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I don't think I would say that America is too decentralized. Rather, I think it comes down to a matter of accountability.
I like that.
The winners get to write history, so it may be irrelevent to argue whether someone is the worst villain of all time – when we should muse whether that person is a villain at all. The Mai Lai massacre, for instance, was given as an example of U.S. perfidy – but name the mastermind of it. Was Calley bad? He claimed to be following orders and assumed Colin Powell and the others in charge knew what they were doing. Was there even a cover up? If there were secret weapons or soldiers waiting in ambush would he have been a hero? The investigations were all pretty public. The real villian here was the villification of the Vietnam War. A charge could be laid at the feet of Walter Cronkite as the all-time worst villian. He lied about the outcome of the Tet Offensive which we won conclusively, which turned General Giap around and stopped him from surrendering and ending the war. Cronkite's lying news broadcast can be directly linked to causing the deaths of at least 40,000 American solldiers – as well as the millions of Vietnamese and Cambodian deaths. Is this a bigger number than the deaths that Stalin was responsible for? Or the ones of Mao and his little Red Book? Hitler?Is it only the politicians and soldiers who fill out this list, or do we add in the instigators who caused later tragedy, like Karl Marx or Muhammad? Or Rachel Carson who lied about research results which caused DDT to be banned which then allowed Malaria which had almost totally been eliminated from the planey to reawake and kill mor people than Hitler. Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao combined? Or do we condemn instigators like H.G. Wells who argued for genocide to rid the world of its "unfit" populace?I'm much more comfortable contemplating evil from fictinal characters, like Moriarty or Lex Luthor.
You bring up some good points, Wmlambert. In what respect are we judging villainy? We can't judge a person moral culpability, but we can judge actions to be objectively good or evil. It is somewhere in there that we make our assessments.Most likely, this will be in numbers of deaths, but then again, this depends on motives, circumstances, and so forth. Although I have no figures as to the number of deaths that General Lee and his army were responsible for, I can imagine that number to be quite high. As far as I know, he is not, however, considered a villain, nor was he ever. Sherman's actions, however, caused great bitterness, and I believe those feelings still exist today.Margaret Sanger and her movement will likely cause the downfall of Europe over the next hundred years or so. Will we ever consider the birth control movement to be a nefarious institution? As you said, "the winners get to write history".
Worst has to be Karl Marx,his communist manifesto has caused more deaths than anything I can think of. As far as American villans read book titled 1491,theorizes population of Americas before settlement and numbers killed intebtionally and unintenionally.
I still think Stalin is the worst, he killed so many that historians cant even agree on the number, it ranges from 20 million to 60 million. What do you think were some close calls? Historical figures that if they had acheived the position of power they could have reeked havoc, but since they didnt, humanity was spared?
Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations. He explained the mechanisms of how capitalism worked making it more efficient and helping to shape today's world. One of his axioms was that the labor supply will adjust to demand.
Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations. He explained the mechanisms of how capitalism worked making it more efficient and helping to shape today's world. One of his axioms was that the labor supply will adjust to demand.
Huh?
Huh?
Don't even try to understand IBT. Just "feel" what he is saying and you'll be fine....that's what I do. 🙂
Use the force and review the book too and understand that these ideas helped shape the world and conditions that created a Hitler and a Stalin and the reason for the Irish migration, the hispanic migration, etc. A more humanistic view of markets may have made a better world.
Use the force and review the book too and understand that these ideas helped shape the world and conditions that created a Hitler and a Stalin and the reason for the Irish migration, the hispanic migration, etc. A more humanistic view of markets may have made a better world.
I guess I missed something, because I wasnt sure where your post related to the subject.
On American villians, although I don't think there was evil intent, Rachel Caeson instigated the ban on DDT and the resulting deaths from Malaria now number in the Tens of Millions.
Wow… how about Walt Disney; made us think all those animals had human feelings and human intellect.Wally (gator)
