tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post1432183772332015355..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Good For Consevatives, Bad For LiberalsAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-35732874460043145122012-02-15T06:04:17.799-05:002012-02-15T06:04:17.799-05:00AVI
I am going to guess that Texan99 was thinking ...AVI<br /><i>I am going to guess that Texan99 was thinking more along the lines of the American Revolution.</i><br /><br />The American Revolutionaries won. Therefore my criteria do not apply to them. They were violent, so had they failed, my criteria would have applied. Ben Franklin agreed with me regarding the consequences of failing: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."<br /><br /><br /><i>or the overthrow of communism in the late 80's and early 90's</i><br /><br />I was talking about a coup de etat/golpe de estado/putsch. Neither an army nor an armed band of irregulars was involved in the overthrow of communism in Europe. For example: while Solidarity was clandestine, it was not violent, so my criteria do not apply.<br /><br />Repeat: I was talking about coup de etat/golpe de estado/putsch.Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-12533607420449065082012-02-13T17:54:26.261-05:002012-02-13T17:54:26.261-05:00I am going to guess that Texan99 was thinking more...I am going to guess that Texan99 was thinking more along the lines of the American Revolution, or the overthrow of communism in the late 80's and early 90's. Your strategy is a good practical one to continue in power, but it perhaps assumes that the current leader is the correct one.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-68036288465887708412012-02-13T14:56:16.907-05:002012-02-13T14:56:16.907-05:00But really, kill the leader of every attempt to un...<i>But really, kill the leader of every attempt to undermine the regime? Sometimes in hindsight we would have found that we killed a more useful citizen than the leader he sought to depose. </i><br /><br /><br />No suggestion for action will result in perfect results. My suggestion that unsuccessful coup leaders be executed would probably result in some otherwise worthy leaders being executed. I would be interested in any counterexamples to my three examples of Hitler, Fidel, and Thugo. <br /><br /><br />I will acknowledge that some unsuccessful coup leaders like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Natusch" rel="nofollow">Natusch Busch</a> - perhaps even most unsuccessful coup leaders- are klutzes who will do no further harm after their unsuccessful coup.<br /><br />Given the choice to execute Natusch Busch, Fidel, Hitler, and Thugo, versus mercy for all four, the better course of action would be to execute all four. IMHO the scales of justice would still not balance the other way if one were to add 100 Natusch Busches- or a thousand- to the equation.<br /><br />A further point is that if execution were the alternative for not succeeding, there would be fewer coupsters. <br /><br />One might think that Latin America, for example, has rid itself of its attraction for the man on horseback. Venezuela, headed by a formerly unsuccessful coupster,shows that is not so. Argentina and Ecuador, with democratically elected leaders following "quick" autocratic solutions, give further evidence that the man on horseback is still lurking in the background. Morover, the autocrat in Argentina heads a party named for a man on horseback. Is it any accident that Evita III is following in the footsteps of autocratic Juan Domingo?Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-64024984177430125972012-02-11T10:36:09.894-05:002012-02-11T10:36:09.894-05:00But really, kill the leader of every attempt to un...But really, kill the leader of every attempt to undermine the regime? Sometimes in hindsight we would have found that we killed a more useful citizen than the leader he sought to depose. Isn't the trick to learn to identify the guy who wants to replace the status quo with something infinitely more horrible, rather than genuinely to improve it by our standards?Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-35130022706087475652012-02-10T20:09:24.774-05:002012-02-10T20:09:24.774-05:00Texan99: coup de etat/golpe de estado/putsch. Not ...Texan99: coup de etat/golpe de estado/putsch. Not everyone: the head man.Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-66545203897612750742012-02-10T19:40:07.090-05:002012-02-10T19:40:07.090-05:00But you don't know which political opponents w...But you don't know which political opponents will go on to wreck their part of the world and which will not, so to be sure, you'd have to execute virtually everyone caught trying to change the status quo, which would have its own drawbacks.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-90797483404109963352012-02-10T18:58:34.054-05:002012-02-10T18:58:34.054-05:00Texan99
It's easy to write a science fiction s...Texan99<br /><i>It's easy to write a science fiction story about strangling him in his crib, but harder to draw lessons from his later career that might lead us not to make that kind of mistake again.</i><br /><br />One lesson from Hitler: The best way to deal with those who unsuccessfully lead a coup/putsch is to execute them. Hitler was imprisoned, and in the spirit of forgiveness,released from prison within several years. <br /><br />There are at least two other examples of people like Hitler, who, having lead an unsuccessful coup/putsch, went on to take power, to the detriment of their countries. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present you with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.<br /><br />Many lives would have been saved had those three been executed instead of imprisoned for their unsuccessful coups/putsch.<br /><br />Fidel Castro's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=DWjn6MwbS-gC&pg=PT117&dq=hitler+intitle:guerrilla+intitle:prince+inauthor:georgie+inauthor:geyer&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VKo1T5CWGIqysALR6d3RAw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">History Will Absolve Me</a> speech at hs trial is very similar to what Hitler said at his trial. <br /><br />Georgie Ann Geyer wrote in <i>Guerrilla Prince</i> [see above link], her biography of Fidel Castro, “There is no question that Fidel’s last words came from his careful reading of Hitler’s Rathaus speech and , indeed the whole strategy of Moncada parallels in many ways Hitler’s failed Putsch.”Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-29558916526704900632012-02-10T16:10:52.704-05:002012-02-10T16:10:52.704-05:00Prediction is hard, especially about the future.Prediction is hard, especially about the future.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-84040170427200167562012-02-10T14:21:19.796-05:002012-02-10T14:21:19.796-05:00Having grown up in the 50s and 60s, obviously the ...Having grown up in the 50s and 60s, obviously the lessons of Nazi Germany weighed heavily on me. Throughout my life, I've wondered how Hitler could have come to power, how ordinary people should have known how to stop him before his power was so catastrophically consolidated. It's easy to write a science fiction story about strangling him in his crib, but harder to draw lessons from his later career that might lead us not to make that kind of mistake again.<br /><br />Of course, books about how blind the Europeans find Americans to be make me laugh. Is it my imagination, or have there been some Americans trying to warn Europeans about the certain fate of their economic system and welfare state?<br /><br />Most people drastically exaggerate their ability to predict anything at all about the future, which is why most people aren't Warren Buffet.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-7468383991474882052012-02-10T14:04:55.043-05:002012-02-10T14:04:55.043-05:00Come on AVI, tell us what you really think of the ...Come on AVI, tell us what you really think of the book!Sponge-headed ScienceManhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12914014641719908195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-901084129263597682012-02-10T10:34:59.789-05:002012-02-10T10:34:59.789-05:00Well, of COURSE liberals are alwayys right. They ...Well, of COURSE liberals are alwayys right. They know best what's best for all of us. I know that because they continually tell me that. They don't much appreciate my laughing in their faces, though.Sam L.noreply@blogger.com