[lit-ideas] Re: Russia & chess

This never got delivered.  I'm sending it again.  It's a little stale now but I 
hope at least it gets there.


 












I agree with Eric and John that comparing the world to a game is dangerous.  It 
speaks to an inherent human inability to distinguish reality from fantasy, at 
least at this level of so called civilization.
 
The latest moves somewhat echo The Great Game of the 19th century, where the 
British empire's (today the American empire's) interests clashed with Russian 
interests (recalling that Russia has always been resource rich, even in pre oil 
days).  Stratfor said that Russia is afraid that the West is encircling it, 
which in fact they are.  That's the whole point of putting the so called 
defense missile system on their doorstep and meddling in Ukraine's affairs.  So 
maybe if, as in the 19th century, oil was not an issue per se there would be 
strategic interest propelled by a threat to sovereignty.  But to say that today 
the oil is unimportant is like saying that Iran's or Iraq's oil isn't important 
to the U.S. and all we care about is this abstraction called democracy because 
we're such nice people.
 
For whatever reason, not the least of which is that the U.S. basically thrives 
on having an enemy and our economy is based on our war machine, the Russians 
were declared the enemy years ago.  Paraphrasing Madeline Albright, what's the 
point of having a big military if you don't get to use it?   
 
All this ideological hogwash about communism and democracy flies in the face of 
the fact that even our Founding Fathers never intended a democracy.  They were 
afraid of the people.  Hence the electoral college.  Which actually might 
explain fear of communism, since theoretically, and as history has shown, only 
theoretically, the people are supposedly the basis of communism.  The elites 
are afraid of the people.   Here's Chomsky on the U.S. is not a democracy:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmJv_wf91W8


--- On Sat, 8/16/08, Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Russia & chess
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008, 8:11 PM



I can always count on Mike to inject some concrete thoughts of a serious tone 
in these otherwise fanciful dialogues....

of course, at this juncture I must ask two questions:

1)  where in this above series of scenarios does oil (the Stratfor article 
Irene posted -- I've always had a significant admiration for Stratfor..) fit or 
not fit?

2)  are pawn shops evil?

Julie Krueger
laying around w/ bruised ribs


On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

EY: 



 (Minor quibble: "the 'pawns' come out first and fight it out to the death, 
leaving only the richest elite to survive the war" is not quite true of chess. 
Think pawn promotion, open v. closed chess games, and pawn-only endgames.)

I will not.  I will not think pawn promotion, nor open v. closed chess games, 
or pawn-only endgames.  There are limits to my liberalism and you, sir, have 
crossed the line.  Never let it  be said that I, a pawn-shop shopper ever 
relied upon pawns to survive.  Or whatever.  Something like that.  What time is 
it?  When's the next bus due?  What street is this?

Mike Geary
a quibbling stickler
Memphis

----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Yost" <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 12:46 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Russia & chess 






John: Even the idea of chess as helpful in understanding "an" international 
conflict is misleading.  No government is ever in "an" international conflict; 
they are ALL ALWAYS engaged in several simultaneous conflict of interests, 
whether peaceful or not.

John nailed it! I should have read his post before replying. (Minor quibble: 
"the 'pawns' come out first and fight it out to the death, leaving only the 
richest elite to survive the war" is not quite true of chess. Think pawn 
promotion, open v. closed chess games, and pawn-only endgames.)
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