From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Thanatos)
Subject: Re: D&D, religion, politics, etc (was Re: D&D and Christianity)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 08:39:04 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.205531.4833@spcvxb.spc.edu> 6anthony_m@spcvxb.spc.edu writes:
>> 
>> 	The nuclear bomb was developed by the US as a sort of self-defense
>> measure; we had reason to believe Germany was developing the thing itself,
>> and later we used it in an attempt (right or wrong is irrelevant in this
>> case) to reduce the amount of bloodshed and destruction which the 
>> continuation of the Pacific campaign was sure to bring. 
>
>Boy, you sure buy their excuses.  The pacific campaign, could have never
>destroyed as many lives as the bomb.  The bomb was used to flex the US 
>Goverments muscles. Kinda' lettin everyone know who is boss.
>
"Flexing government muscles?"  Yeah, right.  It was a two shot vendetta.
The firebombing of Dresden killed more and did more damage than both 
bombs COMBINED.  The only difference is the untold genetic damage, not only
to the Japanese, but to the whole world.  When the first bomb was triggered
at Los Alamos, there was a large group of physicists who felt that the 
resulting energy would be sufficient to ignite the Nitrogen in the air, 
bringing a total holocaust to the world.  One does not "flex" their muscles
by pulling a pin, tossing it, and hoping it doesn't take you with it.  I 
attended a lecture delivered by a guy at the Manhattan Project.  The fear
was real.  A group of Jewish scientists who had left before the Nazis took
over expressed their concern that the Nazis were interested in the heavy
water research they had done, and its ramifications.  They convinced 
Einstein to draft a letter to Roosevelt, to allow the research to be done
here.  THe letter is now in the national archives.
	America could have flexed its muscles by boming an atoll.  It could
have flexed its muscles by dropping one bomb.  But no, foolishly America 
chose to drop its wad, hoping to scare the Soviets away, since they were
heading that way after Germany was defeated.  The war needed to be ended
soon, not to prove who was boss, but rather to prevent an even greater
conflict, which would have been the result had the Soviets taken part of
Japan.
	Further, you are deluded if you think a land war in Japan would 
not be EXTREMELY costly to Allied forces.  The German people were tired 
of the Nazi's excesses.  The Japanese still supported their leaders 
unconditionally.  It took the A-Bomb to scare them into submission. 

>> 	What a bit of poppycock. While a goodly number of "the poor" (hardly
>> a homogeneous group) have potential, that potential isn't restricted by 
>> any form of deliberate intimidation, and to call the educated and scientific
>> "useless" is a ridiculous attitude. Without the "educated", this civilization
>> will collapse. Read _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand; while she simplifies things
>> to a great extent (partly due to the milieu in which she grew up) and 
>> goes to greater extremes than the "real world" would require, she demonstrates
>> with inarguable logic why the attitude you express in #3 is, at best, flawed
>> and at worst is evil.
>
>Education is used to keep the poor in check.  If your parents arent rich, then 
>you dont go to a good college and become rich either.  Of course there are a 
>few exceptions to this rule, but for 90% of the people it is correct.  And
>as for this "civilization" collapsing.  Good, we need a change around here.
>
I've watched as my mother a teacher in the Chicago Public School system, called
the worst in the nation, drive herself endlessly, helping her "kids" get 
into colleges so that they can gain a new perspective on the world.  THere
are FAR more exceptions than you imagine.  Education isn't about MONEY, it's
about POWER.  Richard M. Daley, mayor of Chicago, had little moneyt, but
the knowledge he had won Kennedy the election.  The problem in our society
is that we view education as a chore, a drudge, something few want to do.
If your way was right, the only free individuals would be those who had 
dropped out of school, since they avoided the indoctrination keeping them 
down.  In a school where the threat of gangs looms high, my mother knows:
the leaders of the gangs GO to school.  They GET an education.  They tell
their drones to skip school.  SHe's seen it with her own eyes.  It's time
for you to embrace a slice of reality.  

-- 
I don't mind being the smartest	    / Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Unknown
man in the world...I just wish it   \ Time and Space tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu 
wasn't this one...	       	    / It's a Zen thing... 
	-Ozymandias 		    \	 you wouldn't understand...  
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