Ron, I suggest an alternative; they are still revengeful for the embassy take over in 1979; even though that take over was a result of 50 years of actively suppressing them. And will do anything to make them squeal. After all, we have done the same to a multitude of other countries; and so have many other colonial powers throughout human history.
Very good JT. I suggest you consider that each person has a spirit; which is either oriented to controlling one's destiny (the vast majority), and sees the accumulation of money, power, and fame as validation of one's success, and leads to increasing stupidity the longer this is maintained. Or oriented to optimizing each activity (get as close as you can to an excellent result and thoroughly enjoying the process), and optimizing every area of one's life (a small minority). Throughout history, the majority gain control and screw everything up, every time. As they are now doing in this country.
However, all people now know that life can be optimized, and maybe the majority will opt for that, and put away these power hungry elitists before they destroy this country.
William, I like that. Regional dominance; which, according to them, will take away the motivation for anyone to seriously challenge anything they do; not just militarily, but also economically. Unfortunately for them, Mother Nature always has a way for bringing such hubris crashing down. So I'll sit back and wait for the crash.
I didn't say the government has no function. I said it sole valid role is to provide the infrastructure that allows us citizens to chart our own course. Very much part of that infrastructure is creating valid laws, and enforcing them with valid justice systems. A valid law being any boundary beyond which no reasonable person should go; which, from my view, would include every activity example you gave.
But it is time to forever give up this idea that the people in government know better than the rest of us how to run our lives. Almost every time a government tries to stimulate change in its citizens, or stimulate another government to take a desired course, it doesn't work; and often lots of people are killed, maimed, and seriously hindered.
I further suggest the occupy movement in this country, and the civil servants last year protesting so their "benefits" wouldn't be lessened, are holding on to the past, and operate from a very different basis than the Arab Spring movements, who are working to have the freedom to chart their own courses.
I am glad that Prof. Majid give a balanced view. But I suggest he is misinformed on several points.
It is true that many an evangelical, from whom we get the absurd and patently incorrect interpretation of Revelations that modern Israel is mentioned in that book, claims that the primary force of Christianity is Judeo-Christian, and not Christian. But that is really nonsense. Because authentic Christianity (an accurate interpretation of what Christ was really communicating) is a fundamental different view of God and God's intention for humans, compared to what is so in Judaism, ancient of current). Just one example being that Peter has a vision in which God explicitly tells him that EVERY single Torah food regulation is now completely invalid.
So in authentic Christianity, all other religions, including Judaism, are invalid, and living in accord with them will result in you avoiding God's will for your life. But, fortunately, God knowing that religion is a personal pursuit, impossible to be a corporate pursuit, and therefore should be banned from all political discourse, got the US constitution to ban government support of any religion. However, further misfortune, many many a false Christian is working hard to abrogate that aspect of God's will.
Second is that the American republican tradition has been totally absent from the Obama administration, and from all US federal administrations for many decades. What was present in the Arabs participating in the Arab Spring was the recognition of universal rights, which may have been articulated by the documents that founded the US, but are present deep in the psyche of every human being in the world. Especially since the mid-1960's.
Finally there is implied in Prof. Majid's paper, that it is governments who need to grow up and reform, and reboot their relationships. And I claim that one of the offspring of the Arab Spring is that the day of government has just rapidly diminished. That the future is individuals exercising their universal rights to become optimal in every area of their lives; actions which CANNOT in any way be caused, facilitated, or implemented by a single government action. And governments should be relegated once and for all, for the rest of history, to solely and only providing infrastructure, so each of us can get on with doing our thing.
I have no need for the country I live in, the US, to have a single nuclear weapon. I just consider it sheer hypocrisy for the US which has thousands to tell Iran it can't even have one; especially when it does nothing, not even a threat, with a looney country like North Korea having now several.
As far as I am concerned, this is exclusively about very childish grudge holding, because of the actions of certain Iranians back in 1979; which, from my view, were perfectly reasonable, given how much we had messed with them from wwii until 1979. And for grown men and women, who are highly educated to act in such a grudgeful manner for now over 3 decades is a travesty. No wonder our country is currently in such a mess.
