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The United Bases Of America And The Paradox Of Imperialism
The United States is estimated to have anything from 700 military bases around the world to more than 1000. Hans-Hermann Hoppe asks "how can democracy be a stable equilibrium if it is possible that it be transformed democratically into a dictatorship, i.e., a system which is considered not stable?" Concluding it may be better to heed the advice of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and, instead of aiming to make the world safe for democracy, we try making it safe from democracy - everywhere, but most importantly in the United States.
Excerpted from Hans-Hermann Hoppe via the Ludwig von Mises Institute,
"Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else."
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On theoretical grounds: How can democracy be a stable equilibrium if it is possible that it be transformed democratically into a dictatorship, i.e., a system which is considered not stable? Answer: that makes no sense!
Moreover, empirically democracies are anything but stable. As indicated, in multi-cultural societies democracy regularly leads to the discrimination, oppression, or even expulsion and extermination of minorities — hardly a peaceful equilibrium. And in ethnically homogeneous societies, democracy regularly leads to class warfare, which leads to economic crisis, which leads to dictatorship. Think, for example, of post-Czarist Russia, post-World War I Italy, Weimar Germany, Spain, Portugal, and in more recent times Greece, Turkey, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, and Pakistan.
Not only is this close correlation between democracy and dictatorship troublesome for democratic-peace theorists; worse, they must come to grips with the fact that the dictatorships emerging from crises of democracy are by no means always worse, from a classical liberal or libertarian view, than what would have resulted otherwise. Cases can be easily cited where dictatorships were preferable and an improvement. Think of Italy and Mussolini or Spain and Franco. In addition, how is one to square the starry-eyed advocacy of democracy with the fact that dictators, quite unlike kings who owe their rank to an accident of birth, are often favorites of the masses and in this sense highly democratic? Just think of Lenin or Stalin, who were certainly more democratic than Czar Nicholas II; or think of Hitler, who was definitely more democratic and a "man of the people" than Kaiser Wilhelm II or Kaiser Franz Joseph.
According to democratic-peace theorists, then, it would seem that we are supposed to war against foreign dictators, whether kings or demagogues, in order to install democracies, which then turn into (modern) dictatorships, until finally, one supposes, the United States itself has turned into a dictatorship, owing to the growth of internal state power which results from the endless "emergencies" engendered by foreign wars.
Better, I dare say, to heed the advice of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and, instead of aiming to make the world safe for democracy, we try making it safe from democracy — everywhere, but most importantly in the United States.
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The US thinks of itself to be the cavalry riding to the rescue, but for those outside the US, you are seen as bullies
You are seen as naive everywhere you go .... but you think you're smart ?
Bullshit. My kids go to school with kids from just about every part of the world. If we're so bad, how come you sold your sister to get in?
Somewhere between >700 <1000 military bases ? Ya need a new bean counter ! Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Fatwa On The Facts World Tour
All the chat is just that. This will NOT end well-history tells me so
Hello ! History hasn't started so well .... or gone so well ?
Fuck democracy!
It's a racket designed to rob from the productive, to give to the parasitical...
This will always happen when the majority are ruled by a minority (See history for feudalism, monarchy, and after WWI democracy and socialism/communism)
Anarcho-capitalism is the only way that civilisation can thrive in the long term, and therefore it is inevitable that this is how society will eventually function...
It is only a question of how long. IMO it won't be that long, the next 10-20 years. The government can only rule as long as they have control over the people, through monopolisation of the money supply and propaganda...
The internet has fucked up the propaganda part, and governments will soon lose control of the money...
Governments create nothing, and only live at the expense of their citizens. Once democracy is delegitimized after the upcoming shitstorm, there is only one option left... (unless you think that feudalism or monarchy or religious rule will make a comeback? Highly unlikely)
Vive la (Anarcho-capitalist) revolution...
Civilisation has existed in one form or another for some 6000 years, in cycles and cycles within cycles, seeing highs and lows and flourishing and collapse, with its highest cultural achievements inevitably falling under a period of aritocratic rule, but never 'anarcho-capitalism'. So much for necessity. I'm not sure what you define as 'long-term', but you clearly have either never even read a history book or attach some idiosynchrtic meanings to quote simple English idiom. Rather, all you have on you is theoretical garbage spun through with progessivist nonsense with no bearing on actual life and history, much like very other utopian from Thomas More to Karl Marx. End of history! Victory of the proletariat! It's all inevitable! You can deduce it by logic just as Hegel deduced that everything from the Prussian State to the exact position of the planets was just as it had to be. Life is logical! The Austrian phiosophasters have declared it to be so!
Hey, Lebensraum ! I'm reading "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer .... a couple of years of messy retreat .... on the Russian front .... will cure government worship .... in most people ! Less is more !
It's all about technology and the speed of communication.
The renaissance followed the Guttenberg Printing Press
The Gilded Age followed from the telegraph
What follows the internet, where in theory everybody on earth is connected to each other? The sharing of ideas between in theory, 7 billion people...
This time is different...
The same aristocratic rule that forced the Magna Carta and a renaissance and restoration brought about by....the black death? It was capitalism that improved the standard of living for the most people and that was a shared sacrifice and investment from ALL people. History is often viewed through a myopic lense, no?
Further, aristocratic rule was an evolution, yes? Does evolution not imply greater improvements and not the stagnation of the status quo? As anarcho capitalism is just a philsophy, it has yet to be tried nor developed into a working model. The challenge is in the concepts and their application. Do you want liberty? Should we be ruled by coercion or voluntary assent?
There are extensive writngs on anarcho capitalism and how it COULD function. Presently, the only deficiencies lie in defense. However, we KNOW how every other system functions and they all end in tyranny. There are no utopias, but plenty of writers willing to frame the discussion in unworkable terms.
If your country is so pathetic .... that an invasion improves it .... who's fault is that ? People from Laggos, Niggeria are waiting for an answer ?
I wouldn't spend a dime in Syria .... unless one side started to win .... then I'd help the losers (the greater losers) .... just enough .... to keep the fight going ! Israel doesn't get a rest .... why should the Syrians ! Syrians .... eat your hearts out ?
I feel like im on Darth Vader's side.
The number of 700 is a bit hyperbolic because it appears to count where our military is stationed at an embassy for guard and security functions. Even if you back off, say 200 diplomatic mission postings, 500 bases is still a disturbing number.
The US is clearly overspending funded by credit expansion and money-printing. This is not "sustainable" (a concept the left loves to scold us about). When economic realities force spending cuts, what will the world power dynamic do when US military is cut by a third or by half?
There's nothing wrong with democracy PROVIDED it's constrained by a strong constitution to prevent tyranny by the majority (or as is often the case: tyranny by the vociferous minority). Thus, there would be a strong Constitution/Bill of Rights with whole areas of society that a democratic government was forbidden to tread.
Sadly, what we have in most western countries is a model of democracy whereby the elected government assumes total power and control over anything that breathes or moves, and then claims democratic legitimacy for exercising it. A better term for our current model would be "elected dictatorship". It only differs from non-democratic despotic governments by having been elected.
People in the West need to take action to bring their political slimeballs to heel and seriously curtail their powers. The time for negotiation is long past I'm afraid. It's time for action.