Briefing 2.0: U.S. National Interests

[chris3443]

Countries don't exist, wake up!!

[jwoodswce]

Are you serious?

If so, you must have a blockbuster thesis that will not only reorganize our ideas about current events but also substantially rewrite human history.

Please keep everyone up to date of your publication, which should prove your radical hypothesis.

[chris3443]

The burden of proof is actually on you to prove they exist, but I'll ask you anyways whether you think there is a fundamental difference between someone living in the US, in Canada, or in Saudi Arabia. If so, what? If not, then what is a country but an arbitrary line in the sand? The idea of "country" is a mask that governments throw onto their immoral use of violence in a particular area.

[jwoodswce]

Oh my, no god! You are serious. Detached from reality, but serious.

I have no problem accepting the burden of proof in something so abundantly manifest, but seriously wonder what epistemological evasions are needed to arrive at your conclusion. Utterly fascinating, when will you be publishing your revolutionary thesis?

cont...

[jwoodswce]

I notice that your question assumes the existence of something that you claim not to exist, you go further to define attributes that you consider essential of that thing that does not exist, and essentially it is whether or not you agree with something that determines whether it exists or not. How very primacy of consciousness of you! Further, necessary to your argument is that the man-made, as opposed to the metaphysically given, does not exist.

cont...

[jwoodswce]

As for the various people in different countries, while they are fundamentally the same type of entity qua man, they do differ in many man-made characteristics like language, culture, and values. However, fundamentally, they differ in the constitutional and statutory framework by which their individual rights are, or are not, defended.

cont...

[jwoodswce]

I have no patience for evil fools who argue that by definition government is an immoral initiation of force. Are you ignorant or stupid? Fortunately, ignorant can be fixed with some rigorous work on your part; stupid is a choice, a choice to evade reality.

[Beethovens7th]

Are words arbitrary? Essentially, the sounds themselves are (there's not much of a fundamental reason I couldn't call a rose a duck and vice versa). But the concepts that these sounds refer to are NOT arbitrary. It's the same thing with these "lines in the sand" (the sounds) and the countries that are within these lines (the meaning of the concepts the sounds refer to).