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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 26, 2013 4:16:58 GMT -5
I'm not by any means an analyst but it seems to me that Iran and indeed everyone would be better off left to their own devices. Without an "enemy" to point their finger at, a country has to either deal with its shit, so to speak or wither and die slowly. Either way, all the embargoes and threats, etc, only help give these very different people a sense of nationalism and helps hold together factions that would normally work themselves out. Do you mean to say that US foreign policy on Iran is not achieving its intended goals? This would imply that American politicians are having a hard time dealing with Iran. Naturally, the American solution is to go to war. The only other scenario I can think of is some bizarre kind of partnership between western politicians and the ayatollahs in Iran, which could just barely be true IMO.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 26, 2013 15:40:44 GMT -5
Haha! When has U.S. foreign policy achieved "its intended goals?" At least the the goals we admit to?
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 1, 2013 12:58:29 GMT -5
Twenty people were arrested in Qom last week. Apparently, some of these people were publicly claiming to be Imam Mahdi, while others were claiming to be in direct contact with the Imam.
This is equivalent to some guy in a western country claiming to be the second coming of jesus. Err, actually more like 20 guys claiming to be jesus.
What I wanna know is how many of these people really believe they are the Imam, and how many have a political agenda for making such a claim.
This has got to be the most insane thing I've heard so far this year.
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Post by karlsie on Apr 2, 2013 7:08:21 GMT -5
We had a huge Jesus phenomena back in the seventies. Not only were there a lot of people claiming the enlightenment, many had small groups of followers who were positive, "this is the one". I'm not sure what causes it; maybe the knowledge that we're on a suicidal path and a desire to find someone or be the someone who corrects the course. We want miracles; not the small ones of everyday life; but something big, something that will impact history, something that can't be denied or forgotten.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 15, 2013 1:54:20 GMT -5
I think, before the revolution in 1979, the general population of Iran was essentially composed of scattered populations of illiterate slaves, and the arbabs aka "lords." I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that the arbab families _legally_ owned their individual domains, which included land, livestock, and people. And the Shah owned Persia. I don't think there is any doubt that the Iranian people were freed from bondage and tyranny by the Islamic Revolution. Today, the Iranian economy is good old american capitalist banking. (The sanctions have forced to government to abandon a lot of its liberal-socialist economic policies.) And I believe over a million students apply for colleges/universities in Iran every year; my guess is that over 90 percent of them are accepted into some form of higher education institute today. The rate was closer to 50 percent ten years ago, and presumably a lot lower in 1979. Today, the people of Iran have been enslaved again, by a much more ruthless and demanding master. Before the revolution, the average Iranian peasant didn't have much use for money...he couldn't even add 2+2!! Now, 18 year old college kids are doing incredibly complex mathematics that I can't even conceive of ever having a practical use for in my life. Children are being encouraged to take part in the economy at an increasingly younger age nowadays, whereas before the revolution there was nothing to buy! Iranian peasants used to make everything themselves, they made their own clothes, food, houses, tools, persian rugs, etc. etc. And some of these items, if particularly good, the arbab would sell in the city for a profit. Some of the most exquisite handmade persian rugs in existence were made by rural peasant women, before the revolution. Today, most persian rugs made in Iran are copies of original designs that were concocted in the past, sometimes over a thousand years ago. And if I may say so, the new designs and patterns, made 100% by free men and women working 8-5 in a factory every day, contain none of the psychedelic beauty of the ancient designs. If you want to know where the flying carpet myth comes from, drink some ayahuasca and meditate on a handmade persian carpet. I wonder what would happen if another revolution, in the same spirit of freedom and independence as the 1979 revolution, were to happen today? Could the educated intellectual youth of today build a better system than the illiterate peasants that built this one? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Iranen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_reserves_in_Iranen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_IranI'm assuming Iran's natural resources are much more rich and varied than what I came up with after one minute of googling. Endless high-elevation sunshine, countless hydroelectric dams, the afghan heroin supply, high quality drinking water (which the persian gulf arab states lack almost entirely,) complete and undeniable economic/military hegemony in the region is just a few more off the top of my head. I have a feeling that controlling the resources that it does, coupled with its geography and history, makes Iran a rare country that should in theory be able to stand its ground without depending on countless foreign industrial and mining colonies like the USA. If only the people running the show over here weren't such hopeless imbeciles...
