USA and EU: Masks dropped!

[Gorgon]

I don't know about this 'Law of Jante'. I mean I know of it, heard it mentioned when growing up. Basically it's small minded small town behavior in the order of 'don't ever imagine yourself to be special or better than anyone else'. It's not political correctness or group think however. We are often mentioned among the right wing resurgents in Europe because of the last decade of debate about immigration and the success of Danish People's Party.

 

 

 

My feeling is that differences in income and status are getting much more marked especially with the economic crisis. We have an underclass, even if they don't starve or go without proper medical care, and they don't imagine themselves to be on par with everybody else. There is still a tendency to display more schadenfreude than appropriate when some very visible business tychoon goes bust, and of course every one of these tychoons write tiresome biographies about how they were brougth down by The law of Jante.

[BruceVC]

I don't know about this 'Law of Jante'. I mean I know of it, heard it mentioned when growing up. Basically it's small minded small town behavior in the order of 'don't ever imagine yourself to be special or better than anyone else'. It's not political correctness or group think however. We are often mentioned among the right wing resurgents in Europe because of the last decade of debate about immigration and the success of Danish People's Party.

 

 

 

My feeling is that differences in income and status are getting much more marked especially with the economic crisis. We have an underclass, even if they don't starve or go without proper medical care, and they don't imagine themselves to be on par with everybody else. There is still a tendency to display more schadenfreude than appropriate when some very visible business tychoon goes bust, and of course every one of these tychoons write tiresome biographies about how they were brougth down by The law of Jante.

 

Different perspective on the Scandinavian countries, thanks for commenting. You are obviously Danish. But your post still shows just how successful your economic system is compared to my country and many others. You talk about your underclass as "not starving and still having medical care". We have at least 5 % of people, thats about 5 million born into abject poverty who don't know where there meals are going to come from and have no medical aid. I guess end of the day I believe that the Scandinavian economic model really seems to address most social issues, yes its not perfect but the good seems to outweigh the bad.

[Gfted1]

IMO, social governments will only work long term in places where the population is very small and the few can be supported by the many. Hell, in the example above, South Africa has about the same amount of people living in poverty as the total population of Denmark.

 

I dont think it could ever work on a macro level.

[JFSOCC]

IMO, social governments will only work long term in places where the population is very small and the few can be supported by the many. Hell, in the example above, South Africa has about the same amount of people living in poverty as the total population of Denmark.

 

I dont think it could ever work on a macro level.

That's the argument I often hear. and I think it's bull****. Do you think it's significantly different to administrate for 17 million (Netherlands) as it is for 300 (US)?

After a certain point it just doesn't matter anymore. The difference between South Africa and Denmark that is important is not one of demographics, but of policy.

Like Sun Tzu said

Managing a big army is in principle the same as managing a small one: it is a matter of organization. Directing a large army is the same as directing a small troop: it is a matter of strict and impartial command.

[BruceVC]

IMO, social governments will only work long term in places where the population is very small and the few can be supported by the many. Hell, in the example above, South Africa has about the same amount of people living in poverty as the total population of Denmark.

 

I dont think it could ever work on a macro level.

IMO, social governments will only work long term in places where the population is very small and the few can be supported by the many. Hell, in the example above, South Africa has about the same amount of people living in poverty as the total population of Denmark.

 

I dont think it could ever work on a macro level.

That's the argument I often hear. and I think it's bull****. Do you think it's significantly different to administrate for 17 million (Netherlands) as it is for 300 (US)?

After a certain point it just doesn't matter anymore. The difference between South Africa and Denmark that is important is not one of demographics, but of policy.

Like Sun Tzu said

Managing a big army is in principle the same as managing a small one: it is a matter of organization. Directing a large army is the same as directing a small troop: it is a matter of strict and impartial command.

 

You both are right in certain respects. An economic system like the Scandinavian countries can only work if the majority of its citizens have jobs and pay tax. You need taxes for the strong social services these countries have. In South Africa you have a 35 % unemployment rate, so about 18 million people are unemployed. Our government just doesn't have the revenue to implement what the Scandinavian countries offer its citizens

[obyknven]

http://youtu.be/XnVOi22cw80

[Calax]

Well aren't you just adorable?

[obyknven]

meanwhile Britannia

 

The students aged 13 and 14 were shown manacles, a whip, thumb screws and iron brands and asked to come up with a business proposal for how they would capture and imprison slaves in Africa. How unexpected

 

http://www.standard....on-8368279.html

[HoonDing]

Well, the greatest Empire the world has ever seen wasn't built by holding hands.

[Sacred_Path]

This just shows how political correctness is detrimental to the building of a free and educated society.

 

And considering that slavery has a millennia-old history, one could assume that there are positive things about it, m I rite?

[Raithe]

Well, the greatest Empire the world has ever seen wasn't built by holding hands.

 

No. We built it by making friends with the local tribes. And then they sold us slaves from other nearby tribes that they normally went to genocidal war with. Although that does tend to get glossed over a lot of times for some reason....

 

I suppose that if you were being rather technical about it, we did start the anti-slavery patrols with the Royal Navy from the 1830's onwards..

