weren't there some pretty big wildfires in russia which bumped up the price of wheat as well?
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman
there were, and yes, that did contribute to the food price spike, especially so after putin said russia wouldn't be able to fulfil its standing wheat contracts.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
I wonder if we'll be telling the young-uns about the middle eastern protests the same way old people talked about the Russian revolution almost 100 years ago
It will be impossible to separate all the protests from eachother and we'll just say "yeah those years were nothing but civil war and people in the streets.... little did we know the robots were coming"
It will be impossible to separate all the protests from eachother and we'll just say "yeah those years were nothing but civil war and people in the streets.... little did we know the robots were coming"
no.Spearhead wrote:
I wonder if we'll be telling the young-uns about the middle eastern protests the same way old people talked about the Russian revolution almost 100 years ago
It will be impossible to separate all the protests from eachother and we'll just say "yeah those years were nothing but civil war and people in the streets.... little did we know the robots were coming"
the russian revolution actually involved change. not a shifting political legerdemain in which nothing really changes. the russian revolution marked the complete overhaul and recasting of a society, in fundamental terms. the russian revolution also introduced a new political order and ideology to world politics that was completely new. the establishment of a few new-brands of puppet democracy in the middle-east in replacement for their defunct mid-20th century puppet dictatorships is nothing new at all. nothing really significant. it's kind of depressing tbh.
properly functioning democracy normally comes with the proviso that it will be secular (or at least the separation of powers). show me one middle-eastern 'democracy' that isn't run by islamist politics or influenced in some way by ethnic divisions and dynamics of ruler/ruled in terms of class/minority.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-07-04 04:35:17)
well, even though i do agree with most of your reasoning, i'm pretty sure most of the spearheads out there will be telling their "young-uns" exactly what the one we have here posted. they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue. similar bullshit will be prepared and fed to them about current events, including, no doubt, so-called "arab spring".Uzique The Lesser wrote:
no.Spearhead wrote:
I wonder if we'll be telling the young-uns about the middle eastern protests the same way old people talked about the Russian revolution almost 100 years ago
It will be impossible to separate all the protests from eachother and we'll just say "yeah those years were nothing but civil war and people in the streets.... little did we know the robots were coming"
the russian revolution actually involved change. not a shifting political legerdemain in which nothing really changes. the russian revolution marked the complete overhaul and recasting of a society, in fundamental terms. the russian revolution also introduced a new political order and ideology to world politics that was completely new. the establishment of a few new-brands of puppet democracy in the middle-east in replacement for their defunct mid-20th century puppet dictatorships is nothing new at all. nothing really significant. it's kind of depressing tbh.
properly functioning democracy normally comes with the proviso that it will be secular (or at least the separation of powers). show me one middle-eastern 'democracy' that isn't run by islamist politics or influenced in some way by ethnic divisions and dynamics of ruler/ruled in terms of class/minority.
Last edited by Shahter (2013-07-04 05:25:21)
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.Shahter wrote:
they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue.
Last edited by Spearhead (2013-07-04 05:47:27)
youve been brainwashed by capitalist western propaganda about everything. democracy is a lie, your freedom is false, youre all puppets of your government.Spearhead wrote:
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.Shahter wrote:
they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue.
you behave so much like extra medium i couldn't help but assume you were one of those people. whatever it is written there under your name, i didn't judge you by that.Spearhead wrote:
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.Shahter wrote:
they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
i do think americans have a general tendency or proclivity to get enrapt by rhetoric and news-headlines about 'freedom' and 'democracy'. either they're taking the middle-eastern happenings in a very naive and hopeful light, or they are genuinely bought-in to the idea that any form of 'democracy' is automatically 'better' (read: it's not). i read a very interesting piece about the chinese deputy-PM or something the other day in which he made a very strong argument against this false western belief that the only way to 'progress' or move forward is to become a democracy. very convincing. americans do tend to have this automatic response to any news of 'democracy' that is must therefore be 'for the best' (see: the whole justification for the terrible iraq-afghan fuckup; "well at least they have democracy now!!!")
there, fixed it for you. keep trying, you are getting there.Cybargs wrote:
youve been brainwashed by capitalist western propaganda about everything a lot of things. democracy is a lie but an instrument used by people in power, your freedom is false, most of the poeple on earth youre all are puppets of your their governments.Spearhead wrote:
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.Shahter wrote:
they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
I challenge you, go back through my posts for the past 7 plus years and tell me how I'm in one way like extra medium, AT ALL. Except for being an American. He can sure as hell tell you how we're different. If you cannot tell the difference, then you might as well shut the fuck about everything when it comes to with American politics.Shahter wrote:
you behave so much like extra medium i couldn't help but assume you were one of those people. whatever it is written there under your name, i didn't judge you by that.Spearhead wrote:
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.Shahter wrote:
they are still telling their kids it was america who won the war against nazies ffs, even though it's blatantly untrue.
