Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

John, I took Huston Smith's course and enjoyed it immensely. I still practice Zen meditation. I have a solution to that koan, I'll be interested to hear yours.

shoshin wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 12:06 pm John, I took Huston Smith's course and enjoyed it immensely. I still practice Zen meditation. I have a solution to that koan, I'll be interested to hear yours.

You first.

** 25-Dec-2020 World View: Installing Stalinist Communism

John J. Xenakis wrote: > At any rate, the drift toward Stalinist Communism will be stopped
> at that point, and the country will unite to face the existential
> threat.

Warren Dew wrote: > You seem very confident that the Stalinist Communism won't itself
> be the threat?

This is an interesting question because it's a question about American
culture.

The freedoms guaranteed by the first and second Amendments to the Bill
of Rights -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to own a
firearm -- are all repugnant to the Democrats. This is manifest in
their hatred of Tea Partiers and Trump supporters, as when Obama
contemptuously referred to them as "clinging to their Bibles and
guns."

The problem for the Democrats is that these freedoms are deeply
embedded in the American culture. They're implied by the Declaration
of Independence, and incorporated into the Constitution. The
Democrats right now are at the peak of their power in Stalinist
censorship. However, even Democrats are opposed to curtailing the
basic rights. In this forum, Brower recently complained that covid-19
news isn't being reported. That's because Covid-19 news is being
censored in all the Democrat-controlled media sources that he watches.

You may recall that I've frequently mocked Obama because all of his
original campaign promises were failures, especially rolling back the
tides. Even the simplest one, his promise to close Guantánamo prison
on day one, was a failure, as Guantánamo prison is still open today,
12 years later.

So it's interesting that the same thing is happening with Biden. He
promised to reverse all of Trump's immigration policies within the
first 100 days, a promise that was so ridiculous it obviously had to
fail.

But now in the last week, Biden has had to renege on that promise.
Quelle surprise!! And he hasn't even taken office!! Now he says that
he's going to appoint a committee, and it will take at least six
months. Lol!

The point is that whatever attempt the Democrats make to install
Stalinist Communism, rejecting the deeply cultural freedoms specified
by the Bill of Rights, is doomed to failure from the start.

---- Source:

-- Biden: Reversing Trump Border Policies Will Take Months
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/ar ... ake-months
(AP, 22-Dec-2020)

** 25-Dec-2020 World View: Sabotaging the Vietnam War effort

John wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 10:58 am > Returning now to the Vietnam book, I've spent a lot of time in the
> past couple of months trying to figure out what happened in what
> Americans call "The Vietnam War." The major conclusion that I
> reached was that the war was already lost by 1964, thanks
> especially to two disastrous decisions by President Kennedy. It's
> hard to describe these actions in any way other than intentional
> sabotage of the war effort, but whether intentional or
> unintentional, they were certainly sabotage, and meant the war was
> lost by the time Johnson became president, leading to Nixon's
> unavoidable betrayal of the South Vietnamese people. I will write
> an article on these conclusions sometime in the near
> future.

Bob Butler wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 11:45 am > I wouldn't label it as sabotage. The GIs were thoroughly wedded
> to containing communism, the Domino Theory, the role as the
> world's policeman. That was the major lesson supposedly learned
> from World War II. It is alas necessary to contain continued
> autocratic aggression. They were a little too enthusiastic about
> it in the early 1960s. We can recognize the conflict as fighting
> for a corrupt regime against the will of the people. It was an
> insurgent proxy conflict. With hindsight, solving the problem
> with brute force was a vast mistake, likely doomed to failure, but
> probably not deliberate sabotage.

> Very fond of how Judy handled that song.

Your comment almost answers itself. You're absolutely right that the
GIs were thoroughly wedded to containing communism, the Domino Theory,
the role as the world's policeman.

That's why it's completely inexplicable why Kennedy ceded Laos to
Hanoi, given that Laos was one of the dominoes.

And it's even more inexplicable why Kennedy approved the military coup
that ousted South Vietnam's strong anti-Communist leader Ngo Dinh
Diem, resulting in Diem's assassination. Even Ho Chi Minh was quoted
as saying that he couldn't believe that the Americans could be so
stupid, given that Diem was the strongest anti-Communist leader
available.

Most of what you say about "corrupt regime" and "will of the people"
is untrue, and is a left-wing rewriting of history to excuse the
sainted Kennedy from blame. Diem was a devout Catholic and became
leader because he was recognized as free from corruption.

He was considered "corrupt" for two reasons. First, he favored the
Catholics and discriminated against the Buddhists, although he was
working with the Buddhists to get a resolution.

