----- Original Message -----
From: "Edmund Storms" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Vo]: New Segway Products
The idea of good guys and bad guys in war is useless and distracting to
what is actually happening. War is a means to gain power over others. War
no longer makes a distinction between those who are fighting and those who
are not. Both are killed with equal intensity, although it is still
fashionable to claim the fig leaf of unintended collateral damage or a
tragic mistake. Make no mistake, as the tools of war become more
efficient and terrorism, which is the counter to those tools, become more
universal, no one will be safe. We are passing through a transition period
which has to end by people insisting on methods be used to avoid war and
the resulting terrorism. But then, every one knows this, yet we go on
supporting people who insist that war is necessary because it is very
profitable for them. They are able to continue their policy because they
know how to manipulate our fear and paranoia. But you say, real threats
exist against which we must be defended. Of course this is true, but this
is a never ending path that can not be fixed just by making every country
a democracy, as Bush plans. The obvious consequence of this naive
approach is being demonstrated every day in Iraq. We need to use our
creativity to explore another way. Think about that rather than the
Segway.
==========================================
Let me pose some contrarian thoughts:
1) Technology can be thought of existing on a series of plateaus. It is very
difficult to ascend to the next higher plateau, but once there, one can
travel far with little incremental effort.
2) The integrated circuit manufacturing process is one of most important
developments in human history -- from it computers and othere digital devils
and delights flow. Its stimulus was the need for microcircuitry for ICBMs --
else that plateau might not have been reached for decades.
3) Mass production is the hallmark and bane of our world, but it had its
roots in the development of interchangeable parts for rifles in the Civil
War.
4) An overwhemling need is necessary to focus energies to scale a plateau;
it often comes from war.
5) 9/11 was a non-event. 3000 lives lost, but ten times that number die in
auto accidents every year without a national outcry. A billion dollars worth
of buildings destroyed? Nothing in a trillion dollar economy. But we were
bloodied and the demand to be **safe** led to immense expenditures and a
ill-considered war. A small investment by terrorists led us to do immense
damage to our selves.
6) The obsessive demand to be safe is itself very dangerous, for it leads to
unintended consequences. The recent plot to down several airplanes sent
ripples around the world and threaten air commerce. Once upon a time, every
ocean voyage was fraught with danger, but people went forth in ships anyway.
7) Iraq is not about cheap oil for the US. The cheap way would have been to
simply buy the oil from Saddam Hussain. But that also has consequences.
8) Democracy is not a panacea, and the US is not a democracy; it is a
republic shielded from voter foolishness by the Electoral College who can
pull us back from the brink of disaster by refusing to elect a popular
demagogue. The Founding Fathers had a horror of pure democracy as
illustrated by any number of elected idiots in other countries. What is
needed is a peaceful way to despose kelptocratic leaders without the mess of
a revolution.
Mike Carrell
