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Thoughts XIX - mistakes

A Most Common Mistake

If I make things for you just like they are for me, you will be happy, wealthy and wise.
This is the mistake made by the Bush administration in Iraq. Let's democratize these people.  They will see the new institutions grant them security, and wealth, and with that will come happiness and stability just like we have. The catch was they didn't want it.  They did want peace and also their religion, but their religion was intolerant of everything unlike their religion.  Their religion allows wide latitude on maintaining its dominion over all citizens. Their religion is threatened by the distractions of wealth. Their religion demands a continuing effort toward perfection of its precepts. Their religion is the most important channel to local and national power, and those seeking power always gravitate toward the instruments of it.

Zero is the once removed and diminished cousin of one. :)

Strategies for the next election cycle.  The Democrats: We will continue to address the material discomforts of our citizens. Thus we need large-scale spending programs to achieve this, and moreover we are strongly "anti-capitalist" in the form of Wall Street.  The Republicans: Do you trust the democrats on their course of spending and overreach into our lives. We support individuality and the risks it implies. The Democrats have become the materials of our age, while the Republicans have become the philosophers advocating redemption of the soul and revival of the spirit. My gosh, what a change of circumstance.

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