tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post2555251228947967021..comments2023-10-30T04:16:25.917-04:00Comments on Sentient Developments: How Americans spent themselves into ruin... but saved the worldGeorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13003484633933455827noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-53294129597825940162009-11-30T09:40:33.800-05:002009-11-30T09:40:33.800-05:00Hello David
Looking at the unprecedented shadow t...Hello David<br /><br />Looking at the unprecedented shadow the US has cast over the world - for good or for evil - can we look at the future for a second, and especially one dominated by automation, robotics, nano-replicators, extended average livespans (year? decades? ...centuries???), artificial intelligence.... And pair that with resource depletion, the global climate ... ahhh 'debate'... and peak oil.<br /><br />Both the spectacular devaluation of human labour posed by a robotics and nanoreplication tidal wave (marshal brain) as well as the complete depletion of affordable fossile fuel resources and mineral reserves will greatly affect US competitiveness, mostly downward. <br /><br />The Neocons have argued more or less that the US could 'not afford either a cheap production or mineral resource gap' (quoting sellers) and have opted to pay this price by sending legionairs overseas. <br /><br />What will the US do with rapidly increasing unemployment resulting from the above? One the one hand I see corporations enjoy greatly increasing competetiveness while not having to pay wages. On the other hand I see imports of oil and ore go through the roof because of scarcity. <br /><br />Your analysis is valid - and I say that even though I am a socialist - but it was applicable to a time of plenty, when there was demand everywhere and things were simple. <br /><br />Neither is the case anymore - the world has become a multipolar hornet's nest riddled with moral ambiguity and contradiction. We live in a world where it is no longer black and white anymore as was the case just after WW2. We are with 7 billion and rising. Some countries are coasting along merilly oblivious, years away from total collapse and die-off. <br /><br />Can you extend your analysis to include those challenges? In the light of resource consumption and a draconian insistence on free markets and competition and moralism - is the US still such a benevolent force? I agree - the US could have done a lot worse after WW2 - but is there really an unbroken cultural causal chain between those starry eyed men of the 1940s and the current sagging, borderline obese wall street managerial caste?<br /><br />For example - what if the US is politically incapable of implementing a decent basic income, when 25% of americans is effectively unemployable?Khanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14191101857598532784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-37010757555684620972009-11-27T19:07:41.240-05:002009-11-27T19:07:41.240-05:00Dr. Brin,
Thank you for bringing a decent histori...Dr. Brin,<br /><br />Thank you for bringing a decent historical perspective to the whole "US bad or good" mess.<br /><br />The key point is one should always expect nations and individuals to act in what they think is their own self-interest. Unfortunately, the US and others often act in what <i>seems</i> to be their self interest but is not. The Marshall Plan is almost certainly one of the few examples of a nation acting with long term self-interest in mind.<br /><br />It's a shame that General Marshall has never received full recognition in this country. He is one of the towering figures of the 20th century. Without Marshall and his proteges we would have repeated the mistakes of Versailles.<br /><br />The tragedy of recent US leadership - culminating with the Bush/Cheney regime - has been a complete ignorance and disinterest in history. Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan are classic examples of this.<br /><br />The probable increase of troops in Central Asia appears to be an unfortunate repetition of these errors in judgment.<br /><br />The failed belief in American exceptionalism continues unabated. To paraphrase the old peace song; when will we ever learn?RFYorkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09370379965788526986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-76008018752200143092009-11-26T06:50:02.709-05:002009-11-26T06:50:02.709-05:00Bringing perspectives like good and evil into anal...Bringing perspectives like good and evil into analysises of top-level political strategies often seems to blur the image more than it clerifies.<br /><br />As stupid as the debate about america being evil is, taking the opposite position is just as confusing.<br /><br />If we're talking about the good _outcomes_ of the marshall plan in increased industrialization and growth in europe then i do agree with you, but i think the motives are of the more crass real-politic kind.<br /><br />The US acted rationally on the soviet threat to their influence in europe, by as you say buying everything from them even if they didn't need it they secure political allies and makes sure old joe did not get his hands on it.<br /><br />In other parts of the world the US empire enforced total obedience through war and propped up dictatorships. Not because they were evil, but because they had an economic-political interest in doing so.<br /><br />The outcomes of those strategies are familiar in cases like vietnam.<br /><br />So, let's be at least cynic optimists, there's still hope for something better.krlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12964961957998987168noreply@blogger.com