It is actually quite easy to label a group as the “enemy” if you have never spent any time with them. Governments in foreign lands are the perfect faceless enemy that provides the focal point for criticism or even hate. Different societies place different emphasis on different values from free speech, societal harmony, or even a patriarchal form of government. It is hard to judge a different culture from afar but it is easy to to make a list of differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Corruption in government<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How can you truly measure the corruption? Only connected people tend to make it to government office and once they do their overall wealth, after a few short years, easily outstrips the average wealth of their constituents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Minority rule<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Through what seems to be some form of legal trickery the government is controlled not by the what the majority of the citizen. This also takes place in conjunction with legal maneuvers to disenfranchise various groups of voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Controlling their citizens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess dress code is all a matter of opinion. As a much younger person seeing the girls in their skimpy swim suits or ultra short skirts seemed ok but as the dad this much less appreciated. Just like I can control what my children wear some governments seem to have a lot of control of what their women and children wear outside of the house. Women are actualy limited in things that they can do with a male family member or even alone. One of the clearest indication of this women’s ability to get an abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legalized stealing by the government<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody expected to get held up by the police at a traffic stop. It is a sign of corruption if you do not know if the money in your pocket will be taken by the police with out knowing if you will ever get it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in primitive conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone would recognize that living in a cave with nothing more than a rock for a pillow would be living in the stone age but it is rarely that clear cut. What if you live in an apartment building with no heating or air conditioning. A sign of true poverty is if we cannot expect reliability in some of the most basic human needs – water and electricity. Another sign of living in primitive conditions might be if your buildings and bridges collapse without being bombed by a foreign power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disbelief of science<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Science can be very inconvenient when someone throws in your face to prove their point. It can be especially upsetting if someone uses science to increase your cost of doing business – especially if this something you don’t really believe in. This is difficult if your own government doesn’t support or in fact threatens your livelihood if you don’t toe the party line. This is even worse if science becomes politicized to the point facts no longer matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Civil strife<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When 50% or more of the country can’t tolerate their fellow citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This entire laundry list of issue could easily be pointed at a lot of different “third world” countries. They might sound like one or two specific countries but unfortunately they are all about one country in particular – the United States of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is ok for the various political parties to disagree with what they see as the priorities for the country as a whole but at the moment it seems that both parties, perhaps one more than the other, is focusing on its own groups best interests not the best interests of the entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are these current troubles going to be a relatively short blip like the McCarthy years or will it last decades like the cold war. At the end of the day, it is important for everyone to behave as if they all belong to a single country and work for the betterment of that country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is actually quite easy to label a group as the “enemy” if you have never spent any time with them. Governments in foreign lands are the perfect faceless enemy that provides the focal point for criticism or even hate. … Continue reading