Posted by
shorty40pants on Monday, January 19, 2009 12:00:00 AM
OK, first-time blogger with a first-time posting. Have to make it significant, but probably not going to happen tonight. So, some background. Degree in International Relations with the Soviet Union (we can see how helpful that turned out to be). Left me with a decent understanding of international political economy, international institutions, international law, macro and micro economics, history, and enough Russian to order pizza from my locally Russian-owned Papa John's. My focus - the bigger picture - not getting caught up in the day-to-day politics of the country, but looking at where we are heading in a historical context.
Three focuses:
1) International: the shift of our country's international aspirations and interactions after the Spanish American War and dealing with the legacy of that shift in the national mindset to one of global intervention and cultural imperialism.
2) The "New" Democracy: looking at the Civil War purely in the context of living with the legacy of a government that decided it knew what was best for its people at the cost of over 600 thousand lives. What are the long-lasting implications of the "you are free, but you must think like us" mindset? What are the implications for a country that for the last 3 elections has seen such a dichotomy in the electorate to the extreme of 50-50? This obviously has international implications as well. The cultural imperialism that was so pervasive after the Spanish American War and the unchecked push to spread democracy for democracy's sake during the Cold War based on a belief that we know best has landed Hamas in the position of power it currently has based on democratic elections.
3) Scale: the argument can be made that all forms of government work on a small scale, but given worldwide population growth, is there a truly ideal form of government? Much more to come on this later, but the idea of paying lip-service and blindly embracing democracy without a full appreciation of its implications must be examined. Again, look at Hamas.
For the record and for those that like to label for the purposes of dismissing ideas that would otherwise have tote, I say to you I am not a racist, a liberal, a conservative, and do not fit into any other political or social bucket you may want to place me. I'm an observer and a thinker and merely want to capture the evolution of the thoughts in a blog. I welcome your feedback, but ask that it be intelligent, objective, and above all, addresses the overall purpose of my blog - to find practical prescriptions of action to address larger philosophical socio-political challenges in the context and with full appreciation of our nation's history.
Thanks and welcome to my blog.