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 15, 2013 9:58:14 GMT -5
abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-opium-production-increases-18955260I would really like to know how many billion dollars a year the afghan "industry" is worth. I figure it's gotta be in the same league as the Iraqi oil industry, otherwise why would america care about such a shitty undeveloped country like afghanistan? Afghanistan, IMO, won't be a productive colony (in the traditional sense) for the US for at least another 10 years, and that's only if a strong NATO military presence persists, because otherwise they will be handing over the whole country to Iran on a silver platter, like they did with Iraq. I think if the US wasn't stretched out so thin, we would be seeing an american invasion of Syria at this time, rather than covert-ops to undermine the nation's stability. And if the US can't send troops to Syria at this time, how on earth are they gonna send them to Iran, which is like an international superpower compared to Syria. Iran is most certainly funding terrorist organizations in the region. The two most famous ones are Hizbullah and Hamas. I don't know what the Syrian cell is called, but I'm pretty sure that they are the only thing keeping Assad in power at this point. Did you guys hear of the Iranian government's 1 billion dollar cash gift to Bashar Assad a couple months back? I guess it's getting kinda old, but prices are still climbing in Iran. The inflation rate is now pretty much at some unbelievable astronomic figure that makes absolutely no sense in the context of economics. The unemployment figure is equally astonishing. Business owners are so fucked it's hilarious. Tehran's Bazaar (the supplier of all of Iran) is bankrupt for all practical purposes. I don't know if the government is putting drugs in the water or what, but I see life going on as usual as if nothing were out of the ordinary. It's as if people don't realize how fucked up everything is at all.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 16, 2013 22:35:21 GMT -5
7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Iran. As a result, a bunch of people died in Pakistan. No casualties have been reported in Iran.
Edit: I think if an earthquake of similar magnitude were to hit Tehran, 8 million people (50% of the population) would die instantly. Another 4 million would die slowly, trapped under the rubble. And the remaining people would die of disease, starvation, grief, etc. over the course of weeks. Maybe if the US waits long enough, the Iranian problem will solve itself?
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 17, 2013 1:07:18 GMT -5
Picture a group of naked people, just sorta' hanging out in some out of the way jungle somewhere, living freely as a group of friends. A tribe essentially. In this tribe however, the friendship is special because all the people directly depend on each other, not just for their survival, but rather in every conceivable way, and on a daily basis. They love each other as we love our selves. They have no clear concept of their selves removed from the tribe. Only certain special individuals in this tribe achieve anything resembling what we call self-consciousness; historically these individuals have been called shamans, holy-men, etc. They were the people who "talked with God" and relayed the message to their tribe, in a manner of speaking. The tribal shaman literally and in every sense of the word _becomes_ his tribe, as a unified self-aware entity. In this special state of consciousness each member of the tribe acts like a certain organ in the human body, figuratively speaking. The shaman is the will, he acts _as_ the tribe directly, guiding their collective path, purportedly even beyond death. This, I believe, was the state of the Amazonian man, a hundred years ago, and the state of all mankind at some early point in history.
So, at some unknown point in time, and for unknown reasons, the idea of an individual self with a self-image and self-interests spread through the tribe. Whether the work of Satan, or Prometheus, man was now in contact with the Self directly. Soon afterwards, the idea of money appeared. A man could now make other people do stuff for him. By offering the right amount of collectively-agreed "state"-backed imaginary 'value' a man can get other men to do anything for him. The state, aka the establishment, itself controls 99% of the whole Value market. Meanwhile, the establishment's holy men tell of a heavenly father God who is the ruler of the universe and who will be angry with us if we don't behave ourselves. And other holy men prescribe drugs to keep us artificially satisfied with our existence, and obedient. Our children are also blessed with drugs to make them behave "better." We take knives and guns into crowded places, and kill. We kill anything that lives, on purpose or by accident.
