Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Rezwan]

Brian H wrote:
There is only one way to resist such tyrannies and ambitions. If you want peace, prepare (well) for war.

OTOH, I do have hopes that the near universal wealth and surplus energy and prosperity which FF can deliver will distract wannabe despots from adventurism, and enable their prospective victims to defend themselves competently.

I agree with this, but would frame it differently. There can be no true peace without justice. In the realm of conflict resolution, people do try to get away with whatever they can, try to meet their own needs and, if unchecked, trample over others. So it’s up to everyone to defend their own rights. Stand up for yourself.

That’s why we have a first and second amendment. Speak up for yourself, and be able to back up your words with force, if necessary. Rarely gets to part II – that’s the failsafe (or failure) – and if you’ve gotten there, it’s probably due to an imbalance of power (the resource/hand-you-were-deealt issue), or you were probably pretty incompetent at part I, or you really wanted to go to part II because you’re the flaming sociopath in this world, you want it, don’t you? All that killing. Outsource it to other countries and lick your lips while watching the news.

According to the book “The Optimistic Child”, the most important social skills are Assertiveness and Problem solving. (Assertiveness is a “useful midpoint between passivity and aggression”).

I’m all for people standing up for themselves. If you do this often enough, early enough and skillfully enough you can head violence off and have a really nice, functional world. Of course, some things are beyond your control.

Sociopaths – 2-7% of the world population. I’m aware of that. It’s still a minority, (not “the” natural state, that would be 80% sociopaths). And even many of those sociopaths don’t engage in war because it’s not in their best interest and they can get more done by running successful corporations.