And I love how making an innocent, non serious and obviously "just for fun" comment is somehow interpreted by uzique as being an intellectually driven endorsement/show of support when all I was doing was engaging in some light contemplation. I swear half this forum is full of permanently neurotic people, and coming from me that is saying something. Am I not allowed to agree with uziques post, just because he targeted an insult at me? I agree with literally 80 percent of the shit uzique says, yet am constantly antagonized by him. weird.
Last edited by Spearhead (2013-07-04 06:05:42)
antagonized? i just said "no" and disagreed with your point. stop being so sensitive. and yes, everything you say here that comes across as naive or misinformed inevitably ends up being "a bit of fun" or "a joke". can you just start putting "" tags after every post that you aren't committed to? just so we can avoid this stupid conversation every time someone has the gall to disagree with what you say. read: disagree with what you say, not personally antagonize. unless you are taking the 'americans get a hard-on for democracy' comment so personally - in which case, your problem, i used the nominative 'americans' rather than 'spearhead' in my post.
i totally agree with all this, but, you see, it seems to me that ever since soviet union collapsed and there had, consequently, been no real competition for the ideological schtick they call "american dream" (sorry, euros, but you are doing piss-poor job at that) it has been abused on alarming scale. it went from ridiculous to obnoxious to disgusting to actually menacing. one day one of their palins or romneys might get elected, you know - judging by recent events that doesn't seem all that unlikely - and who knows what happens next.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
i do think americans have a general tendency or proclivity to get enrapt by rhetoric and news-headlines about 'freedom' and 'democracy'. either they're taking the middle-eastern happenings in a very naive and hopeful light, or they are genuinely bought-in to the idea that any form of 'democracy' is automatically 'better' (read: it's not). i read a very interesting piece about the chinese deputy-PM or something the other day in which he made a very strong argument against this false western belief that the only way to 'progress' or move forward is to become a democracy. very convincing. americans do tend to have this automatic response to any news of 'democracy' that is must therefore be 'for the best' (see: the whole justification for the terrible iraq-afghan fuckup; "well at least they have democracy now!!!")
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
i got the impression i got. and, even though i do appreciate your opinion on what i should do, i intend to use my own judgment on what to post and on matters of difference between people i meet. so you are a liberal and extra medium is not - big deal. you sound just as brainwashed as he does, the only real difference is he actually stands for something.Spearhead wrote:
I challenge you, go back through my posts for the past 7 plus years and tell me how I'm in one way like extra medium, AT ALL. Except for being an American. He can sure as hell tell you how we're different. If you cannot tell the difference, then you might as well shut the fuck about everything when it comes to with American politics.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
Boring.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
what does europe have to do with 'the american dream'? why are we expected to produce an 'alternative' of the same tenor?Shahter wrote:
i totally agree with all this, but, you see, it seems to me that ever since soviet union collapsed and there had, consequently, been no real competition for the ideological schtick they call "american dream" (sorry, euros, but you are doing piss-poor job at that) it has been abused on alarming scale. it went from ridiculous to obnoxious to disgusting to actually menacing. one day one of their palins or romneys might get elected, you know - judging by recent events that doesn't seem all that unlikely - and who knows what happens next.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
i do think americans have a general tendency or proclivity to get enrapt by rhetoric and news-headlines about 'freedom' and 'democracy'. either they're taking the middle-eastern happenings in a very naive and hopeful light, or they are genuinely bought-in to the idea that any form of 'democracy' is automatically 'better' (read: it's not). i read a very interesting piece about the chinese deputy-PM or something the other day in which he made a very strong argument against this false western belief that the only way to 'progress' or move forward is to become a democracy. very convincing. americans do tend to have this automatic response to any news of 'democracy' that is must therefore be 'for the best' (see: the whole justification for the terrible iraq-afghan fuckup; "well at least they have democracy now!!!")
