Quote:
Originally Posted by blue902
Look, T Rock, to be frank, most Muslims on the street are not aware of the people you reference. They are influenced by imams on the radio.
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Not unlike people in the U.S. who listen to various radio and television shows. Limbaugh does influence people in the U.S., so I can see how some imam might do the same. However, there is a deeper level - for example, the Republicans gained Limbaugh's help by giving him a certain amount of recognition. So we have a case where someone influenced the radio personality.
To change values...to introduce a sort of computer virus of the mind that subtly modifies the target audience...we would need to find the core of influence. They exist, surely - but I don't know who they might be. Of course, I don't really need to. Hopefully, someone does.
Rhetorical observation: perhaps the drug gangs, with their offers of "gold or lead" provide a notion of how to address specific elements. It does not matter how the centers of influence are turned, only that they are turned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blue902
NMAP-- I met a CA officer attached to SF in Djibouti (sp?) who was convinced that water wars are what my generation will face in Arabia and North Africa and South America. Good thing to know some Spanish too huh?
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Water is likely to represent a global phenomenon. Take a look at the book "When the rivers run dry" by Pearce - there is a remarkable correlation between conflict and water. Pakistan, their floods notwithstanding, is a case in point. Combine population growth with more volatile weather patterns and limited water resources, and you have a formula for resource wars. In my opinion, we will see them. This is not the time to cut the Pentagon budget.
It isn't just Spanish that we'll need. I strongly suspect that we will enter a period of general warfare - with the enemy, perhaps, being innocent men, women, and children who seek only to survive. Yet make no mistake, if we suppose a limitation of essential resources, including food and water, those hypothetical innocents may constitute quite a deadly enemy.
The above paragraph may imply that our own culture - Western civilization, for lack of a better term, or group A if you prefer - may face its own crisis of values and beliefs. Thus, the underlying value system of our own culture may be destroyed and reformed, purely in the interests of survival. For examples, see Diamond's book "Collapse", with particular focus on the failure of rains in Central America several hundred years ago. As I recall, casualty rates approached 99%.