Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site 3comvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!Glacier!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm From: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Government and stability Message-ID: <268@3comvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 23:17:16 EST Article-I.D.: 3comvax.268 Posted: Mon Nov 4 23:17:16 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 04:39:25 EST References: <1473@teddy.UUCP> <28200189@inmet.UUCP> Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA Lines: 41 [I don't believe in the Line Eater Monst..] > >When the white men came and destroyed everything, this may have been > >bad for the Indian, but, in the long run, it was good for the white > >man, ... [Larry Kolodney] > > The long run isn't over yet. If the "white man" engages in a > nuclear war it won't have been good for anyone ... (well maybe > for the rats and cockroaches.) > > The "white man" could learn something from those he has conquered ... > [Tom Tedrick] Learn what from them? I have great respect for the achievements of Native American peoples, but I don't recall that living peaceably alongside their neighbors was one of them. A number of the tribes that the "white man" displaced were *quite* warlike -- towards each other as well as the whites. So what are they to teach us regarding our present dilemma? Not to develop the knowledge of the universe that has given us our present capability to destroy each other? Sorry, Tom, but Native Americans down in Mexico were already well along the road to technical civilization that has led us inexorably to Hiroshima. Taken to its ultimate, such a "know nothing" philosophy would argue that we shouldn't have evolved into humans in the first place -- then we'd *really* be safe, right? Tell it to the dinosaurs, Tom! A better solution would be to *outgrow* this adolescent phase in our development as a rational species. No, I don't know how we are to do this -- but I suspect we must act a whole lot smarter, not dumber. -- Michael McNeil 3Com Corporation "All disclaimers including this one apply" (415) 960-9367 ..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm And with an awful, dreadful list Towards other galaxies unknown Ponderously turns the Milky Way ... Boris Pasternak