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BLINDING FLASH OF LUCIDITY

Aestu of Bleeding Hollow...

Nihilism is a copout.

The song that came on my shuffle of 30k+ songs was:



It samples the Clockwork Orange theme. FY(re:)I, I've been dicking around with you for years.

best thing we the US should do about this? (other than report on it)

Nothing.

Offer to meet with whoever remains in power, or whoever takes power after this and become friends with them, as we should with all nations via human diplomacy.

Man, these past couple months of African politics have been interesting/awesome.

A non-surprising, yet intriguing outcome.

I've been following the Egyptian situation through several of my Egyptian friends on our IR board and on FB. Some young protesters created a human chain around the Egyptian Museum to prevent looting while the NDP's headquarters burned.

One of our friends has stated that the rumor going around right now is that the Army has been given orders to fire on the protesters tonight.

Callysta of Reverence

Or the part where muslims attended the Christmas mass to serve as human shields against potential attacks under the slogan "we either live together, or we die together".

I think the world is slowly but surely getting tired of extremists, tyrants and charlatans.

hey muslims and christians uniting isn't a bad thing tho.


beats what they normally do.

It's a pretty great thing.

They are making a terrible mistake.
Sad but true: Unjust order is better in the long run than just chaos.

Dividing every third-world state that isn't content along ethnic/regional lines is a losing arrangement in the long run. Oppression and upheaval, letting the cards fall, and clear winners - and losers - arise, will serve those states better in the long run.

There are many, many such examples, but it is universally historically true. Political atomization is a road to nowhere.

Aestu of Bleeding Hollow...

Nihilism is a copout.

I totally agree in this case. The new country won't have the infrastructure, the economy, the education, etc to support any sort of viable population or government. Southern Sudan, or however they wish to be called, will end up being a failed state of extreme poverty and destitution. The government will be rampantly corrupt, the population with any means will immigrate to Ethiopia or Kenya or Uganda, and the rest will starve until the IMF/WB/UN/ETC steps in.

This seems a little extreme. Southern Sudan has a lot of natural resources, and if the right people come to power it could do quite well. It may end up failing, but after successfully running a fair referendum with 99% turnout I think they deserve a bit of credit. There's some interesting information here:

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2011/01/06/dispelling_myths_about_the_sudan_referendum.html

Laelia Komi Anomalocaris

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/egypt- ... ag=nl.e539

Ripples in the pond.

Removing Mubarak doesn't bother me. If the people of Egypt want to remove a man who is essentially a dictator (and one who is being excused because it's politically convenient), that is more than understandable. What concerns me is the clout this seems to be lending to the group called The Muslim Brotherhood that has links to Hamas. Removing a dictator is only a good thing if, as has been the case several times in history, that dictator isn't replaced with something even worse. Many of the Russians that removed the Czar probably weren't expecting what Lenin and Trotsky had in mind. The implications for future instability in the region and renewed armed conflicts regarding Israel aren't in anyone's best interest in the long run.

Your Pal,
Jubber

AKA "The Gun"
AKA "ROFeraL"

World Renowned Mexican Forklift Artiste

America had every reason to fail as well.

I'm a firm believer in freedom and I say let anyone who wants it to go for it as hard as they can.

It's not a matter of resources. History shows that natural resources have basically no relevance to the long-term success of a nation. The single greatest factor in a nation's survival and success is strong centralized authority.

Successful political systems are always the result of upheaval and revolution and a lot of people getting killed. Weak leaders and non-viable political systems fail, and strong states emerge. If all that ever happens is just subdividing every polity that doesn't work out, you wind up with something like the Holy Roman Empire or Eastern Europe or the Balkans - a bunch of feeble states with no strong centralized authority. That is the situation in Africa, and it will continue to be, until the historical process is allowed to work as it should.

Aestu of Bleeding Hollow...

Nihilism is a copout.