Totalitarianism Nears (US=Nazi Germany, Moral-Equivalency BARF ALERT!)

Roanoke.com ^ | 1/3/03 | Glen T. Martin

[oldfart]

"Many more freedoms were given up in WWII to fight a war of survival and yet we as a country managed to recover from that nicely."

Actually, we didn't recover all that well. In hindsight, we now recognise FDR as a Socialist in Democrat clothing. The programs he began in the 1930s were "hardened" during the war and, with a few exceptons, simply continued as neccesary for the recovery.

How many government agencies were founded before and during the war? How many were disbanded and/or shut down after it? Some had their names changed but their duties and influence actually increased after the shooting stopped.

No, America was on a slippery slide toward Socialism before the war. The end of hostilities only provided a short slowing period, followed by the nose-dive we now find ourselves in.

[dirtboy]

Fred's gonna' move to the country of his neighbor and best bud - CUBA. Well, at least he'll get to smoke good cigars.

Maybe Fred will send us a few, and we can use them as Clinton bait. Drag a Cohiba through a Dem fundraiser and there's no telling what you'll catch...

[canuck_conservative]

Whoa bud, chill. I never said anything about videocams, microphones, or any other listening devices.

I just said my computer is clean.

[dcwusmc]

We did? Tax with-holding was a temporary wartime measure. Did IT go away yet? And that is but one example without even any extra thought on the matter. The idiots are those like you who cheer on big brother with no thought that it'll eventually come down to being YOUR turn. The water's fine, though. Nice and warm. Come on in and go swimming with us. Pay no mind to the chef with the apron over there. We'll get out of this big ol' pot long before we boil... so says Froggy...

[winin2000]

As long as they are free to shop in department stores and have traffic in the streets (with automobiles burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children), they do not care.

Sometimes a level of anti-Americanism and raw stupidity is reached that justifies a good, old-fashioned ass kicking for the offender.

This is one of 'em!

[helpontheway]

I think this is really all we need to know. http://www.radford.edu/rumag/current/pages/martin.html

When philosophy and peace studies professor Glen Martin talks to his students about such abstract concepts as peace and justice, he puts his whole body into it, gesturing as if he were pulling back curtains and opening windows. As if he were showing them another world.

“Philosophy is a way of life for me,” he says, “and teaching is part of that way of life. In our discussions, the way students respond to what I’m saying often causes me to rethink issues. That’s what life is about – this dialogic process. My students are thoughtful, insightful, creative – I learn from them all the time.”

At 19, while working and saving for college, Martin read H.G. Bugbee’s chronicle of self-discovery, The Inward Morning. From that underground classic, he realized that life could be a journey of perpetual growth in understanding and spirituality, and that philosophy was a key to that growth.

It was in 1963, during his first year of college at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, that Martin’s professors showed him the other world that he now shows his students – the huge world of the exploration of ideas. “I learned that, to have any grasp of reality, one has to think for oneself,” he says, “to investigate, and think deeply.”

He explains that philosophy looks at values and tries to articulate a value theory – a framework by which we can justify our belief in human rights, justice, what is moral and immoral … . So, in his classes, he and his students examine those theoretical constructions and compare them to relevant real-world situations.

“Our world is a terrible place for many people – a place of starvation and torture and death,” he says. “We’re facing a global environmental crisis and the threat of nuclear war, and we need to look at these issues. It’s vitally important to understand ourselves in order to grow and move this human civilization forward to a world of peace and justice.

Asked what that world of peace and justice will look like, Martin, who is president of International Philosophers for Peace and an active member of the World Constitution and Parliament Society, doesn’t hesitate. He describes a democratic world government based on principles of social and economic justice, and a demilitarized society in which differences between nations are settled by a world court.

He says those structural changes are essential. “Change the economic system, change communications so we’re not dependent on a small elite who tell us what they want us to know and believe, change the political system to a real democracy – such structural changes will lead to changes in human consciousness.”

Does he think we can achieve that better world? “I can’t say. What I know is that we have to do what’s right – not because we’re going to get something for it, but simply because it’s right. We have immense problems to deal with, but rapid transformations of human consciousness have happened in the past, and it’s very possible that we’re in the midst of one of those transformations now.”

“Human beings are complex creatures, and within that complexity we have higher capabilities such as love, kindness and generosity, and lower functions such as anger, hatred and greed. There’s no reason why we can’t create a civilization based on those higher ones. A better world is possible.”

— Shireen Parsons

[Brett66]

As long as they are free to shop in department stores and have traffic in the streets (with automobiles burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children), they do not care.

They get barrels of oil? Cool!

[DB]

I see being an ass-hole comes naturally to you.

[Timesink]

GLEN T. MARTIN is professor of philosophy and religious studies at Radford University.

Isn't that the one Sally Struthers endorses on TV? "Do you want to be an liberal reactionary pseudointellectual pundit? Sure, we all do!"

[Timesink]

with automobiles burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children

Can't we eliminate the middleman? I urge GM and Ford to begin work TODAY on engines that directly burn dying Iraqi children for fuel!

[dcwusmc]

Actually, it took years of practice. But it was worth the effort when I found you to deal with. If I knew how to get hold of my drill instructor, I'd write him a nice thank-you letter, giving him your details. If he's still living, I bet he'd love to take his licks, too. You're such an easy target... call the writer an idiot and then get all offended when I point out that you're just as much an idiot if you think FedGov will ever give back what it takes from us in the guise of "security." Oh, well, now you know... never bring a knife to a gunfight.

[okie01]

Please tell Professor Martin to take a couple of sedatives and call me in the morning.

[Steel Wolf]

As long as they are free to shop in department stores and have traffic in the streets (with automobiles burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children), they do not care.

Now this is a great line. Not only is a trasparent bit of shrill anti-US propaganda, but while it is a false slam on us, it is a factual slam on Saddam's Iraq.

The government has begun harassing people maintaining Web sites they consider politically objectionable

And hats off to this guy, who *truly* believes that the Nazis have taken over, and yet is still writing, because he's so gosh darned brave. Bravo.

[CFC__VRWC]

Professor, you should get in your car (thereby killing another Iraqi child), drive down to the crowded department store nearest to you, buy a box of tinfoil and apply another layer to your hat.

[wcbtinman]

"If they wanna look in my computer, go ahead. I've done nothing illegal and have nothing to hide."

Give me about five minutes with your computer, and I can fix that little problem and make you out to be some kind of pervert enemy of the state.

If the state decides they don't like the protest sign you held up last year, or the conversation you had with your gun dealer, or the comments made by your imaginative children to their teacher,they can also "adjust" your hard drive.

[ActionNewsBill]

I've done nothing illegal and have nothing to hide, so I'm not worried.

Doubleplusgood, Comrade. We all have something to hide, or maybe it's just stuff that the government has no business knowing.

[ActionNewsBill]

Fred, IMO the overreaction to 9/11 by lawmakers has halted and we will see a reversal of some of the more onerous provisions of the Patriot Act.

Until the next major terrorist attack. One step back, and three steps forward.

[canuck_conservative]

That's right, just like someone could do it to your computer. So what're you gonna do? Give up the internet completely?

Life is too short to be paranoid.

[DB]

If you think America is on the verge of becoming Nazi Germany as the writer of this article does then you are as stupid and ignorant of history as he is. There's no point in continuing this "conversation" as we have no common ground to start with. Ya, you made your drill sergeant proud…

[RnMomof7]

BUMP