Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Just providing food for thought, and it is good to see that the sharks are feeding.
Nibbles, no feeding frenzy...

Re: your cited States:
In all we look the other way when they suppress the dissent of their own internal populaces...
How do you propose we correct their tendency to do things of which you and some others disapprove? (emphasis purposefully added...)

Does not such corrective action interfere with your stated intent:
We need to hold true to our own stated values, but we need to not demand them of others.
Dichotomy there, you seem to want to have it both ways. You've never really addressed that issue even though many surface it occasionally. Some of us seem to think it important to your hypothesis...

As several of us -- not just ol' moi -- have mentioned, you cannot correct their attitudes and 'not interfere' at the same time. You occasionally suggest that if we just talk to them, they'll fix it. Lot of skepticism about that...

I'm pretty well aware of what our core principles are supposed to be and from whence they spring. Tthat's not an issue, this is:
...Many of these core principles are assessed differently over time, and those assessments are "values," a principle with judgment applied to it.
Exactly. The issue is how you persuade the American public, the Administration and Congress of the day to hew to those values. To say we should do so is easy. It is likely also futile UNLESS you can show a benefit to us for doing so and, thus far, you have failed to do that IMO.
As to the common argument for never doing something new, even though most can agree that the current course is in need of change is "that would be hard, how would you do that."
I'm all for doing something new and have long had gripes with what we are doing -- but the issue isn't avoiding change, it is how to bring that change about. I agree with where you want to go and have long -- along with several others -- suggested that your goal is good -- what's your strategery to get there?
But this is just a summary slide from a deck of slides that summarize a paper, that in turn summarizes a concept.
And my questions above were just a summary of the many more questions that slide raises.

Recall the old staffers dictum -- answer the question, answer the question that should have been asked and answer the questions your answer will generate...
Anything worth doing is likely to be difficult. Anything new is likely to be incomplete. For most of us, it is the challenges of new and difficult things that get us out of bed in the morning.
Yeah. Howsomeever, it's been my observation that it is far less difficult if one provides consensually viable steps instead of just telling the boss he's stupid...