Am I overgeneralizing? Yeah,.. obviously. I agree that some nations are less criminally oriented than others.John wrote:Every individual occasionally lies and cheats, or perhaps "forgets" toFishbellykanakaDude wrote: > All "powerful" nations are, at one level or another (almost always
> the higher ones), liars, cheats and criminals. So that
> "characterization" is a wash.
declare some income on his tax return. But that's not the same as
being an extortionist, a car thief, a mugger or a rapist. You can't
just call that a "wash."
But it really doesn't matter, as you have to deal with them as they are, with "levers of power" that will work on them.
All nations have already been "ranked" on the achievement ladder of criminality, so everyone knows who the "bad guys" are.
The question is who will eventually "fall in" with whom? The answers to that are pretty obvious.
Aloha!
<shaka!>