Article about warfare, population birth rate, and will to fight

[FearlessFreep]

http://www.alternet.org/story/86451/

Talks about changes in the 20th century where military might/size no longer carry(ied) the day

 

[terryl965]

Very interestong how the tides turns.

 

[Sukerkin]

That's a scary article (I haven't finished it yet but I will) because at it's heart, even if it doesn't know it (and it may come up in later pages) it is setting the stage for the militarily capable powers to get seriously 4th Reich in their approach to matters of dispute.

By this I mean that the lessons of tolerance and fair negotiation (or more discriminately applied violence if it became necessary) will get chucked aside and seriously destructive weapons start to get used.

By all accounts we came close in Gulf War I because the Israelies were very seriously pissed off to be taking Scud fire and there was a concerted effort to take out the Scud launchers and talk the Israelies back from the brink of some hefty counterstriking of their own.

No offence intended to our American fellows here at MT but I see some echoes of that kind of attitude being presented in some posts here. I do understand it and empathise with it because it is frustrating to be the currently stongest kid on the block and still not get your own way.

What to do about it is a tortuous question. I don't see any good answer right now. Either the presently powerful nations allow themselves to be eroded and swept away or they resort to measures that, to me at least, are so morally unacceptable as to be unthinkable.

Got to finish up - the powers just flickered (in the stormy weather we're having) and that means a substation could be about to trip and I'll lose this.

EDIT: The power stayed on (all hail D.A.R. ) and I've read the rest of the article now. It did indeed cover the ground I expected it to and actually ended on an upbeat note. I do think that it missed a couple of beats tho'. The most immediate is that the immigrant tide (I think that needs a Trademark sign ) is not being assimilated. It's enclaving instead and that is very bad news culturally (if they intend to stay rather than migrate on to other work in a while).

The other 'beat' is that if it comes to the point that powerful governments get scared enough and totalitarian enough, it wont be border controls but large scale retroactive birth-control. There are still more than enough nukes to do that - the fact that it's suicide might not occur to leaders until it's too late.

Ah heck - maybe I'm just depressed and seeing everything in shades of black tonight - I hope so.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Interesting read but I have a feeling that the author is conflating warfare and population drift. I suppose both have been going on as long there have been people so they are intimately associated.

It was good to see that he pointed out the best way to counter this was actually increasing the prosperity of the people who would potentially be on the move. Its been obvious to sociologists for quite some time (maybe the author is one).

His conclusions, though, are interesting that European (American, Australian) culture, and probably Chinese as well, will absorb and dominate other cultural groups (probably through prosperity). I don't think that that is an unreasonable suggestion but I, personally, am not seeing the results. Like Sukerkin, I am seeing enclaves forming. Here is Australia we have second and third generation children of immigrant families from Syria and Lebanon (for example) who differentiate themselves from 'white' Australia by calling themselves wogs or Lebs and white guys Aussies. There are entire suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne dominated by a single cultural group and they are not adopting what few Australian mores and cultural features there are. This is a distinct choice on their part. It is fundamentalism. Just in this case it is cultural fundamentalism not religious.