At 12:15 AM 7/20/01 +0200 J. van Baardwijk wrote:
>> >Those examples you gave could happen in a dictatorship, not in a
democracy.
>> >You see, Kevin, that's why democracy is such a marvelous thing: if a
>> >government would try something like you described, they would be punished
>> >for it in the next election. So, crazy things like you mentioned just
won't
>> >happen in a democracy.
>>
>>I find it amazing that you can forget the results of a certain election in
>>Germany back in the day.
>
><sigh>
>
>John, the fact that *one* democratically elected leader became a psychopath
>dictator, doesn't mean that *all* elected leaders are likely to become
>psychopath dictators.
Never said "all." I said "a certain" - implying that the existence of one
case disproves your postulate that these things could *never* happen in a
democracy.
>Besides, we all know what happened back then. Do you really believe we
>would just let such atrocities happen again? When a democratically elected
>leader turns into a second Hitler, do you really think the international
>community wouldn't do anything about it?
In a word, Yes.
I think that if the American economy were to truly turn south, things would
get very ugly around the world. First, many developing economies would
collapse, heightening the negative feedback loop. In America, our natural
tendency for isolationism could very well reassert itself. America could
very easily begin to withdraw from foreign commitments. After all, how
much is keeping tons of troops in places lik Germany and South Korea really
benefitting American workers?
As the economic misery spreads, the Russians elect a nationalist/fascist
dictator. This leader begins to rebuild Russia in the same way that
Hitler turned the Wiemar Republic into the mighties military machine of its
day. After all, a lot of the resources are already there. When the
Russians reassert control over Minsk, nobody much notices. A few eyebrows
get batted when the Russians intervene in the Central Asian Republics, by
invitation of course - to control Islamic extremists, but nobody is
seriously going to intervene in Central Asia. By the time Kiev and
Chisinau fall, people start to worry a bit - but by then, our best bet is
to find a Neville Chamberlain to proclaim "peace in our time", and maybe
buy us a little time. A few years later, Russia sells a vast swath of
Lower Siberia and the Far East to China for a princely sum, and signs a
formal Alliance.
O.k., so there are several good reasons why the future won't happen exactly
like that - but to me, the underlying factors of economic malaise, nuclear
weapons, and remote geography all add up the Western Nations being very
much able to ignore history repeating itself all over again.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
We are products of the same history, reaching from Jerusalem and
Athens to Warsaw and Washington. We share more than an alliance.
We share a civilization. - George W. Bush, Warsaw, 06/15/01
