1999-11-22 11:27:00
I feel at this time that Saul has had enough words of correction from the group and I think we should hold back, extend the hand of friendship to him and see if positive results occur. He certainly has a different thought process than me and some others in the group; nevertheless, he may in some cases give us a perspective that will make us think in unusual directions.
In the past I have given his comments enough attention to distract from the course of study we are on. I will try and do my part here and comment more sparingly on his posts. In the meantime Saul has indicated that he will comment on other subjects than oneness.
Even so, Rick is in charge of the list and I respect his earned authority.
Speaking of oneness, we will be covering this idea some time in the future in reasonable detail when the time is right.
I appreciate the compliments I have been getting lately and John W., I'm overwhelmed by your words and hope I can live up to your high expectations.
The impression most people get when they meet me is that I am pretty much a regular guy and that is fine with me.
We are so far behind on our questions and answers I have lost track of some your comments. We'll try and catch up here and continue on course.
The question:
The question to consider is what can a nation and its people do to befriend the people of a potentially dangerous nation such as Russia or China? How can we make friends with the people themselves and eventually generate a feeling among the general populace that war with us should not happen because we are friends?
Is the Internet likely to play an important role? How?
I remember that we received some, but not a lot of response on this.
One huge mistake we have made with Russia is that we have given large sums of money to its bureaucracy and much of this went to corrupt politicians and worked its way to the Mafia and criminal element there. As it is, the common people are not very friendly toward the United States and other nations who have tried to help because they have seen no benefit.
What we have to remember is that the greatest power in any nation is its people. Therefore any aid given to Russia or any other nation should be directed to the people rather than leaders which may be greedy and corrupt.
What we should have done with aid money in Russia and many other countries is make direct loans to the people. Have small to moderate sized businesspeople submit business plans and make loans to the best of them.
When we just give the money to bureaucrats it is never seen again and does very little good. But when we make loans directly to the people the money is used much more wisely for the good of the country and if only half of them pay the loans back then the foreign aid winds up costing us only half as much for over twice the good with the bonus of creating much greater goodwill among the people.
Another thing the people of the nations can do is to make a point when they travel abroad to go out of their way to be extra friendly and leave the foreign country having made a friend or two. It is true that we tend to get aggravated at leaders of various nations, but the common people who are the tourists may actually create as much or more friction and aggravation.
Concerning my own country I realize that many other nations, even our allies, have a bad taste in their mouth from our tourists. Many foreigners think American tourists are loud, demanding and obnoxious. What may seem kind of normal here (and other countries) may not seem so acceptable abroad.
Therefore, when we travel abroad we must pay attention to the temperament of the country and adjust to the best of our ability. If they feel it is rude to not eat their food then eat their food if at all possible.
Even in England which has the same language as the United States one must be careful. Picking up a baby here and calling him a "cute little bugger" is a sign of affection, but in the UK it is the same as calling him a "cute little bastard." If the American says "please pass the napkins" in England at the dinner table it is the same there as saying please pass the Kotex (feminine hygiene napkins).
A new way of establishing good relations among the nations has now opened up and this is, of course, the internet. The problem right now is that only a handful of citizens in totalitarian regimes are on the net, but as the Internet becomes more and more indispensable the numbers of common people on line will only increase. As their numbers do increase people of good will should seek to make individual and collective contact with these people and correct misconceptions and let them know that we the people only have the best wishes at heart for them.
Forums and mailing lists can be started crossing language borders. This is becoming easier daily as language translation programs become more accurate. In fact I saw that Adrian was using one with Xavier.
For those of you who have experience with these translation programs - I would like to hear how well they work. I understand you can use them to read Chinese and Russian newspapers etc.
Another question I would like to throw out is this: I would like to know if anyone on the list knows how many people in Russia and mainline China are online. Even a rough estimate would be helpful. I think I've had several people from Russia download the book but no one from mainline China that I know of. I believe an opportunity is coming to reach out to these people.
To be continued...
PS: Has anyone noticed that Dick Morris has started an organization very close to what I wrote about Molecular Politics? He takes polls on the Internet and sends the results to politicians in the hope of influencing them toward the will of the people. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but it is a step in the right direction. Maybe he got a hold of some of my writings.
You can find his web page at:
www.vote.com
Copyright 1999 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved