G Huxley

Something to be proud of for sure.

"Proven false so many times, not the least of which is Nazi Germany." Nazi Germany of course proves the failure of hawkishness. Nazi Germany were non peaceful hawks. "There are no countries on earth that can exist like that. You either defend yourself, or contribute to an alliance. Otherwise you just go away or are destroyed. That is the lesson of history. The only nation that actively does what you are suggesting in foreign policy is Tibet, and they do not have sovereignty over their own borders as a result." Canada doesn't defend it's sovereignty as it is. It's military policy is more often than not an extension of American imperialism. It sells the control of it's resources to foreign entities, is lax on immigration and signs free trade agreements further giving up it's sovereignty. "There are tons of historical examples of people gaining freedom through force, and virtually none through being passive." The Indians gained freedom as a result of Gandhi's policies of civil disobedience. The Americans who used force aren't free. They live in an Orwellian permanent war surveillance state with the world's largest prison population by far. The Romans themselves didn't view themselves as free but saw themselves as Slavish the only free peoples being the Scythians and Germans who didn't have borders. "The only exception I can think of is India, and there was tons of internal violence even there." Mandela gave up violence. Malta gained it's independence without violence. Actually there are tons of examples of countries getting independence without violence. Most of Africa were colonies until the mid 20th century when most were given up without violence.

"Let's accept that. It doesn't make them go away." So it demonstrates my point. Hawkishness leads to more violence, while demonstrating peace leads to a reduction in violence. "So it's a strength of Canada that we spend so little? But you said we spend so much. Which is it?" We can spend even less.

And?

ISIS was created as a direct result of Western Imperialism and non peacefulness.

"I would suggest contempt for other humans might be one of those. I have talked with several of the childless vegan variety and heard them directly suggest it would be good if huge sections of humanity died. Hopefully you do not subscribe to that." Every human dies. What matters is whether or not we are reproducing at a level that increases or decreases the population. "It is not even 1/10 of what we spend on healthcare. Compared to other countries, our military expenditure per capita is quite low. We don't even beat Denmark or Holland." This is a strength of Canada.

"You and I have chatted about our shared views of animal-rights so I know you get this but I don't think we will respect other humans until we respect all life and unforuntately, we are nowhere near that point." I agree. As Gandhi said a nation's greatness can be judged by the way it treats it's animals. "To bring this point back to fertility rates, I think it would be insanity to disarm at this point in human history" I'm not calling for full disarmament, but for minimal armament and the lack of overseas military use. "For the time being, we do need kids." Why do we need more kids if it furthers the destruction of the biosphere? I'm not saying humans should have no kids, but I am saying that humans should decrease the population.

Are we running Canada or other countries?

We've been engaged in overseas wars for most of the last 2 decades.

"You are part of it. Do you have contempt for yourself? I'm asking because people who think like that generally what they are doing is fine, it is 'everyone' else who is the problem. " I recognize the destructive tendencies within myself being a human and try to mitigate them. "We spend almost nothing on the military in relative terms." The military budget in 2012 was 20 billion dollars. That's a lot of money.

Sweden and Switzerland also don't have the great moats which are the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as Orwell noted in 1984. If Canada wants peace we should demonstrate it by living it.

If you take an objective view of humanity it would be difficult not to have contempt for it.

I'm not saying that humans don't have potential. They do, only we aren't living up to it by destroying the biosphere.

It is difficult, but I've always firmly believed that the best form of leadership is to lead by example.

Yes humanity should take the next stage in evolutionary development and abolish warfare.

Even if I had children there would be none of me left in 70 years.

Humans are an inherently self destructive species with near complete disregard for the rest of the biosphere. If humans are thus critically flawed why should popular opinion prevail if it is destructive?

Less money spent on the military to fund a sustainable model where the population can even decline.

We have to eat to live, but as it is I have no children and am a vegetarian.

Also regarding the childcare benefit. Why should people who are doing the right thing and lowering the population by not having children having to pay for others to have children?

Ecology before unsustainable pyramid economics. Economics think in terms of how much money can be made. Seldom do they think of the consequences of their models.

I disagree that a society needs 2.1 kids per couple to maintain itself. Why can't a society exist while lowering the population even significantly? "we need more Canadians." I couldn't disagree more.

More stupidity the government should be promoting people having less children. Humans are a hideous species.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/abe-and-trudeau-agree-to-promote-trans-pacific-partnership/article27058428/ I'm glad I didn't vote for Trudeau after reading this. Like the Conservatives it's Neo-liberal economics as usual. Canadian sovereignty, protection of jobs and the environment lose.

Exactly.