War - A necessary evil?

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For once, I agree with slowmutant.

It depends upon whom you classify as inferior. If the term is applied to racists, corporate executives with no concern for humanity but the money they can squeeze out of it, to politicians who sell themselves off to the highest bidder, to power hungry leaders who survive through brutality, to religious nuts who have no sense of reality and are willing to torture and murder in the name of their faith, I would find the concept most appealing.

He is playing the role of pro-Nazi apologist for WWII. I had to deal with such garbage for many years growing up in what is, sadly, a hotbed of KKK and similar racist group ideology. To a one, they all said that The UK and France "forced" Germany into WWII. It's a central neonazi dogma.

You both are very naive, go get a history book and count up all the wars and atrocities, then come back. Your words betray a total lack of any kind of understanding of history. The world is a screwed up place, because it is filled with screwed up people. If we could get rid of the screw ups the world would be much better off.

Last edited by ZakFiend on 25 Aug 2008, 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

And these kinds of people are to whom I am referring, when they get out of hand or out of line.

Unfortunately, there is a problem of who designates whom as screwed up. At the moment it seems my choices are that the screwed up people are definitely in the majority.

We can all be thankful that's it not up to you, Sand. It can't be up tp any person, or even a cadre of people to decide that.

Well, of course, when the Christians held real political power during the Middle Ages we saw how they behaved.

Those weren't real Christians. Obviously they were wolves-in-sheep's clothing.

I don't see any patriotism or nationalism in any of the quotes I posted, I was just listing some historical alternatives to Einstein's views.

Personally, I fail to see how the guy being a genius in theoretical physics makes him a qualified expert on warfare, but attaching his name to any quote gives it a gravitas it otherwise would not possess.

The goal of evolving past warfare is a noble one, but seeing as how that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, I think the more practical advice comes from the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, who said; "In times of war prepare for peace, and in times of peace prepare for war". It makes as much sense today as it did 2500 years ago.

I was simply trying to highlight the relation between resources and survival mentality. I made no excuses for anyone when it came to war. France, Britian, Germany - All just words to me. I love all of humanity. I do not consider myself to be a neonazi. Though of course you are free to label me if you will. I am certainly not a nazi apologist.

And, of course, Hitler's Nazis weren't real Nazis and Stalin's butcher boys weren't real Communists and so on and so forth. Frankly, as he is portrayed, I suspect Jesus wasn't a real Christian.

Well, we could say that Jesus was a judeo-christian, it has been said that he still observed some aspects of Judaism, in that aspect, we could say that Jesus was not a Roman-Christian, not a Modern-Christian either, in which that descents from Roman adoption of Christianity, of course with changes and reformations through history.

Yes but non-violent individuals and cultures have very little power. When someone stops doing violence, someone else will pick up the slack for them more than gladly.

I suppose it might be possible for us to have both feet planted in modernity and civilization, but to do so realistically (i.e., not in a pie-in-the-sky anarchist theory) will require substantial modification to our brain function, using genetic engineering and/or electronic implants.

Anything else is just turd-polishing

And since our technology progresses faster than our own biological development, it may already be too late anyway

Last edited by chever on 25 Aug 2008, 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Check your facts.

Germany lost the war anyway. The damage done to Germany was, in fact, very little compared to that which was done to France, and the terms suggested were punitive compared to those Germany set for the defeated Russia in 1917. German culture, at the time, was highly militaristic, and alot of Germans were unwilling to accept such a sudden, unexpected defeat. The damage done to the German economy wasn't really that much, and the terms of the treaties were exaggerated. Many Germans coped by blaming the November Criminals for betraying Germany.
Even if Germany had been allowed to retain more resources, chances are, that the severity could still have been exaggerated, and hyperinflation and the stock market crash would have happened anyway. Hitler would still have been outraged, because in his and the eyes of many Germans, the nation had been betrayed. Tensions simmered for a period from 1924-1928, but when the great depression hit, and with the political turmoil right at the top, there was a massive sense of crisis. Anyhow, the depression happened anyway, and Germany was hit the hardest, as it was so dependent on US loans and foreign markets. As we know, crisis periods tend to turn people to radical political parties, out of sheer desperation.
I'm sorry, but I don't buy the idea that World War II could have been prevented simply by being nicer to Germany.

Education and understanding don't always work, either. *points to Korean War*

Yes he was a brilliant scientist, he was also a brilliant person who had some enlightened views on the world. I would rather look to his enlightened views than the those of someone 2500 years ago. Again why can we not evolve beyond war. BTW those were his words not words with his name attached