But Diem's main sin is that after Kennedy ceded Laos to Hanoi, which
was obviously disastrous for the war effort, he no longer trusted
Washington, and he didn't always take orders from William Averell
Harriman, who hated Diem, and disliked Catholics in general, and was
Kennedy's trusted adviser. Kennedy was young, much younger than
Harriman, so he was strongly influenced by Harriman. So Harriman
convinced Kennedy to have Diem ousted.

I cannot think of any reason other than intentional sabotage of the
war effort why Diem was ousted. Even if you believe that the Diem
regime was corrupt, there was every reason to believe that replacing
him with a military junta would be even more corrupt.

It was clearly foreseeable at the time that ceding Laos and ousting
Diem would be disastrous for the war effort. These two actions
completely sabotaged the war effort, and led to a lost war by 1964. I
cannot say whether the sabotage was intentional or unintentional, but
there is no doubt that it was sabotage.

John wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 10:58 am ** 25-Dec-2020 World View: Merry Christmas message

I've included a special section on the solution
to the Zen Buddhist koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

...WHOOOSH!...

** 25-Dec-2020 World View: Zen Koan

John wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 10:58 am > ** 25-Dec-2020 World View: Merry Christmas message

> I've included a special section on the solution to the Zen
> Buddhist koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

Burner Prime wrote: Fri Dec 25, 2020 6:51 pm > ...WHOOOSH!...

That would earn you a sharp blow at the back of the head by your
master. For Zen, you need to react from intuition, not reason, from
spontaneity, not reflection.

Alas, I'll never be a Zen master....

One of the big things Japanese worried about during the Trump Admin was the level of military support they could expect from the US in the event of a conflict with China. That's because Trump constantly verbalized expectations that allies take on more responsibility for their defense.

But now that Biden is set to take control they are approaching panic. Biden has not clearly defined his policy on Taiwan and as clearly stated by Japan's Deputy Defense Minster is a "red line".

There's a lot to pick apart from this article, including statements from the Chinese that one could interpret as implying Biden is "their man" and they have certain expectations of him regarding Taiwan.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japa ... SKBN28Z0JR

Obama completely reneged on his Syria "red line", will Biden exhibit the same fecklessness?

The point is that whatever attempt the Democrats make to install Stalinist Communism, rejecting the deeply cultural freedoms specified by the Bill of Rights, is doomed to failure from the start.

I hope you are right.

As for Asia, I have lived in Asia (in total) for two decades. Yes, the average Asian believes CNN and hates Trump, but now, with Biden, they are starting to panic. Biden will abandon the Asians to mass rape and genocide. The mainland Chinese will do to South Korea and Taiwan what they are doing to Muslim women in Western China. The men will be killed and the women raped and then parceled out to Chinese men according to the women's age and appearence and the man's status (That is happening already in Western China). It is already horrific in China, it will be even worse in the rest of Asia. Think Bosnia.

If you voted for Biden, you voted for this. FU.

Guest 0_0 wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:55 pm

Cool Breeze wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:38 pm Ideally, yes, women and men would both pair off early. But the communists got to the women, so they put off family and actually meaningful stuff for cubicle jobs or the thrill of "experimenting" which typically just means drinking wine and slutting it up, sadly. Then they get left behind because no one is honest enough to tell them men are looking for women at their high value (again, young, fertile, prettier, not fatties), not washed up and put away wet.

True dat!

Feminism only works for lesbians. Fourth wave feminism has left 99% of its adherents in a ditch all alone and miserable. It's better these women don't breed anyway.

And it's true: no sane man wants a woman who has had a numerous sexual partners. I don't know any decent women who want men who have had a lot of sexual partners either. I have had the misfortune of working in offices filled with ugly, embittered, old, land whale women who tell me they don't want to compromise and marry men who are basically just like them. They are waiting for prince charming to show up and carry away an old hag like themselves. Not gonna happen. Women have been sold a false bill of goods.

Open a cat food factory; you'll make a lot of money.

Don't forget doggie prams. You'll become a billionaire selling doggie prams in America and Western Europe.

** 26-Dec-2020 World View: Panic in Asia

FUSJWs wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 3:33 am > As for Asia, I have lived in Asia (in total) for two decades. Yes,
> the average Asian believes CNN and hates Trump, but now, with
> Biden, they are starting to panic. Biden will abandon the
> Asians to mass rape and genocide. The mainland Chinese will do to
> South Korea and Taiwan what they are doing to Muslim women in
> Western China. The men will be killed and the women raped and then
> parceled out to Chinese men according to the women's age and
> appearence and the man's status (That is happening already in
> Western China). It is already horrific in China, it will be even
> worse in the rest of Asia. Think Bosnia.

> If you voted for Biden, you voted for this. FU.

How much of this is just personal opinion among you and your friends?
Can any of it be supported by verifiable sources?