Dear wsn,
My "Adieu" message got the following thought-provoking response:
> Years ago (1974?) I read Thomas Kuhn's book on scientific
>revolutions. One point I was impressed by is that the participants in
>debates (or, perhaps here, NON-debates) never persuade each other, but
>simply die off. The VALUE of the debates is their persuasive appeal to
>the passive audience (often totally forgotten about by the heated
>participants at the time), particularly the younger members, whose own
>views are still malleable. Long after the protagonists have left the
>stage, the arguments live on through the opinions and instruction provided
>by their effects on the audience members, who carry them forward to the
>next generation.
This gives me new hope and so I re-subscribed.
Allow me to re-summarize my current points...
enlightened enlightened
world-government national governments
------------------ ---------------------
difficulty of nearly very difficult
obtaining impossible
plan to obtain armageddon use existing
infrastructures
long-term vulnerable to robustness through
prospects usurpation diversity
Cheers,
rkm