RE: Why Europe is so Contrary

From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Tue 19 Nov 2002 - 11:47:06 GMT

  • Next message: Grant Callaghan: "RE: Why Europe is so Contrary"

    Bloom's book is pretty interesting, but on the Middle East he pursues a complicated agenda.

    Actually, the US has done an excellent job winning friends at times: the Marshall Plan is an extraordinary example of this. But USAID does it day in and day out, in some 77 countries. If you are ever wondering about why there seems to be a large reservoir of good will for the US internationally
    (despite everything), it is not because we are a 'democracy', or because Washington threw a dollar across the Potomac or chopped down a cherry tree and confessed, it is because of USAID and the Peace Corps, road building, school building, water treatment facilities, vaccination, and irrigation work that these folks do.

    Best regards, Lawry

    -----Original Message----- From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Virginia Bowen Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 1:24 AM To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Why Europe is so Contrary

    Well, since I've come out of lurking once in one week, I might as well make it twice..

    Grant, have you read "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom? This is one of the points of that book - that there's no point in "helping" as you will be hated regardless of your actions - your "tribe" is hated for being better off. Period.

    Virginia

    Murrieta, CA

    "My treasures do not clink together nor glitter. They gleam in the sun and bray in the night."

    -----Original Message----- Sometimes I think we are naive in trying to help the world at all. Everyone seems to hate the guy who tries to help. Nobody ever seems able to do it to the satisfaction of the people being helped. It may be better just to let them starve or solve their own problems. That may sound callous, but look at the record of how our past efforts have turned out. I've even read accounts that blame the U.S. for all the deaths in Kosovo. We did it all with our bombing raids on the Serb soldiers.

    Cheers,

    Grant

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