Re: America 2042: White Minority, the legacy you have left your kids

On Sep 20, 8:14 pm, Kurt Busiek <k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Putting it nakedly: The terrorism worked on you. It worked really,
really well. You're scared -- as you've said -- and you don't think we
can afford justice for all any more, or even a reasonable stab at it.

Why, of course I'm scared. I've been scared for a long time.

We had irresponsible, bad people, who are willing to murder ordinary
nice people like me, in possession of nuclear weapons - over there in
the Kremlin. And now it looks like we still do.

And now we have terrorists. Who have actually managed to kill real
people in the United States itself.

So I'm scared and I'm angry.

But I'm scared of somethng else, too. I'm scared of what people who
are even more scared and angry than I am might do. Of course, maybe
Russia's resurgence has a good side to it; it reduces the chance that
America might just nuke the whole Islamic world on one dark day in a
fit of pique.

I am, frankly, baffled that the Islamic world isn't frantically
rushing like mad to prove how much they're made up of people *just
like us* who have nothing to do with the terrorists. Instead, we had
ordinary people - not terrorists - in murderous riots in Nigeria
(remember the Miss World pageant?); we had a mob beating up
representatives of a Danish dairy in Sa'udi Arabia. These people must
_not_ live in the real world, because they're not afraid - afraid of
the overwhelming might of America and the Western world.

This is bad, because if you can't intimidate people with fear - that
is, if deterrence doesn't work - then you have to actually do the work
of restraining them to make them behave. I can't blame Americans for
not wanting to get blown up in the desert any more than they want to
get shot at in the jungle.

I do not think it is acceptable for a nuclear missile to reach an
Israeli city and kill thousands of people who *are* like us, who did
*try* to build a society in which Muslims and Jews had equal rights,
even in the face of constant deadly attack from the Islamic world;
people who don't hobble science with religious fanaticism, people who
have participated in, and contributed immensely to, Western culture.
And who suffered greatly *in* the West, so we owe them.

If a war in Iraq is hotly controversial, how is a war in Iran on top
of that going to play?

I see a risk of take our boys home, and use nukes instead. I don't
like risks.

My preference is a world where the enlightened, democratic nations are
totally in control of the rest of the world. So there's no oppression
in Tibet or Burma or anywhere else, no fighting or strife. If we don't
want something to happen, it doesn't happen.

That does solve one set of problems, the harm caused needlessly by
violence.

We have other problems. It is incomprehensible to me that we aren't
busily switching over all of our electrical power generation from
fossil fuels to nuclear power - so that we can have plentiful energy,
not scarce energy, to keep our economy going - so that the carbon
dioxide level of our atmosphere can be returned to, and maintained at,
pre-Industrial Revolution natural levels. Home heating would also be
changed from fossil fuel to electrical wherever fossil fuels are used
for heating. Cars are more complicated; ban new construction of cars
that are not hybrid hydrogen/electric, fuel existing cars with carbon-
neutral alcohol made in some way that doesn't interfere with
agricultural production.

Almost incredibly, people who know they can't afford to send their
children to college, or even be sure they can feed them properly,
still have children. But I understand the explanation of this one;
humans are genetically programmed to reproduce at a pace that kept the
species from dying out even under adverse conditions. Further, they
seek not only the survival of the human species, but that of their
local language and culture, and their personal genetic lines.

Since we don't yet have fusion power, nuclear power - with the Thorium
breeder to extend its life - is our currently available energy option
which allows us to increase energy production to arbitrarily high
levels within reason. We must end poverty as soon as possible. It is
leading to preventable human deaths. If a human dies, we do not have
the ability to repair that human, thus our only remaining choice is to
prevent that death in the first place.

One humanity, working together rationally to create a pleasant and
secure life for all of us. Sharing a clear, common understanding of
humanity's past history which is accurate. Recognizing, and seeking to
maintain and extend, human rights and freedom.

Many cultures and languages, with speakers of all languages being as
free from pressure to learn foreign languages as many English speakers
are today. But one shared set of values of right and wrong, soundly
based on such sources as the works of John Locke. Yet also bringing
the valid insights of their individual cultural traditions to the mix
as well.

Earth becoming a wildlife preserve, so some intractable ancient
quarrels become moot, as humanity enters a temporary phase of reduced
restrictions on population growth while it turns the resources of the
asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt to its service. And all that
sunlight that's wastefully shining off the Ecliptic.

But before we reach that shining future, also frantically working to
control the aging process, and develop uploading capability, so that
it is real people rather than hypothetical future people who will
benefit from it.

I'm not getting any younger. Why, that's scary by itself, without even
reading the newspaper.

John Savard
.

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