   Solving everything through war.
  The official U.S. stance on any given problem is to have a war with it. This is similiar to the schoolyard disagreements wherein every verbal exchange ended in fisticuffs.Here are some examples:DrugsThe War On Drugs has been getting pushed for so long now that it's a far worse (and more expensive) quagmire than Vietmnam and Iraq put together. You used to be able to buy morphine and opium from the Sears catalog, and now you need a prescription for some fucking codeine. Anyone gullible enough to genuinely still believe that drug laws are strictly there to somehow benefit society is in dire need of a foot in the ass. It's estimated that half of all violent crimes, and almost two thirds of murders, are drug-related. Want to help with America's crime problem? Put the ATF on trial.TerrorismThe War On Terrorism is quite possibly the stupidest concoction of missteps and bullshit that any government official has churned out since the heydey of McCarthy. You can't actually fight fire with fire. It's just a figure of speech. No, really.Since this method is obviously so effective, I'd like to propose a few new wars.StupidityThe War on Stupidity will be fought in the hallowed halls of our schools. Once a child reaches the point where they're graduating highschool, they'll be measured for intelligence (no, not highschool aptitude tests or the other standardized test bullshit; actual quantifiable measures of how little this person is going to fuck up society by existing). This will be called the "Liver's license". It's similiar in nature to a "Driver's license". If you don't have a driver's license, you're not allowed to drive.StubbornnessThe War on Stubbornness will be focused on all those people unwilling to learn/change/try something different. To fight this war, we install timer devices on all new products, based on what their useful lifespan is. At the end of this lifespan, the device explodes violently. For example: A computer will usually be given a useful lifespan of 3-5 years. A car engine will be given a lifespan of 15 years. Fad clothing will be given a lifespan of 1 year. This makes it so that people stop getting stuck in their 'I know what I'm using / doing already is best' mentality. The only difference between confidence and pretention is that confident people think they're right, and pretentious people know they're right.   
  What lifespan do you allocate to politicians? :)   ;  I of course agree with you, but so what. How's this going to help? Do you think your going to open up anyone's minds with your argument, or are you just looking for some people to agree/disagree with you? The problem is we can't do anything about this. Since the beginning of civilization people have realized the hypocrisies and money/power/sex/ driven logic of those in charge. Has anything changed? Since the Declaration of Independence this Country has been a two power democracy. Do you see the  silliness  of what I just said? A true democracy doesn't just have just two sides representing almost a billion people. This world is fucked. And good arguments, insights, actions doesn't seem to change shit. Not for the last 8000+ years. So what are you going to do make a change? How can change those in charge? I mean WTF? Its going to be little by little until in 10000 years we have utopia or annihilation..   ;Quote:What lifespan do you allocate to politicians? :)As long as whatever "political fad" they're touting actually keeps the populace interested...   ;Quote:StupidityThe War on Stupidity will be fought in the hallowed halls of our schools. Once a child reaches the point where they're graduating highschool, they'll be measured for intelligence (no, not highschool aptitude tests or the other standardized test bullshit; actual quantifiable measures of how little this person is going to fuck up society by existing). This will be called the "Liver's license". It's similiar in nature to a "Driver's license". If you don't have a driver's license, you're not allowed to drive.StubbornnessThe War on Stubbornness will be focused on all those people unwilling to learn/change/try something different. To fight this war, we install timer devices on all new products, based on what their useful lifespan is. At the end of this lifespan, the device explodes violently. For example: A computer will usually be given a useful lifespan of 3-5 years. A car engine will be given a lifespan of 15 years. Fad clothing will be given a lifespan of 1 year. This makes it so that people stop getting stuck in their 'I know what I'm using / doing already is best' mentality. The only difference between confidence and pretention is that confident people think they're right, and pretentious people know they're right.That's an interesting satire. How about the War On Bush? Let's get him out! Of course, Kerry may be just as bad. There's only one solution to this problem, aside from socialism: GO NADER!   ;Quote:Original post by FrunyWhat lifespan do you allocate to politicians? :)It doesn't apply.. They'd never get their Liver's license.   ;Quote:Since the Declaration of Independence this Country has been a two power democracyActually political parties in this country have usually consisted of 2 and 3 party cycles, alternating every 50-ish years. Just look at the 'official' political parties of past presidents. Who runs as a federalist these days? How many Whigs get elected to office?Sure, you could say that modern political parties are just an evolution of that, and that's largely true -- but there really aren't many other ways to go about it.There are basically 2 political segments: social and economical.Socially (or how much the government is allowed to tell you what to do with your personal life), you have two extremes:Anarchy -------------------------------> DictatorshipEconomically, you also have 2 extremes:Socialism -----------------------------> Absolute capitalismCurrent political parties in the U.S. are either left of center on both issues, or right of center, respectively. This hasn't always been the case.Take Libertarians, for example. They fall somewhere near the far left socially, and near the far right economically. Then you have the communist countries of the world, that are more or less the opposite.But that's beside the point, and really off topic from the original post. My point here is that war is not the solution to everything.Edit: GRAMMAR;Quote:Original post by xorjesusI of course agree with you, but so what. How's this going to help? Do you think your going to open up anyone's minds with your argument, or are you just looking for some people to agree/disagree with you? The problem is we can't do anything about this. Since the beginning of civilization people have realized the hypocrisies and money/power/sex/ driven logic of those in charge. Has anything changed? Since the Declaration of Independence this Country has been a two power democracy. Do you see the  silliness  of what I just said? A true democracy doesn't just have just two sides representing almost a billion people. This world is fucked. And good arguments, insights, actions doesn't seem to change shit. Not for the last 8000+ years. So what are you going to do make a change? How can change those in charge? I mean WTF? Its going to be little by little until in 10000 years we have utopia or annihilation..You're absolutely right. That's why I'm devoting my life to video games. Forget contributing to society. We're outnumbered in a battle uphill. Or whatever the saying is. Clone Tetris for the billionth time and screw the world.;Quote:Original post by xorjesusI of course agree with you, but so what. How's this going to help? Do you think your going to open up anyone's minds with your argument, or are you just looking for some people to agree/disagree with you? The problem is we can't do anything about this. Since the beginning of civilization people have realized the hypocrisies and money/power/sex/ driven logic of those in charge. Has anything changed? Since the Declaration of Independence this Country has been a two power democracy. Do you see the  silliness  of what I just said? A true democracy doesn't just have just two sides representing almost a billion people. This world is fucked. And good arguments, insights, actions doesn't seem to change shit. Not for the last 8000+ years. So what are you going to do make a change? How can change those in charge? I mean WTF? Its going to be little by little until in 10000 years we have utopia or annihilation..Most countries have changed a lot in the last few hundred years.If you looked at most European countries 100 years ago, and today, you wouldn't be able to recognize much. That goes for the form of government, the culture, the people, just about everything.And what about the US? It has changed hugely in the same time as well.From a shy isolationist country to a huge schoolyard bully. ;)And Etnu, there's plenty of other ways to go about it. I believe most countries have more than two big parties. It's not so much a question of how many "variables" they have to distinguish themselves on, as how the political system is built.In the US, you need to be a huge party to win. And that's all there is to that. You can't use two small parties to gain power over one bigger. As an example, the republicans won your last election because (if we ignore all the fishy issues of that election) Nader grabbed too many otherwise democratic votes.Two parties fighting over largely the same voters, resulted in both of them losing. Silly system.Here, we have an awful lot of parties, and on their own, they're almost always a minority. (Right now, I believe the biggest would get around 33% of the votes)Almost ever government we've had for the last 100 years have been a coalition of 2-4 parties. They agree to pool their votes together, and split the power if they win. The small parties who are unlikely to get a chance at participating in this, will just vote for the coalition they prefer, even if they aren't represented in it. And sooner or later, one of the sides will be able to represent a majority.   ;  Maybe they call everything "the war on" to let the public get used to war, so that they can make even more wars.   