Godfree Roberts
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Godfree Roberts has not written any posts yet.
Godfree Roberts has not written any posts yet.
Needham was fooled into believing the US had used biological weapons in the Korean War??
Not at all. None of his detractors have withstood investigation, despite the combination of massive physical suppression of the Report, combined with a well-funded 'debunking' industry.
The accuracy of the ISC Report was confirmed on the basis of documents not available in 1952, by Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman in their book 'The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea' (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1998). See also Thomas Powell, "Biological Warfare in the Korean War: Allegations and Cover-up" (2019): http://sdonline.org/73/biological-warfare-in-the-korean-war-allegations-and-cover-up/
There were few more qualified researchers than Needham in 1951, and he was no fool.... (read more)
Nonsense among friends is not the problem here, clearly. It's nonsense let loose among hundreds of millions of people simultaneously. That's been a problem for every government since the beginning of government. And it's one the Chinese largely solved 2500 years ago and, thanks to which, have thrived ever since.
As John Stewart Mill[1] observed, “The Chinese are remarkable in the excellence of their apparatus for implanting, as far as possible, the best wisdom they have in every mind in the community” and, Mill might have added, "Slowing the unconfined spread of nonsense”. That's the job of their Chief Censor, who is usually the country's leading public intellectual (as he is now). Imagine... (read more)
What kinds of designs could exist that aren't common today?
There are at least three, very successful, democratic designs, though TINA shields us from their baneful influence: Switzerland, China, and Singapore.
If we measure their implementation of six components of democracy–formal, elective, popular, procedural, operational and substantive–we find none of the three follows (slave state) Athens' model.
Each implements 'of the people, by the people, for the people' uniquely.
The Swiss invest unimaginable time and energy voting for almost everything,: call it 'input legitimacy'. A 37-year-old Zuricher has had the opportunity to take part in 548 referenda, 181 of them federal, 176 cantonal, and 191 municipal. Average turnout is 45% so he has voted in about... (read more)