War can be useful, but really I don't support it at all. As humans, we can solve things peacefully. We can. But you see, humans are also stupid beings and sometimes 'peace' just can't 'happen', and war happens. My english teacher once made a speech about control and about how you should just control what you can control and stop thinking about the things you can't control. You have to take steps to get up to something and these are just one of those things. People say we should have world peace and war is bad and this and that, but what can you do about it? You can't just take power and say, "OK NO WAR!" You gotta take steps to stop things like this. But at this current time, nothing like this has been appearing. But hopefully, just hopefully something will come out.
I really don't think there is a need for war. Because humans can control themselves. It's just the people and what we do to one another that causes one thing after another and everything loses control. No, I'm not blaming it on the president or whatever leader, like Bush, but it's just..the people in general.
The Sock Puppet Queen
people have dreams and ambitions... and peace for the most part wont give it to them... you see war has the power to make weak people in the powerful ones, poor countrys into wealthy ones. power is a nasty thing because everyone wants it even if you dont admit it.... and as long as people keep dreaming of glory war will never end. i am not sayin that everyone wants to kill people and be the ruler of the world, but one person can change other people, look at hitler.
Peace is what you make of it.
Death before Dishonor
Never Dis-Loyal
Brothers Till the End
Oh, i'm so sorry for being an idealist. Well, you can just sit there and let life happen to you, if it makes you happier that way. I plan on changing things.Originally Posted by Arrianna
I hope you realize that without the cold war, we wouldn't have:
cool footprints on the moon
tang
space travel in general
the internet
computers this fast and cheap
anything this fast and cheap, really
as well as a whole bunch of other things we take for granted. there aren't many things that weren't improved to some degree or another.
say what you will about the cold war. i'll start listening when you tell me the death count reaches even a miniscule fraction of the 64 odd million that died in WW2.
ohhhh I doubt that, we would have all of that sooner or later, the cold war just made it sooner. Space travel was inevitably going to occur, computers would become the pet of the digital age, and things would vastly improve. The U.S.S.R. just sped up the process.
Have it eventually? why, yes we would.ohhhh I doubt that, we would have all of that sooner or later, the cold war just made it sooner. Space travel was inevitably going to occur, computers would become the pet of the digital age, and things would vastly improve. The U.S.S.R. just sped up the process.
But caveman could have said the same thing and it would be just as true. Not that anyone would get to see it for a few million years. We live in a limited timeframe, why settle for eventually?
There is nothing wrong with Idealism as long as it doesn't blind you to reality or get others killed. My response was for the most part to:
If someone has attacked you they don't want peace unless you spell it piece.Yes, defense is a justifiable reason to fight, but we should try and think of a peaceful resolution first if at all possible
As for:
"cool footprints on the moon
tang
space travel in general
the internet
computers this fast and cheap
anything this fast and cheap, really
as well as a whole bunch of other things we take for granted"
The majority of that was due to space exploration which, while jumpstarted by international competition, has not slowed down since. That competition would have been there without the Cold War and has in recent years been taken over by the private sector especially those in transportation. Being able to buy things cheap is a result of indusrialization, also not necessarily linked with the Cold War but often with armament or market competition.
As for the death toll, one does not have to die to be affected by a war, cold or otherwise. There are worse things then dieing. At least may of the citizens in countries involved in the cold war felt so since they were willing to die to get out. But then any country that would shoot their citizens rather then allow them to leave...it could be argued that the toll in a cold war is not counted in deaths but in it's victims.
yes, yes it has slowed down, sadly enough. What ever happened to the proposed moon colony? We could have it right now, we've had the technology for years and years. If the race had continued, we'd be there. As for non-spacey stuff, if science were your life profession too, then you'd know just how much government research funding has gone down every year since. The space race, without the cold war? yes, eventually. (for more of my thoughts on the word eventually, see last post). The main motivation was trying to make sure that we wouldn't be helpless if the Russians put a nuke launcher in space.
Ah, the privatization. I think it's wonderful, and i like reading about the updates in my bi-monthy Discover. Thing is, it wouldn't be affordable or safe for these people to do had it not been for advances made during the Space Race.
BTW, can't wait to see who wins the Xprize ^_^
I believe what happened to the moon colony was the proposed base on Mars conflicted with the funding. Also from what I have read we do not have the technology yet for the kind of base they wished. Just little things, but they could be the difference between life and death. While admittedly disapointing I don't blame them for wanting to play it safe. There are no second chances in space and dead is dead.
I don't argue that US government funding has gone down since the cold war ended. There was also a halt to expeditions for a time after the shuttle that blew up. It means they're cautious. My comment on it not slowing down was made about the world in general and not the US specifically. Where the US has slowed down other countries have stepped in. The more other countries do the more people ask "why aren't we". Competition doesn't require a war to exist especially where it comes to technology.
BTW, SpaceShipOne won it October 4, 2004. It has resuted in aditional competitions from NASA (Space Age tether and a wireless method for powering robots) and Bigelow Aerospace ("America’s Space Prize" for $50 million). Those are the ones I can't wait to find out about.
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Bookmarks