Posted by alexandra_k on October 28, 2004, at 16:12:31
In reply to Its a complicated one, posted by Fi on October 28, 2004, at 15:39:51
>But I would want it to be clear that it isnt a straightforward division between 'us' and 'them' with US and the rest of us (which includes a vast range of different cultures).
Fair enough, your point is well taken. I have to say that I am actually incredibly ill informed about politics, as I rarely watch the news or read the paper. I get most of my info from making controversial statements and seeing what reasons people have for dissgreeing with me. Thats how I make up my mind what to think, basically.
> There are other sources of oil
Oh, ok. I am not sure on the facts here. My office mate tells me that while it is only a small amount of the percentage of US oil it is still a lot of oil when you have to figure out alternative sources for it.
>we want someone we can trust to act thoughtfully and knowledgably; and can recognise complexity (its not good people and bad people). And hopefully not in the pocket of powerful industries.
The trouble is figuring out what the 'thoughtful' and 'knowledgable' thing to do is. It is easy to pick words - I mean who doesn't believe that terrorists should stoppit. But when it comes to seeing whether the label 'terrorist' applies to particular people or not then the situation gets a lot trickier. I mean the innocent citizens of Iraq probably consider the US military to be 'terrorists' - imagine how much terror they have caused, how many innocents have died. But we prefer to call that 'collateral damage'.
> That may be too much to expect from either of them; I dont know.
Well, yes there is always that.
> We all live on the same planet, for better or worse, and your president is the most powerful man in the world. Will there be a black and/or female president one day? In the UK, we did have a woman in Maggie Thatcher, but what a disappointment!
Yeah, we have a female prime minister now, and the last prime minister was also female (though they were with opposing parties). I don't know if we can say anything useful about how 'female rule' is better than or worse than, people are people at the end of the day, and some make good decisions and some make bad and some are male and some are female and some are black and some are yellow etc etc.
> Sorry- I'm not aiming to be partisan/policital (tho I am very much hoping for a particular result), but to explain how things can be from the 'other side'.
I read your opinion with much interest :-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:407662
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20041026/msgs/408474.html