<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by struan87
[br We obviously shouldn't let world approval be our primary decision factor, but we also shouldn't ignore it completely.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">See, that begs the question - exactly who should we care has a favorable opinion of us? In the interest of self-preservation, I suspect the only answer is those that can do us harm. But then, how can you ever sufficiently appease certain European or Mid-east countries with such opposite cultural or religious beliefs as our own to the point they embrace you totally?
2004 | 6MTs | Diamond Graphite/Graphite
Upstate NY
That is a tough question, and I'm not going to say I'm educated enough in foreign policy to say one way or the other (I kinda wish Bush was, though). But I would treat it like I treat people. There are basically three groups:
1) If they don't like me, I want to know why so I can fix it. Barring that, I want to keep them from becoming a threat and I will tell them in no uncertain terms what action I'll take if they try to hurt me.
2) If they do like me, awesome! At that point I can trust them to offer advice, or tell me when I'm doing something wrong. I would of course do the same for them.
3) If they're in between, I want to try to get them into group 2. I want to prevent them from going into group 3.
So there are goals for basically any person, based on their opinion of me. All of these thoughts inform my actions, but not completely. I'm not going to do something harmful to myself just to get people to like me, but I'll also listen to my friends when they say I'm doing something wrong. You could make the argument that as a country we don't have "friends", and that's valid, but I think the relationships we do have are analogous.
Group 1 might contain Iraq, N. Korea, Afghanistan
Group 2 is probably countries like the UK, Canada, Japan
Group 3 is harder, but maybe places like China, Sudan, and Russia are in there?
"struan87 you are way better than Google!" --BCole Pictures.
I act like an ass to everyone. But, that is merely because I don't give a flying F&ck what anyone thinks of me. I am my own person and I could care less if people like me or hate me. But that's just me.
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That's a pretty terrible philosophy. How do you work with people? How do you develop meaningful relationships?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Amen Jaylin. As for Struan, Jaylin's behavior and actions are completely up to him. That is FREEDOM. FREEDOM to be an asshole, FREEDOM to not "give a flying F&ck what anyone thinks" and FREEDOM to not care. He may not win any citizenship awards, have any friends, or keep his job because of this "terrible philosophy" but isn't that his choice to make?
And isn't that what this country is about? FREEDOM to develop your own personality, beliefs, and values without having to be judged by others?
Now you take that kind of attitude and multiply it 59,291,990 times and you get a big [finger] to the world. And that is the unique exquisiteness of this country. You can do almost anything as long as you are willing to back it up and take responsibility for it.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Evil Genius
Now you take that kind of attitude and multiply it 59,291,990 times and you get a big [finger] to the world. And that is the unique exquisiteness of this country. You can do almost anything as long as you are willing to back it up and take responsibility for it.
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Evil Genius
How can you complain about that?
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I want to have friends. I don't want people to hate me. I don't want to be perceived as the biggest threat to peace. I don't want to always act alone because no one is willing to make a crazy stand with me.
With great power comes great responsibility. Yoda or Spiderman or somebody said that, and it remains true to this day.
"struan87 you are way better than Google!" --BCole Pictures.
Not quite. At the time, the world did not revolve around Germany. On the other hand, at this day and age, the world revolves around the U.S.A.
The world is dependent upon our money, products, and technology. Until they are willing to give up things invented and created in the U.S.A., we will always be in the driver’s seat.
I remember years ago, early 80's, when I would visit my sister in Montreal how they did not like US citizens there. Most of the world's countries only love us for the aid we give them. I have traveled to Canada, Spain, Italy and France, most of the people I met were not very friendly to us.
You guys are absolutely fucking correct, maybe if we play our cards right, the Empire state building will be gone as well because 9/11 was fuckin' blast right?
and...
"Are you not a US citizen? Is this not your country too, or do you care more about other countries than the US?"
I think this question should be directed towards bush, It's obvious he cares more about Iraq than the U.S.. That's all I hear him talk about when he's not murdering the English language.
Anyway...
It doesn't make a fuckin' difference, what's done is done, America has spoken and it seems that America's "moral values " took precedence in this joke of an election.
You guys may not know it, but all you bush supporters are just like
<font size="6">JO</font id="size6">(hn) <font size="6">KE</font id="size6">(rry).
Now let's let the healing begin...
I just don't know how it's going to happen when gw's constantly picking at the scab.
2004 Clear'd and Creamy Pearl 6MT
Aero and Premium goodness
Graphite's in to get the "lead" out
Stillen CAI/Ztube/EIBACH Prokit
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Evil Genius
How can you complain about that?
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I want to have friends. I don't want people to hate me. I don't want to be perceived as the biggest threat to peace. I don't want to always act alone because no one is willing to make a crazy stand with me.
With great power comes great responsibility. Yoda or Spiderman or somebody said that, and it remains true to this day.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I understand, but the votes have been cast, and unfortunately for you, the people have decided against you. In a way, we are all family, and like it or not, we're all stuck with each other.
As for your Spidey quote, you are correct, BUT there is a caveat. That responsibility only carries forward to your own countrymen/women, not the rest of the world. This planet is not some kind of global utopia, it's more like a wild jungle where only the biggest, baddest, and strongest survive. And to remain at the top of the food chain, you have to be extremely aggressive to succeed (A frequently unpopular trait these days). I'm sure you won't like that, but America would not be what it is today if we weren't so driven and ruthless.
I guess it depends on how the last four years were toward someone in particular. As a country, we lost about 5 times the lives we lost in Vietnam to car accidents. But with those cars destroyed new ones had to be built. Therefore giving jobs to people in the car industry. For every loss we can find a gain, I know that is a sick example but that is my warped way of thinking.
Not every loss is bad, nor is every gain good. The Patriot Act has some really bad stuff in it, I do not believe in governments that have strong control over the citizens.
The comment about automobile deaths was just an example of how some people did not have a good last years. But even though they that happened, some made better of it.
A person in the hospital may not be doing well, but the staff that is treating is.
There was an old story about the guy wishing he came into money. He gets a call one day and he finds out he just inherited a large sum of money because some family member died.
I dont really care what others think of me either... I dont necessarily go out of my way to make them hate me, but I dont really care what they think, either. I dont think meaning relationships necessarily means you care what someone thinks of you. They should like you for who you are, not some facade.
As for this debate, I dont care what other countries think of us. Im not trying to be friends with every country. I dont have that much time for being friends with them. Sorry.
I act like an ass to everyone. But, that is merely because I don't give a flying F&ck what anyone thinks of me. I am my own person and I could care less if people like me or hate me. But that's just me.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Nader!"
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">[wstupid]I hope that you just think that you're cool by saying that and don't really mean it. If you're serious, then you are probably going to die a miserable lonely person...and nobody will care because you never did.
My philosophy is to treat others as I would want to be treated, with respect and a little bit of humor. Just remember, what goes around comes around.
Not every loss is bad, nor is every gain good. The Patriot Act has some really bad stuff in it, I do not believe in governments that have strong control over the citizens.
The comment about automobile deaths was just an example of how some people did not have a good last years. But even though they that happened, some made better of it.
A person in the hospital may not be doing well, but the staff that is treating is.
There was an old story about the guy wishing he came into money. He gets a call one day and he finds out he just inherited a large sum of money because some family member died.
Team Snyder
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2004 Clear'd and Creamy Pearl 6MT
Aero and Premium goodness
Graphite's in to get the "lead" out
Stillen CAI/Ztube/EIBACH Prokit
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