We have no idea why we are here. We go through our whole lives without critically examining our personal death. We have nothing. A mental image of ourselves, a bunch of pathetic beliefs, and some money. What was essentially a pit stop on our trip to infinity at some long-forgotten past time, has become our prison where we torture and kill ourselves collectively. We are happily being marched to the slaughterhouse.
It really boggles my mind how terrifyingly fucked up our situation is. People would not behave the way they do if they were even slightly aware of the fact that we are all on our way to eternal oblivion.
I wish I could cause a global mass-ego-death episode, or barring that I'd settle for just killing everyone to show them how stupid they are. hehehe!
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 17, 2013 22:29:19 GMT -5
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 18, 2013 23:24:34 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/middleeast/israeli-officials-stress-readiness-for-lone-strike-on-iran.html"Officials in Israel Stress Readiness for a Lone Strike on Iran" These poor desparate Israelis are starting to sound like the North Koreans. FFS Zionist dickheads, stop talking and show us your balls! How much more humiliation must you endure at the hands of the Iranians? They've threatened to wipe you off the map, and all you can do is make ridiculous empty threats?? I think it's pretty clear that if Israel makes any kind of overt aggressive move against Iran, a shitload of Iranian-made missiles will start ass-blasting the Zionist-occupied territories from Sinai, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth, and I really don't think Iran would have any need for nukes to accomplish this. On the other hand, this tiny country of Israel, not unlike North Korea, is 100% dependent on their nuclear arsenal for their survival. An Iranian nuclear weapon would shift the balance of power in the region absolutely in Iran's favour; Israel would have to stfu and get out of the middle east once and for all. The Iranian leaders have vowed to annihilate Israel in our lifetime. Seven million heavily-armed zionist militants is completely fair game, IMHO.
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Post by karlsie on Apr 19, 2013 19:10:49 GMT -5
You know, ADP, education is taking a marked shift toward environmentally friendly technology. I suspect this has much to do with the Latin American countries that are struggling for both a more socialized system of government, and better protection for their delicate eco-systems. The Latin American countries have already gone through their decades of horrible civil war and uninterrupted violence. Their leaders have learned one thing: If their populations become unhappy, they will rise up with pitchforks, stones, knives and whatever else it takes to dispose of their unpopular governance. This is Latin America's way. Considering years of CIA intervention into Latin American affairs has not been able to change them, I doubt anything will.
Modern education focuses on low-impact energy solutions, global food production, water conservation and utilitarian architecture; i.e., architectural design that incorporates solar panels, protects water sheds, nurtures indoor gardening, etc. and so on. While we stumble about in the chaos created by destructive corporate mismanagement, many of the emerging countries are learning from the mistakes of those who squandered the natural resources and have emptied out the pockets of their constituents, and are quietly building economies that limit big business enterprise, creating more opportunities for the general population to maintain a sustainable income. Needless to say, many of the young graduates with Masters in Business Administration, are running post-haste to jump on the band wagon.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 19, 2013 23:19:30 GMT -5
karlsie, I'm no stranger to intellectual idealism, utopian fantasies and the bliss of ignorance. But maybe you should consider the fact that the earth's biomass is not a magical dynamic number; it is the sum total of all the organic mass you can achieve with the C-H-O on earth. The earth's (human) population was around 3.5 billion in 1967; it is over 7 billion now, I am told. Where did this extra biomass come from? I'll tell you, it came from the lifeforms that we consumed and exterminated. Now consider the cow, chicken, goat, sheep, wheat, barley, maize, potato, rice biomass. These are all non-natural genetically engineered organisms afaic, because they do not exist outside of domestication/cultivation. In a sense, they are artificial structures like us. How many naturally occurring plants and animals do you think had to die in order to make room for our billions of cows and chickens? Hope is great, karlsie. But we really have no idea about the true extent of the damage we're causing to the biosphere. I think there is no doubt that humanity is rotten to the core, and it takes a monumental effort to be "good" -- much more effort than running 1 hour per day -- why we insist on deluding ourselves with the idea that everything is going to be fine is beyond me. We're all going to die eventually, no matter what. But it's fine cause we're all going to heaven.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 19, 2013 23:41:09 GMT -5
"US to finalize $10b arms sale to Mideast allies amid Iran threat"
This is the world we live in.