Ron, I suggest an alternative; they are still revengeful for the embassy take over in 1979; even though that take over was a result of 50 years of actively suppressing them. And will do anything to make them squeal. After all, we have done the same to a multitude of other countries; and so have many other colonial powers throughout human history.
Very good JT. I suggest you consider that each person has a spirit; which is either oriented to controlling one's destiny (the vast majority), and sees the accumulation of money, power, and fame as validation of one's success, and leads to increasing stupidity the longer this is maintained. Or oriented to optimizing each activity (get as close as you can to an excellent result and thoroughly enjoying the process), and optimizing every area of one's life (a small minority). Throughout history, the majority gain control and screw everything up, every time. As they are now doing in this country.
However, all people now know that life can be optimized, and maybe the majority will opt for that, and put away these power hungry elitists before they destroy this country.
William, I like that. Regional dominance; which, according to them, will take away the motivation for anyone to seriously challenge anything they do; not just militarily, but also economically. Unfortunately for them, Mother Nature always has a way for bringing such hubris crashing down. So I'll sit back and wait for the crash.
I didn't say the government has no function. I said it sole valid role is to provide the infrastructure that allows us citizens to chart our own course. Very much part of that infrastructure is creating valid laws, and enforcing them with valid justice systems. A valid law being any boundary beyond which no reasonable person should go; which, from my view, would include every activity example you gave.
But it is time to forever give up this idea that the people in government know better than the rest of us how to run our lives. Almost every time a government tries to stimulate change in its citizens, or stimulate another government to take a desired course, it doesn't work; and often lots of people are killed, maimed, and seriously hindered.
I further suggest the occupy movement in this country, and the civil servants last year protesting so their "benefits" wouldn't be lessened, are holding on to the past, and operate from a very different basis than the Arab Spring movements, who are working to have the freedom to chart their own courses.
I am glad that Prof. Majid give a balanced view. But I suggest he is misinformed on several points.
It is true that many an evangelical, from whom we get the absurd and patently incorrect interpretation of Revelations that modern Israel is mentioned in that book, claims that the primary force of Christianity is Judeo-Christian, and not Christian. But that is really nonsense. Because authentic Christianity (an accurate interpretation of what Christ was really communicating) is a fundamental different view of God and God's intention for humans, compared to what is so in Judaism, ancient of current). Just one example being that Peter has a vision in which God explicitly tells him that EVERY single Torah food regulation is now completely invalid.
So in authentic Christianity, all other religions, including Judaism, are invalid, and living in accord with them will result in you avoiding God's will for your life. But, fortunately, God knowing that religion is a personal pursuit, impossible to be a corporate pursuit, and therefore should be banned from all political discourse, got the US constitution to ban government support of any religion. However, further misfortune, many many a false Christian is working hard to abrogate that aspect of God's will.
Second is that the American republican tradition has been totally absent from the Obama administration, and from all US federal administrations for many decades. What was present in the Arabs participating in the Arab Spring was the recognition of universal rights, which may have been articulated by the documents that founded the US, but are present deep in the psyche of every human being in the world. Especially since the mid-1960's.
Finally there is implied in Prof. Majid's paper, that it is governments who need to grow up and reform, and reboot their relationships. And I claim that one of the offspring of the Arab Spring is that the day of government has just rapidly diminished. That the future is individuals exercising their universal rights to become optimal in every area of their lives; actions which CANNOT in any way be caused, facilitated, or implemented by a single government action. And governments should be relegated once and for all, for the rest of history, to solely and only providing infrastructure, so each of us can get on with doing our thing.
I have no need for the country I live in, the US, to have a single nuclear weapon. I just consider it sheer hypocrisy for the US which has thousands to tell Iran it can't even have one; especially when it does nothing, not even a threat, with a looney country like North Korea having now several.
As far as I am concerned, this is exclusively about very childish grudge holding, because of the actions of certain Iranians back in 1979; which, from my view, were perfectly reasonable, given how much we had messed with them from wwii until 1979. And for grown men and women, who are highly educated to act in such a grudgeful manner for now over 3 decades is a travesty. No wonder our country is currently in such a mess.