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To Arlinda and DonovanReader comment on item: One Cheer for Obama's Arab-Israeli Policy Submitted by Seamus Dafydd Dives MacNemi (United States), Oct 10, 2009 at 20:12 For generations my folk have watched empires and nations rise and fall and there always seems to be a pattern that they all follow. They begin small and semmingly insignificant and for a time they merely subsist. But if by chance they have the good fortune they aquire the resources to prosper to any degree they begin to grow in numbers and as these numbes expand they begin to seek and aquire more land to feed their growing population. As the population expands tribal government changes from local chieftans to confederations of different groups within the whole.These become political parties representing the various different interests within the whole. All the while the central idea of a common identity is maintained through the use of a comon language and world view defended by a priesthood of the tribal god or gods. The society divides itself into specialized groupings or classes according to function within the whole. The priestly class, the ruling class, the warrior class, the artizan class and the agricultural class. The priestly class is the mind and soul of the society. It is they who are responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the society. They maintain the culturlal continuum through ritual both public and private, keep alive the mythology of a common identity within the whole through telling and retelling of stories and of the common past of great men and heros, of battles and defeats of enemies and conquests and wealth and prosperity. They are the driving engine of the society and the glue which holds it together. The ruling class is the executive class. the class responsible for carrying out and fulfiling the idea/ideal of the priestly class. Theirs is the responsibility for the "HOW TO" of the operation. They enforce the laws and maintain order within the whole. The warrior class is the active arm of the ruling class. It is the responsibility of the warrior class to carry out the wishes of the ruling calss. Next we have the artizan class. Here we have the blacksmith, the carpenter, the stone mason, the baker and all of those other skills necessary for providing for the non agricultural requirements of the society. At the base and foundation we have the class upon which the whole rests and depends for its existence, the agricultural class. It is the agricultural class and the success of its endeavour which brings about the growth and expansion of the society and provides the opportunity for the evolution of the society as a whole. From its inception a society is an organic whole. A seperate and self conscious entity distinct in its expressions and history. As the society grows and expands customs change to meet the requirements of the moment and the society evolves different ideas of internal governance. The successof the society depends entirely upon its internal integrity and consistency. Corruption at any level erodes the internal integrity of the society and gives rise to all those social ills with we are all too familiar in our present world. A society, like all living organisms, must eat. This simple fact is responsible for all of the conflicts in history. When a society grows beyond a certain size in terms of population it must expand its territory to provide the neceessary resource for its expanding population. It is at this point that it will come into conflict with other parallel socities seeking the same objectives. Conflicts may resolve themselves peacefully by the melding of different societies into a greater whole or they may be resolved through war and conquest and the subduing of the weaker by the stronger. Those societies which opt for war and conquest must of necessity develope a militaristic mentality and herein lies the seed of the imperialistic mentality. Imperialism by its very nature is oppressive. It is the expression of a self centered and narcisistic mind taken to extremes. It represents a mind that is fearful and suspicious of the world about hating of anything that is not itself. It has one objective, to devour anything and everything in its path and to subsume all within its self. It is implacable in its nature and expressions. It will not tolerate dissent within its self. It does not recognise the individual as legitimate and seeks to erase all expressions of individuality and create a robotic mentality in all its constituent population. It is incapable of growth and of evolving. It seeks a status quo that is stagnant and unchanging and herein is the seed of its ultimate demise. When a population grows beyond a certain point in terms of numbers it reaches which might be called a critical mass. Beyond this point fractures appear. The society looses its internal integrity and internal conflicts and inconsistencies develope which cannot be resolved by fiat. It is at this point that the society begins to disintegrate. At this point secondary or subsocieties appear as self governing entities within the greater whole. Thus do colonies become states within the greater nation. It is at this point that the imperialist mind shows its weakest hand. It is also at this point that it is most dangerous because in a desperate bid to maintain the status quo it will resort to the suppression of disent by the use of force thereby exacerbating its problems. It is at this point that revolutions occur and the newly formed states bid for independence. Such actons are rarely peaceful. This is the situation we have today in our world. In the last century we witnessed the death of empires and the weak attempt to recreate the empires of the past expressed in the form of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The stamp of that inperialist legacy has been taken up in our present day by the nations of Islam and they must be defeated at all costs. Imperialism, no matter what cloak it chooses in order to legitimize itself, is the enemy of all humanity and the enemy of G-D Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (84) on this item
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