all 11 comments

[–]allie 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

He was certainly better for most Libyans than what followed.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

This was the video that made me realize he wasn't this evil demon the western media made him out to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEidZcZJ6AI

Funny how the big propaganda campaign against him and his subsequent assassination didn't happen until he declared he was going to start a new gold-backed central bank for the new African Union, which he was the head of.

[–]allie 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Yep. Wars are about theft.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Yup. Which is why most wars are banker's wars, and the military-industrial complex. Too much money to be made.

[–]allie 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Yes. I hypothesize that war was the very first way to get rich. War allowed soldiers to rape, steal, enslave without punishment. If a soldier survived he would generally come home with more than he started with, more than he could ever earn in his life. But those that led in war often ended up being rulers and stealing not just from foreigners but from their own people. These days most profits in wars are made by corporations but as recently as the Opium Wars against China, soldiers were allowed to pillage the Emperor's Summer Palace and came home with valuable artifacts, which I think, were the basis of Victorian interior decoration.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Makes sense to me. War is basically a systematized version of taking other people's stuff, and that's a technique for acquisition that's older than mammals. Agriculture is a way to create more, instead of just steal from each other in a zero-sum game. Instead of setting us free, it just led to a much bigger zero-sum game with many more participants. Seems a lot of technological gains are that way, we expand our population to fill the boundary capabilities of our resources, just like animals do. When foxes eat all the chickens, the foxes die off. Then when all the foxes die off, the chickens come back. Then when there's tons of chickens, the foxes come back. Then they eat all the chickens. And round and round it goes. Humanity, despite all our intelligence and planning ability, seem to be stuck doing this same basic group behavior. It's like being stuck on a runaway train.

[–]allie 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Yes. Quality of life is increased, mortality rates decreased, people have better lifes, love longer, have more kids then everyone has less and has a harder life. What gets me is now there is birth control and still people keep having more kids which guarantees things will get worse. I just don't get it.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

What gets me is now there is birth control and still people keep having more kids which guarantees things will get worse.

Yeah that happens a lot in countries where children are seen as assets rather than liabilities. In a poor country, a child can help work the farm and stuff like that, and produce more income (especially where there are no child labor laws). Plus sometimes mothers can get income from the government they would only qualify for if they have a child. So there are a lot of incentives to have a child.

But the good news is that the more educated and developed a country comes, the more the birthrate drops. Like Japan is shrinking in population, and many other countries are too if you don't count immigration.

The world population is set to peak at about 10 billion and then it will be downhill from there. The fastest growth rate of world population was actually in the 1960s, and has slowed since then.

But a lot of people have children for the same reason animals have babies... because sex feels good, and many people are ignorant about birth control for various cultural and religious reasons.

[–]allie 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm not a kid and as far back as I can remember they have been claiming world population would peak at a lower level and in a few years they'd come up with a higher number.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hm yeah, could be incorrect projections.

But see the pink line here, we've already slowed: https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/updated-World-Population-Growth-1750-2100.png

We've been slowing down since 1960s, and that's a fact. The population now is growing less fast, both in raw numbers and as a percentage, than it was in the 1960s. We're slowing down.

[–]jaloov 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

they're after the tresure: D48D06F60C1BBE9B37C8DC78DF0E5C5963AD6B590F49AE4F6333222E9FE4B6B5A94086CDB521F6C26489CAAD36D1C6CAEF392E49361631587A780517F9300952