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ORIGINAL: brainiacsub

I pretty much agree with this...all of it.

Next stop...dictatorship. Historically, most democracies only last a few hundred years anyway, and we are no exception.

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ORIGINAL: Fellow


It may be politically incorrect to go after doctors income (doctors are sacred?). Still, why are they making (as a median) about 40% more compared to other industrialized countries?

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ORIGINAL: Mercnbeth

quote:

ORIGINAL: brainiacsub

I pretty much agree with this...all of it.

Next stop...dictatorship. Historically, most democracies only last a few hundred years anyway, and we are no exception.

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." ~ W. Durant

Took Mr. Durant 11 volumes and 40 years to write 'The Story of Civilization'' but that's my one line summary. I doubt it is even mentioned in today's schools - too 'Western' centric and definitely NOT politically correct.

This quote, for example, would not be viewed for its wisdom but instead, by the use of the word "savages", more than likely he'd be labeled a racist; though the terms 'native American' or 'indigenous people' had yet to be coined in his time.

Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts - between individuals in economic life, between groups in politics, between creeds in religion, between states in war. This is the more dramatic side of history; it captures the eye of the historian and the interest of the reader. But if we turn from that Mississippi of strife, hot with hate and dark with blood, to look upon the banks of the stream, we find quieter but more inspiring scenes: women rearing children, men building homes, peasants drawing food from the soil, artisans making the conveniences of life, statesmen sometimes organizing peace instead of war, teachers forming savages into citizens, musicians taming our hearts with harmony and rhythm, scientists patiently accumulating knowledge, philosophers groping for truth, saints suggesting the wisdom of love. History has been too often a picture of the bloody stream. The history of civilization is a record of what happened on the banks.