re: #624 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

Okay. So that whole bit of yours about reminding Russia it’d never be a first-rate military power, that’s not among your assemblage of reasons anymore, right?

So it’s because they’re a bully, and because they’re going to threaten Europe, and because they have a psychological idea of empire and if we stop them then they’ll collapse? I’m really, really leery about that last part, that kind of psychoanalysis of nations, thing. That seems more like a hope than an analysis.

It is more hope than anything, and you’re quite right to be leery of it - after all, there’s no guarantee it would succeed or even turn out the way I hope it would. I’m an idealist, and I confess, while I can be ruthlessly pragmatic when I need to be, I often let my idealism get in the way. It’s the #1 reason I’d probably be a really lousy President. As more than a few of my closer Czech friends have pointed out, my ideas are based not always on a objective analysis, but on an idealistic view of what I want humanity to become. As a good friend of mine (rightly) pointed out to me, “That sounds like a lot like Lenin. Or Mao” and I won’t disagree with her.

It’s just my opinion. My idealistic opinion in this case, and in being brutally honest with myself, I know full well my ideas - if implemented - would likely cause a whole lotta trouble. But on the other hand, the impulsive risk-taker in me says, “Hey….why the fuck not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”