Subject:
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Re: A question of remembrance...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 7 May 2001 20:27:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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1206 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti writes:
> > To be honest, I don't support much of anything outside of U.S. borders. I
> > want to mind my own business in relation to my neighbors, and I want U.S.
> > foreign policy to reflect a similar laissez faire attitude to the world at
> > large. I don't want to be a part of the U.N. I don't believe in a League
> > of Nations. I don't want to make the world safe for democracy or for
> > anything else. I like to stay small and mobile and make alliances as they
> > seem appropriate.
>
> Well said! You, me and Jefferson:
>
> "Honest friendship with all who wish it, entangling alliances with none"
This is an oft-quoted snippet, and I have no doubt that it was fine
foreign policy for an infant nation two centuries ago, but in an age when we
can cross the globe in hours, I think its relevance is more metaphorical
than actual.
And while we're at it, let's not forget Burke:
"All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win the world is for enough
good men to do nothing."
Throughout this discussion I've agreed with the vast majority of what
Richard has posted, especially regarding the pursuit and necessity of peace.
I'm less comfortable with national isolationism, however, since it seems to
foster the potential for the exact ills and bloodshed that a peace-minded
nation should cherish. The notion that it somehow doesn't affect us as a
nation, or isn't our business because it happens to someone else, is
directly in conflict with any notion of world-wide peace I can envision. If
a nation needs and asks for our assistance and we are able to give it, how
can we morally refuse that nation? For that matter, if a nation needs our
assistance but is unable to ask for it, how can we refuse that nation? I
don't purport to have the answers for the larger moral issues, but I don't
see how building a wall at our border is of particular benefit.
For that matter, I don't see why everyone on Earth wouldn't support a
single, world-wide community, as long as it respects the customs and
heritage of its constituents. We are, after all, one race, and the
political borders we've spent so much blood to establish are simply
political. Given some of the tenets of Libertopia (such as open borders,
free trade, and personal sovereignty), it would seem that a single
Nation-of-the-World is not only desirable; it is essential.
> > My bias is entirely in favor of peace, however it may be achieved...
One may achieve peace by exterminating one's enemies, and one may perceive
peace by building walls at one's borders and not getting entangled beyond them.
Dave!
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: A question of remembrance...
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| (...) ::sigh:: I knew I should have left in my qualifier about the Nazis... In my last post I WAS going to include that the nations of the world should have spotted the threat the Nazis represented much earlier on and not have jumped into bed with (...) (23 years ago, 7-May-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: A question of remembrance...
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| (...) Well, yes and no. The world does not admit of us huddling behind our borders and assuming that distance keeps us safe, but nevertheless there is merit in not getting entangled in alliances quite as much as we seem to have gotten lately. No (...) (23 years ago, 7-May-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A question of remembrance...
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| (...) Well said! You, me and Jefferson: "Honest friendship with all who wish it, entangling alliances with none" (...) Although they got a nice piece of change by owning Foxwoods! THAT was shrewd working within the system. :-) (...) Maybe not but (...) (23 years ago, 7-May-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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