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Why Violence Works

too funny Ms Richards vs Dina Meyer
if today you were gonna 'be with' one of the two I think the choice is clear ;)
(Denise was hawt for like five minutes back in the day Dina is still Smokin' in her mid-40's)
Lawd Troopers (only the first one) is a bloody classic!

oh there's a thread subject?
Why do Americans continue to pay their income taxes to a bankrupt government
that spends the fruit of their labors in a manner that most of them disagree with?

First and foremost is the threat of violence (Wesley Snipes is finally out of prison)
at the end of the day if don't pay guys with guns WILL come and take them away.

Secondly, wealth i.e. money pay or they will snatch yours, also for the average wage slave
his employer snatches it FOR the government, (so they don't take his) so the slave's not even in a position to consider it.
Also most Americans lack wealth so they do not have access to:

Knowledge: through corporations and other business entities those with wealth and knowledge
have access to ways to greatly ameliorate the hit to their incomes n wealth but as we've seen recently
they are even able to renounce their citizenship, go abroad and escape the the slimy tentacles of the IRS.

It's actually a beautiful system if you think about it. Just one problem, the folks running it are out of their minds.
but I guess that's what too much power does, Right?
 
put another way: violence is a very low quality form of persuasion

If a town goes next door and rapes and pillages another, they have fun for a day
If that town trades with the other, they can both 'profit'
If that town develops superior knowledge it can trade with the other and effectively leave them in the dust.

what do the 3rd world countries have to offer the 1st?
raw mineral resources, out of season produce?
(bananas crude oil opium cocaine diamonds?)
Does the threat of violence by the US military really buy us a return on the trillion dollars we spend?
Do we really need a dozen Aircraft Carrier Battle groups and 14 'boomer' subs and lawd only knows
how many fighter bomber squadrons? heck we don't even use the stuff to rape and pillage the next town over. (Canada)
 
Violence 'works' because the capitalist media is obsessed with it.
 
jag2594 said:
Just, think about it for a second.
Click to expand...

(sigh)

Dude, if you'd make a little more effort to make your points more clear, you wouldn't have people constantly going 'What?'
 
AngryOldGuy said:
I doubt if anyone here would recognize civil virtue if it reached up and bit you in the ass.
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Pretty harsh. Pretty rude too, considering you don't know most of us very well.
 
I agree with Northern Light to an extensive degree. I find that the crutch that we refer to as "human nature" is perfidious and frankly, a method to stagnate the social, economic and technological progress that we as a species so desperately seek to achieve.

Also, to respond to an earlier post by Gathomas; why should we "conquer the planet?" I find that, unless it is a necessity such as overpopulation, famine or other calamities, it is not necessary for us to frivolously expand. To be violent is not to be human. It is to evoke a reminiscence regarding other animals, so your argument is fundamentally incorrect. We are not the sole species which commits acts of aggression or violence in general.

Certain events can still occur without violence.

:peace
 
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I do not personally distinguish humans from animals. If you find conflict unique to humanity, I suggest you study ethology extensively.

I suppose if you're speaking of warfare, then yes, it is unique to humanity. Is that something to cherish and blatantly profess as the reason when any instance of human barbarism occurs? No.
 
Michael_Alvis said:
I suppose if you're speaking of warfare, then yes, it is unique to humanity..
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wrong. plenty of animals wage war on each other. humans have just developed technology to make it more effective
 
Sigh... Let me assist you with your definition of war:

From the Webster Online Dictionary

(1): a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations

(2): a period of such armed conflict.

From Wiktionary

(1): Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizable groups, usually involving the engagement of military forces.

(2): A particular conflict of this kind.

My personal definition would be the devotion of a massive amount of resources for use in a conflict. This only bears pertinence to humanity.
 
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oh sorry I though it was when folks picked up stuff
(automatic weapons, RPG's, car bombs, mortars & crew served weapons)
went at it and thousands of casualties result.
my bad
 
Michael_Alvis said:
Sigh... Let me assist you with your definition of war:

From the Webster Online Dictionary

(1): a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations

(2): a period of such armed conflict.

From Wiktionary

(1): Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizable groups, usually involving the engagement of military forces.

(2): A particular conflict of this kind.

My personal definition would be the devotion of a massive amount of resources for use in a conflict. This only bears pertinence to humanity.
Click to expand...

I take a broader view. when two colonies of ants attack each other and fight until one is destroyed....that's war. when one pride, tribe, group of animals drive another from territory...that is war. the only thing that is different is the scale and animals just don't have the intelligence to organize on a large scale.
 
AngryOldGuy said:
oh sorry I though it was when folks picked up stuff
(automatic weapons, RPG's, car bombs, mortars & crew served weapons)
went at it and thousands of casualties result.
my bad
Click to expand...

If you are being sarcastic, I should remind you that your definition adheres to the first Webster's definition
 
If a jet aircraft drops a 500 pounder on your Syrian neighborhood or you are killed by automatic weapons fire two days ago in Egypt you'd quibble over the Websters definition too, wait what?
 
That is not war, That is conflict. (Or in the case of Syria, genocide, which has been preformed by both belligerents).

They are semantically and fundamentally different.
 
sry my bad (for the second time) sounds downright violent enough for me
so if my wife comes in here upset with me in about three minutes
(which I fully expect) is that domestic violence or just 'conflict' ?

Sadly the only way to deal with violence is to use more extreme violence.
So it's always better not to escalate to that point, 'cain't we all just get along'?
 
Michael_Alvis said:
I do not personally distinguish humans from animals. If you find conflict unique to humanity, I suggest you study ethology extensively.

I suppose if you're speaking of warfare, then yes, it is unique to humanity. Is that something to cherish and blatantly profess as the reason when any instance of human barbarism occurs? No.
Click to expand...
Some research discussed in last week's Economist (I think) cast doubt upon the 'human' quality of warfare, suggesting it is a reaction to primate overcrowding rather than anything 'genetic'.
 
Michael_Alvis said:
Sigh... Let me assist you with your definition of war:

From the Webster Online Dictionary

(1): a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations

(2): a period of such armed conflict.

From Wiktionary

(1): Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizable groups, usually involving the engagement of military forces.

(2): A particular conflict of this kind.

My personal definition would be the devotion of a massive amount of resources for use in a conflict. This only bears pertinence to humanity.
Click to expand...

According to the criteria you have provided above, Chimpanzees are just as prone to "warfare" as humans.

Chimps, Too, Wage War and Annex Rival Territory

The same could also be said of colonial insects like ants, bees, and termites.
 
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