republic of Burger King. To be known as The Food Fight, it will
kill more bystanders from indiscriminate use of second hand cholesterol
weapons.....
>
>
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
> are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
> for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?