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Post by karlsie on Apr 20, 2013 21:45:49 GMT -5
ADP, I'm aware of the massive destruction caused by human existence; especially in this time period when the weapons of mass destruction could blow up the world fourteen times over. When I was young, I was revolutionary. I joined the smoke, the drums, the surging masses of the revolutionary front. I was a bit suicidal, but believed if you were in the mood for committing suicide, you might as well join something that made your suicide count.
The cities, with their teeming millions, have a habit of bringing home how small you are; nothing more than a squirming microbe; undefined, unimportant, just a tiny flash of life before eternal non-existence. Yet, despite countless risks, I survived. No matter how little I cared for myself, others cared about me. And I found, even in the poorest villages, where children were starving, there was beauty all around me. I found that even among brutality, people still loved.
I saw a waste dump one day where the water ran as oil, thick, sludgy, horribly discolored. The banks were eaten with lime and chemicals. Yet there, on the very edge of the banks was a lone daffodil struggling bravely to survive. I realized that if one small flower could have such great hope, we are nothing at all if we can't put out the same effort.
You can call it idealism if it pleases you. I just call it tossing everything aside, then discovering there were still things I valued. As I grew older, these values became stronger for having abandoned them once, then accepting they were still an integral part of my character.
As far as the population explosion is concerned, the numbers are cresting. In many countries, including some that are strongly influenced by a Catholic heritage, such as Mexico and Italy, the death rate and the birth rate have become even. In others, such as England, Germany, France and Japan, the death rate has over-taken the birth rate. In Russia, the population has shrunk so much, the government is paying women to have babies. This year, for the first time in the United States, the death rate has over-taken the birth rate as the baby-boomers reach old age, and the trend is expected to continue for at least the next twenty years. Even in China, the birth rate has leveled off. India is one of the few countries left that continues to experience a population explosion.
I don't believe Utopia will occur. Humankind consistently makes the same mistakes over and over. But I do believe that throwing up your hands in defeat and doing nothing at all to try to make improvements is like a self-fulfilling prophecy of your own failure.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 20, 2013 22:58:21 GMT -5
I think you misunderstand me, karlsie. I haven't lost hope. I'm quite happy with my existence, believe me. I lead a life of relative luxury and ease. I haven't "worked" for a living a single day in my life, at least not in the traditional sense of the word anyway (ie. slavery where someone else makes a profit and you get a measly paycheck.) And things always have a way of working out for me. One way or another, I've always gotten what I wanted, which in recent years has been mostly about not wanting anything. And in my life, whether I've been up or down, struggling or thoroughly comfortable, I've always been filled with joy and love and awe.
Sometimes I feel guilty for being so blessed and lucky. I don't know if this is self-importance or what, but I really feel like I am doing better than anyone else I've met on this planet. When I see the wretched condition of people and our society, sometimes I can't help but feel that I am not deserving of such an awesome life, when 7 billion of my kind are leading a life of utter confusion and agony.
But most of the time, I feel like we get what we deserve. If we choose to act like weak, pathetic imbeciles, the result will surely be what we've got right now. So, the real question, which I've been posing over and over again, is "wtf is wrong with us?"
Why can't we be better than this?
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