sometimes you just rant and really have no point. europe doesn't have anything to do with the american project. don't be pissed because we've just been more onboard with global capitalism, from an earlier date, than you ruskies have. don't be pissed that most of europe isn't living in peasant poverty, like most of russia is. you keep throwing out these meaningless insults when they're not even relevant. a "piss poor job" of fronting an opposing ideology? europe's last flirtation with ideology ended in the holocaust. i'm glad we've had a fairly 'non-ideological' 50 years. you can take your show-trials and purges and blow them out your slavic asshole. ideology is just another form of mass hysteria and popular delusion. ideology is a thin veneer of rhetorical pretense masking the cold exercise of power. i'll take a boring bureaucracy over a tyranny or life-ending political experiment, any day. thank you. sorry to disappoint your soviet temperament. i understand nothing really excites you unless it involves a famine, or a few million people dying.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-07-04 06:38:46)
someone must bring balance to the force
yeah like all those russian oligarchs and crooks they're doing such a good job running a superpower that is rivaling the rotten west. nothing like holding up a great alternative example to the sham of 'the american dream' with 'the russian robbery'.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
#ScotlandIndependence 2014
Jay wrote:
Boring.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-07-04 08:21:13)
i dunno. some of you claim to have produced something of the kind, or at least to be trying to. and notice, i said euros, not uzique.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
what does europe have to do with 'the american dream'? why are we expected to produce an 'alternative' of the same tenor?Shahter wrote:
you see, it seems to me that ever since soviet union collapsed and there had, consequently, been no real competition for the ideological schtick they call "american dream" (sorry, euros, but you are doing piss-poor job at that) it has been abused on alarming scale. it went from ridiculous to obnoxious to disgusting to actually menacing. one day one of their palins or romneys might get elected, you know - judging by recent events that doesn't seem all that unlikely - and who knows what happens next.
yeah, yeah, this story have been repeated many many times through the history. it ends with barbarians.ideology is just another form of mass hysteria and popular delusion. ideology is a thin veneer of rhetorical pretense masking the cold exercise of power. i'll take a boring bureaucracy over a tyranny or life-ending political experiment, any day. thank you.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
Wow, mind blowing. My worldview has been turned upside down. No one in the USA has ever considered any of that before, what an astonishing revelation! Not like we've had violent anti-war protests, students getting shot on university campuses, civil wars, mass demonstrations, race riots, lynchings, voter suppression, etc. etc. Nope we're all just brainwashed and happy with what we've got, we sit on our couches with our thumbs up our asses and watch Fox News all day.Shahter wrote:
there, fixed it for you. keep trying, you are getting there.Cybargs wrote:
youve been brainwashed by capitalist western propaganda about everything a lot of things. democracy is a lie but an instrument used by people in power, your freedom is false, most of the poeple on earth youre all are puppets of your their governments.Spearhead wrote:
I love how you see that I live in America below my name and you instantly conflate me with one or two other Americans on these forums. Way to make yourself look even more like an ass. I've never said that on these forums.
It'd be funny were it not so pathetic....
yes, all civilization goes through the same cycle of peaking/decadence/barbarism. nothing new. does that cynicism mean you want to stay so detached from any sort of involvement in history? you're just going to sit, paring your fingernails? even dostoyevsky got over the nihilistic cynicism part, you know. take note. being the boring cynic that continually points out 'this has happened before' or 'political rhetoric is bullshit' is kind of elementary.
and i don't know any europeans that have proposed that their nations are pursuing their own grand 'american dream'. most of europe just wants to progress along the comfortable lines of socialist-democratic projects. broadly liberal and partaking in the world market. no grand scheme. no huge ideology or national program. could you please tell me which europeans are claiming to be on a par with america when it comes to idealist whimsy?
and i don't know any europeans that have proposed that their nations are pursuing their own grand 'american dream'. most of europe just wants to progress along the comfortable lines of socialist-democratic projects. broadly liberal and partaking in the world market. no grand scheme. no huge ideology or national program. could you please tell me which europeans are claiming to be on a par with america when it comes to idealist whimsy?
socialist-democratic projects require just as much ideological background as any other. you are a part of the same world, you have to face the same problems - thus, you have to at least have some excuses for the "proles" and "mongs" of your society. that's done through ideology and propaganda.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
yes, all civilization goes through the same cycle of peaking/decadence/barbarism. nothing new. does that cynicism mean you want to stay so detached from any sort of involvement in history? you're just going to sit, paring your fingernails? even dostoyevsky got over the nihilistic cynicism part, you know. take note. being the boring cynic that continually points out 'this has happened before' or 'political rhetoric is bullshit' is kind of elementary.
and i don't know any europeans that have proposed that their nations are pursuing their own grand 'american dream'. most of europe just wants to progress along the comfortable lines of socialist-democratic projects. broadly liberal and partaking in the world market. no grand scheme. no huge ideology or national program. could you please tell me which europeans are claiming to be on a par with america when it comes to idealist whimsy?
as to idealist whimsy, nobody exactly claimed to have any kind of "american dream"-ish levels of that going on in europe, no, but, as i said, you have to have something in it's place. there are no "comfortable lines" in this, never been.
Last edited by Shahter (2013-07-04 09:11:24)
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.