In a message dated 11/6/2004 5:47:51 PM Central Standard Time, andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: The long term for the USA looks very dismal: billions wasted in a pointless war, a political movement that is anti-education, and so on. Hi, Okay, I understand what you are saying...and it is awful. But, that is not what I was asking about--I suppose I was asking for more information about th eir own values and ideas for their purpose in life. Malaysia, for example, is Islamic. Granted, it's been a while since I have talked to some of the folk that I knew from there, but it was not the most friendly to someone who was not Islamic. Or to women... Are they planning on assisting with making the world a better place? Or just going where they can make a lot of money and not be bothered? (and I'm not putting a value on this--I fuss with people all the time about the value that people give the fabric of the Universe by simply taking care of themselves, their families and their own little circle. I think of them as the threads that make the center of a little block on a quilt--they will never ever visit another block on the quilt and, very honestly, are not interested in doing so...though they sometimes enjoy hearing about the other blocks. Some people are the threads which connect a couple of the little blocks together onto a bigger block--and their world is bigger but still--the quilt is awfully big and there may be lots of different types of blocks making it up. But, each piece of thread has value--and even if the teeniest block made by that piece of thread will never make to beyond that spot--if they didn't exist, the quilt would not be as pretty or there would be a hole in it. There IS value for and by those who do not venture beyond their own comfort zones--even if it is simply that they want to make $$ wherever they can...though hopefully they will take care of those in their circle[s]...) Thanks, Marlena ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html