 

That, and we also had the habit of bringing a few local kids back to Blighty for education, then sending them back out as part of the local bureaucracy. It actually helped cut down on a lot of ill-feeling when they find their dealing with "natives" as opposed to complete foreigners....

 

[JFSOCC]

This just shows how political correctness is detrimental to the building of a free and educated society.

 

And considering that slavery has a millennia-old history, one could assume that there are positive things about it, m I rite?

yeah, you don't have to work because someone else is doing it for you. :S

[JFSOCC]

Well, the greatest Empire the world has ever seen wasn't built by holding hands.

which is also why it didn't last.

[Sacred_Path]

This just shows how political correctness is detrimental to the building of a free and educated society.

 

And considering that slavery has a millennia-old history, one could assume that there are positive things about it, m I rite?

yeah, you don't have to work because someone else is doing it for you. :S

 

for instance. Or the convenient fact that you can sexually abuse them, like they obviously insinuated in that school assignment. But I guess you can't trust schoolchildren to think about the ambivalence of human actions. They might evolve into people who openly question the world around them, oh my!

[TrashMan]

Well, the greatest Empire the world has ever seen wasn't built by holding hands.

 

HAIL CAESAR!!

 

[Gorgon]

Would'nt that be Alexander's Empire actually.

[Calax]

Would'nt that be Alexander's Empire actually.

Alex didn't last long enough as a cohesive unit to be to great.

 

I'd argue either Rome (as above) or Ottomans.

[Raithe]

Rome lasted a fair while, in one form or another, but it didn't get as huge as some.

 

The Mongols got nicely established and was the largest continguous land empire, but didn't last too long.

 

The British Empire did hold roughly one-fifth of the world's population and about one-quarter of the total land area of the planet at one time.. getting it's start back around the 1500's..

 

The Ottoman dynasty did hold true for around 600 years, but wasn't quite as expansive.

[Calax]

Rome lasted a fair while, in one form or another, but it didn't get as huge as some.

 

The Mongols got nicely established and was the largest continguous land empire, but didn't last too long.

 

The British Empire did hold roughly one-fifth of the world's population and about one-quarter of the total land area of the planet at one time.. getting it's start back around the 1500's..

 

The Ottoman dynasty did hold true for around 600 years, but wasn't quite as expansive.

The Brits were still using Roman standards for who owns land (if it is "unclaimed" all you gotta do is improve it... usually by plonking down a fort, and it's yours).

[Gorgon]

I'd say it was also up for debate whether the Raj were actually compromised of british subjects or whether they just got away with an elaborate snake charmer's trick. Ir's impressive either way though.

[obyknven]

NATO’s Nazi origin

 

"SS Oberstgruppenfuhrer Paul Hausser (seen here as an Obergruppenfuhrer while commanding the Das Reich division in Russia winter 1941) was unquestionably the ablest military commander in the Waffen SS. After the war he sought to reestablish the reputation of the SS and claimed that the foreign units of the SS were really the precursors of the NATO army."

 

Taken from pages 24/25 of 'Waffen SS at War' by A. J. Barker, Ian Allen Ltd., 1982, ISBN 0 7110 1099 4

 

There is a reason for the fact that there are no precise documentations about personalities like Paul Hausser who initiated the military training of the Waffen SS in 1934: In 1959 Hausser became the founder of a organisation called HIAG (Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehoerigen der ehemaligen Waffen SS = the auxiliary community on mutuality of the members of the former weapons SS) . He was at this time already 79 years.

 

This organisation of former members of Waffen SS maintained contacts to all relevant political parties in Germany. Thus for example the Federal Chancellor of Germany, at that time Adenauer, visited condemned war criminals in the prison of Verler and have had a conversation with the former Waffen SS general Kurt Meyer. Meyer, known as „Panzermeyer “, was selected in the year 1959 to become the HIAG spokes person.

 

As a member of the German parliament, the Social Democrat, SPD, Helmut Schmidt reported to HIAG Hamburg in the year 1954 with that to the topic „Soldatentum and social-democracy “with the intention „difficulties from the way to vacate “, which with „the HIAG Fürsorgearbeit still on the part of the SPD meet weapon SS veterans “.Helmut Schmidt became chancellor from 1974 till 1982 and was a strong advocate of re armouring debate for stationing of nuclear short-range missiles.

 

Paul Hausser died in September 1972 in the age of 92 years he was active in the HAIG society to his late 80’s and due to his lobbying for the HAIG-society it resulted in remarkable political success, so for example the equalization of pension for former members of Waffen SS with all former members of the regular German Armed Forces. This indicated that the Waffen SS was not illegal anymore. In this consent the society succeeded to accomplish public meetings with up to 20.000 participants in public.

[Gorgon]

That has **** all to do with NATO, it's interesting I agree but you only find causality there because you desperately want to.

[Meshugger]

obyknven has a metapsychical idea on what constitutes as "evil" and just labels it as "nazi" through a game of 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Kinda like McCarthy on the communists back in the day.

 

Simply put, the thought-process of imbecilles and simpletons.

[Sacred_Path]

they see me trollin'

 

 

one of the world's strongest economies was built by millions of unapologetic Nazis. U mad?

[Calax]

I'm very confused as to how a nazi created the precuror to NATO, other than being the catalyst for the Soviet takeover of eastern Europe.