The five permanent members of the Security council are the five top exporters of small arms selling 88 percent of the world’s supply (rifles, pistols, light machine guns called Kalashnikovs or AK-47s, hand grenades and landmines. The latter are illegal but still widely manufactured and used. So that makes China, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States the biggest gun runners in the world.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.
- Winston Churchill (I Beatrice)
10 comments:
yes, the five security council members fuel the world's wars- all of them, no exception.
A thought provoking post Lady M. I wonder that nuclear arms are often credited as having ended WW2. The end, it is said, justified the means.
But is the world as a whole really in a better place now? Or has the violence just been redirected?
Two cliches spring to mind in response to the good Woman's comment:
One is (to misquote): 'the bad will always be with us';
and the other: 'the best way to keep evil flourishing is for good men to do nothing.'
What we do may not be all that effective, but so far, it's the best we've got.
(And that too was a misquote - from something Churchill once said about democracy. 'It may not be the best system, but my friends, it's all we've got!'
"the best we've got" who says its the best? what qualifies it as the best? the best? what does that mean? its the most dominant. the most oppressive. the most guns. . . does that mean its the best? it's not all we've got. ignore the means, ignore the consequences and gloss over evil with smiles and speeches of freedom and humanity and human rights and democracy. is america a democracy? i think not. only 40 percent of eligible voters actually vote, and what percentage of he US population is actually eligible to vote? about 40 percent. so forty percent of the population is eligiblre to vote and only 40 percent of that populace actually votes. that's not democarcy. thaT'S crap.
Thank you all for your comments on this post. That was what I wanted, to see what you thought.
And your alternative would be, andres carl sena...........?
Churchill said many memorable things lady m - but as I remember it, what he said about democracy was:
"It may not be the perfect system, but my friends, it's the best we've got."
It mightn't go down so well today though, might it? I often wonder how Churchill would be handling our present crisis?
And before anyone writes in to rubbish Churchill, let me say this: give us your ideas and alternatives, not your wearisome criticisms!
i say, as an alternative, give everyone the right to vote, absolutely everyone, in jail, just born, crazy, on the death bed. absolutely everyone. abolish all borders. allow people to immigrate, migrate and go whereever they desire. freedom is liberating and chaotic. rule of law don't mean shit when it only applies to the have nots as a way to keep them in-line. there's an alternative. wearisome criticisms is whwere it all begins. don't shut down dialogue, encouarge it. don't get offended because someone doe not agree with you. and something is simply not the best because all alternatives are crushed, discouraged and downtrodden. watch out for the chinese!
maybe i'm the one who's upset. probably so.
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