Isn't It Strange We Always Have An Enemy?

I often wonder, isn't it strange, that no matter what the year is in history, the USA always seems to have an enemy? During the Cold War, it was the Soviet Union. Now, it is radical Islam.

I just know, in George Orwell's 1984, the massive nation-states are locked in perpetual war, to distract the wretched populace from the real social and economic problems they face.

Could something like this be at play now?

:daisy: :alien: :daisy:

 

Obviously

 

It's been a winning play since the dawn of civilization, and in the United States since 1776, so why change now? Any government which cannot convince the governed of its legitimacy is necesarily reduced to convincing the governed that there is a greater evil to which the government is preferable. Evils greater than oppressive government being rare, they must be fabricated. If that's not enough to do the trick, oppression by force is the only alternative and one that no government has ever shied away from -- including our own. The US has a long history, predating its formation as a sovereign nation, of putting popular movements down by force.

The really interesting part of this is that the governed keep right on falling for the same bullshit time after time after time. The belief is always that this government will not do today what it has done at every opportunity in the past, as if there's any significant difference between Obama and Nixon, or between Nixon and JFK, or between JFK and Buchanon. I know, I know, what's Buchanon got to do with a damned thing and what do he and JFK have in common? The answer is Cuba, Buchanon's Ostend Manifesto and a century later the Bay Of Pigs invasion. The goals of the real rulers do not change just because there's an election, and it's always safe to bet your ass that they will eventually get what they want.

Keep an eye on Cuba in the near future. You can bet your ass that it will be financially colonized (as, e.g., Haiti was) within a decade, if not half that. The Ostend Manifesto's purpose will then be realized. Obama might just as well have echoed the words of Franklin Pierce at his inauguration: "The policy of my Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion".

It's all just the normal noises around here.

 

Yes, because the government always NEEDS an enemy. If it does not have a real enemy, it must fabricate one -- hence every excuse for going to war and taking away our freedoms.

 

We do seem to be pre-programmed with a thirst for conflict, a survival mechanism turned simple addiction for sports fans on the small scale to the driving force behind nationalist movements on the large.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100614114445.htm

 

Why do you find this strange if it's always been this way?


I'm not saying it's right, just wondering why the word "strange" is being used.

 

idk
cannot solve world problems...but I think whatever problems there are on a large scale can also be found on a small scale.....
I think sports is more competition and survival of the fittest dynamic rather than enemy....
I don't need or want enemies, but if someone is intentionally f'ing with me and trying to mess all that I do up...I am not going to feel very loving towards them.......so what is in your heart?

 

Humans are apparently like small children and they want what they want and they want it NOW, whatever it takes. Including mass deaths by war machines, deprivation of the basics of life, including food, water, education and just---PEACE.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


Let's make sure that we support our glorious leaders and:



BUY MORE. BUY MORE NOW.

 

But think in how many cases is "Enemy" the result of failure in competition with the neighboring "home team" and rooted in the same primal instincts?
Who has all the good farmland & water sources,
Who's got the best trade routes,
Who's God is bigger

Think back to when it was one tribe shortly after we moved away from being Hunter-Gatherers
Extended Family gets too big for the territory they occupy around Gobekli Tepe, food and water gets scarce then the divide into clans vying for supremacy so as to control those resources and ensure one's own Tribe has the greatest regional security, Who's God gets the most attention or becomes the new Devil amongst the predominant culture.

It's an addiction based in self serving interests, the Oxytocin is the reward for self-beneficial actions, securing one's own tribal click through finding a Mate, chasing off the opposing team from what you think of as your resources or wiping them out entirely for taking the name of your Mascott in vain etc.

 

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 

ok

 

All this being said, fuck ISIS. Archer's was so much better

 

I think sports are a mild version of the Roman Coliseum but it's the same idea. Pick you man and see which one wins. You get so excited over which city is best and you forget other things.

The enemy is never really a threat either. The Soviets were very good at bluffing but they knew Ameirca had just as many weapons as them and a more sophisticated army. Neither side was going to do anything. Many terror plots are orchestrated by the American goverment. The FBI contacted the Boston Bomber and told him they were Islamic extremists. They did what they did but America told them to do it. Without "attacks" like that they can not justify the NSA and all that goes with that.

 

and if we don't have one, we'll make it up.

i think its a kind of collective emotional dependence, we have as a culture, on the idea of having one.

and part of that comes from the idea that to tell a story, if you want an audiance for it, you're supposed to need some kind of a villan.

this is one of those silly things we get into by failing or refusing to make distinctions, which in this case, aren't even all that suble.

i mean yes you need challanges for a protagonist to face and struggle to overcome. to create sympathitec characters they have to have this like all of us.

the failed distinction here, is that even in story telling it doesn't have to be a personafied villan. it could simply be a condition of one's surroundings, or something to learn or an engineering puzzle.

of course politically america, its constitution, a state of conflict gives a president certain otherwise extraconstitutional powers, so you know, they like to be able to say there is one, because otherwise, congress is basically the whole show, which is how the constitution was written for it to be. but if a president can say there's a war, and convince congress, and people, who supposed elect congress, or corporate leaders who do, then a lot of things in the constitution can be legally bypassed.

so these are two, maybe three reasons, people seem to love the idea, of having an enimy.

"with fiends like these, who needs enemas".

 

Proof appears over and over that evolution stopped somewhat too soon, here, there and everywhere that humans engage. To intellectualize peace, harmony,equality, empathy, compassion is obviously

easy , but is not getting it done in fact. It's a matter of the heart that holds these qualities as dear. Some get it. Some don't. Unfortunately, those that don't, seem to run the whole rig. War is only a part of it. Woe is us.

 

Enemies will unite if we ever have extraterrestrial warfare. The great irony is how enemies become friends when confronted with a mutual enemy they cannot fight alone.

I still believe in peace though

 

ET's probably could have wiped us all out eons ago if they wanted to. Earth seems to be a major hub in this neck of the woods.

I think they hope we'll straighten out one day and join the intergalactic club.

Banding together in war is not the road to peace.

 

War can never bring peace. Its just crazy how hard it is to unite people for a peaceful cause compared to people uniting over fighting a common enemy.

I think your right though, if they wanted to wipe us out they would have done it a long time ago. It was more of a hypothetical. The only thing I could think of that would instantly unite the human race.

 

the only thing earth is a hub of, is humanity's collective ego. the only thing of interest to the rest of the universe about this place, is seeing if or how, we manage to avoid destroying ourselves.

that's why the've kept out of sight, to avoid contaminating their observation of us, by interfering.

there is nothing else here, anyone else would want. with the one possible exception, if a rogue world wanted to destabilize other multiworld agreements, they might want to recruit humans, as expendible forces.

really that's it. there ain't anything here, that there isn't on any other populated world. its just this stage we're going through, of whether we survive it and grow up, or destroy ourselves first.