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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 01:44pm Apr 9, 2001 EST (#2105 of 2106)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The United States has quite often said "we don't have to talk about this" and "we don't have to seriously concern ourselves with what the truth, in anyone else's opionion, actually is". These positions are getting more vulnerable, with the technology of the internet.

1431 - A lot about America is set up to cut off understanding -- to stop questions from being asked - to prevent closure. rshowalter 3/24/01 10:03am And, of course, this is true of other cultures, too. Many of the patterns involved for cutting off understanding depend on limitations of human memory, and human ability to handle complexity, that are being extended by the internet - something Dawn Riley and I have tried to illustrate, in a small way, with this thread.

1432-1435: Logical incrementalism, and Latent Sematic analysis, and persuasion. rshowalter 3/24/01 12:14pm ...rshowalter 3/24/01 12:38pm ....rshowalter 3/24/01 12:42pm rshowalter 3/24/01 12:50pm

" The need for repetition, for multiple views, for multiple pieces of evidence, is a central reason why people in interaction exchange such a huge number of words, and is also an essential reason why, regardless of eloquence or logical correctness, there may have to be STAFF WORK to generate enough information to build a case that satisfies and persuades PEOPLE so that they can actually ACT." Otherwise the truth, though it may be uncontradicted, and logically ample, will be "somehow, too weak. rshowalter 4/7/01 6:56am

Ideas, once they are solid, count in human affairs. rshowalter 4/2/01 2:29pm

Berle's Laws of Power are important, and cannot be escaped. Note Law #3 especially. rshowalter 3/12/01 10:02am Ideas, ideology, and questions of fact all count here.

William Saffire may well be right, in many cases -- that the US ought to avoid submitting itself to "the law of the lawless."

But in most practical cases, questions at the law do not hinge on uncertainty about what the law is.-- the decisions hinge on questions of fact. The means of establishing those facts, to closure, have become stronger with the new technology of the internet.

rshowalter - 02:28pm Apr 9, 2001 EST (#2106 of 2106)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

It seems to me that everything that the United States has reason to be proud of, and everything about our country that makes us prosperous, would be favored by such a change, and the forces we are proud to stand against -- in China and elsewhere, would be pushed in directions in the interest of people of goodwill almost everywhere with such a change.

When facts are agreed upon, there is still plenty to negotiate about. But negotiations and accomodations that can be stable and fair to all concerned become possible.

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