"The real engine for war..." replying to Gian

From: Christoph Kohring <ChOK_at_bluewin.ch>
Date: Fri Apr 28 06:07:48 2000


I don't know whether in English this is clear enough, but...

<<Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 10:10:11 GMT
From: "Gian Gero" <giangero_at_hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Various
>The real engine for war never was religion, ever was human greed!>>

When I speak about Greed, I mean any greed: for money, power, fame et cetera.

<<Yeah, sure... Come on, Gian, that's bullshit ! Was Alexander the Great greedy ? Were Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, Napoleon, Lenin, Hitler& Stalin greedy ?!? I doubt it, especially the last three who led ascetic lifes.>>

I doubt we share the same definition of ascetism, here, Christoph.

<<"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. All great men were evil men." Lord Acton>>

This is a bad sillogism.
Do any great man possesses power?
I don't believe so.
It depends on your definition of "greatness".

An Italian politician used to say "Power corrupts those that don't have it". I laugh at his paraphrasing of Acton's, but praise him above the original.

BTW, I am economically biased. I like to search for economic reasons for the Empires' need to conquer. I previously said that maybe the true reasons behind the struggle between Orlanthi and Lunars are economical... They both need The Scarce Resource and compete for it: Worshippers! ;-)

Ciao
Gian



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