JeremiahofRed

I don't believe the word "we" contradicts with anything. "We" is just "I" plural. I reviewed my post and I used the word referring to 'people who are contemplating this argument.' I furthermore do not understand the statement that it is a self contradiction for me to say that "maybe it will start a domino effect" that was a very strong maybe. We don't really know what would happen. And ok, referring to someone as a South Korean American, of course I referred to them by that, its the property that I was trying to discuss. I could have just as easily said that she was born in Seoul so I suppose I could have chosen better words there, but if I didn't know the place of birth, the only way I could have made that statement would have been using her tax farm ID. Ok, after some review, I can see why the choice of the word "our" was poor here. But these things are not things that I'm trying to control, their things I don't want to be controlled, because this is how it ends, I'm pretty certain of that. Its how Rome ended, I see no reason America will be different. The question I was trying to present there was, will self knowledge help a country who's internet is controlled and who's exposure to outsiders is also controlled. There's really no substitute for experience when it comes to ballistics and that is what the North Korean's are attempting to gain and have been over the past decade or so. They put a satellite in space(after 1 failure), they have been testing nukes for a while now. We estimate that they have less than 10 nukes, but that's still enough to wipe a good portion of south korea out. Alright there seems to be a gross misunderstanding of what the word "we" means in this forum so let me lay it down for everyone: I and the rest of a group that includes me : you and I : you and I and another or others : I and another or others not including you —used as pronoun of the first person plural IE just because I say "we" does not mean I am including you in my statement. Ok moving on ICBM's don't really care where you are on the map. It is currently estimated that they could strike Hawaii or Alaska, their ballistics technology is only going to improve as technology tends to do. Sure, America is evil, but here in America we arn't(usually) taken to concentration camps for saying otherwise. Thought is able to run free and therefore people are given the freedom to believe whatever they want about their country, and others. I guess what I'm starting to realize, is that the same things we were told about the Iraqi's going in, are the same things that people(north koreans) think about us. I don't know, maybe it is all overhyped. Maybe I am a victim of yet another propaganda machine aimed at making Americans consider North Korea to be a threat, I just think its worth mentioning. I don't believe the solution to tyrants will be self knowledge, I believe it will have to be some form of pro bono/charity defense agency. I just don't see us developing one with any bite to it in the time between complete US disbandment and North Korean invasion of South Korea. Huh....just doing some research to tie this up and would you look at that. Nothing to staple down my point but interesting none the less: Evidently the North Koreans have opened their borders to south Korea, supposedly in response to the threats made by the UN to charge him with "crimes against humanity." http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/korea-borders-open-to-allow-long-awaited-reunions-1.1698487

Well, in my opinion, the most likely scenario that will cause the US to disband will be math, our inability to maintain our dollar will be hastened by our inability to maintain a balanced national budget. And yeah, I suppose on a personal level few people in America feel "embedded" in the cold war going on over in Korea, but, as a former soldier, as a friend to a south-korean american, it pains me to think of what would happen over there in the event that we left. I believe America will handle itself, we have enough military hardware to be privatized that I don't see anyone even thinking about invading this country but, I have to completely and 100% part ways with you fundemnatally when you say "how would the psychopaths in question get away with any of the things they do if the people focused more on their own self-knowledge and interpersonal relationship skills" its called programming, and here in America, most of us are subject to a VERY soft version of it, in our schools. I'm sure there are those among them that question their teachings, but they either keep quiet, to survive, or they resist/run, and get shot. Stockholm syndrome is a real thing, and we must consider that their entire country is suffering from this, general group think, and patriotism inspired by programming that starts in elementary school. I guess my biggest fear about Libertarianism is illustrated by this right here. If North Korea manages to take over south korea, it will be a demonstration to the entire world that evil is stronger than liberty. can we then count ourselves safe here in America? My heart goes out to these people who are raised from the time they are babies to the time they die thinking that America is evil. There will always be those strong among us who can rise in the face of true tyranny but can we really expect that of each individual? In my view it would take each individual acting as a hero or at least 50%+ of them to end the tyranny that is going on in North Korea. I know nobody has all the answers, but this is a serious problem I struggle with, in the free market, what will combat non-domestic tyranny, if the answer is no one, I feel that liberty is doomed to fail. ' Maybe I'm wrong, maybe true liberty will so vastly outproduce the socialists and dictatorships of the world that it will just create a domino effect and nation after nation will make the switch to reap the benefits of a truly free society.... Idk, I feel like I'm rambling at this point, so I'll leave it for someone else's thoughts. Ok your first paragraph is just wrong. Maybe not 100% wrong, but to a large extent wrong. The Korean People's Army(nk) has 1.1 Million Active duty with 8.2 Million reserve. The Republic of Korea's Armed Forces(sk) has 639k active with 2.9 mil reserve. That's a pretty vast difference. That's about 2:1 nk to sk taking only active into consideration or close to 3:1 taking reserve into consideration. Military analysts have often described the military situation in north korea as a "use it or lose it" situation for the north Koreans. If they were to strike first, they could cripple the south koreans quickly, by taking direct strikes on their capital city of Seoul and military bases. As for weapons of mass destruction? We know that North Korea has nuclear weapons. We also know that south Korea does not. Therefore I think north korea has the edge there. Alright moving on to the next paragraph. The north koreans have long talked about a unification with south korea. They arn't just as you say trying to "liberate them from the US" they are trying to unify Korea once again under one common flag. So, with that in mind, the next logical question is, do the south koreans want to be a part of north korea, and I don't believe itwould be sane to argue that they do. Therefore I believe it is pretty unavoidable that the north koreans would seek war with south korea if they felt they had the means to complete such a war. they release videos periodically depicting their great war of unification which they predict will take no more than 3 days. they also seem to have zero sympathy for the south koreans they will have to kill in the process, again the whole "sea of fire" thing. I'm not trying to argue here that North Koreans have it great or anything lol, therefore I don't understand the point of your final paragraph. Of course people are being treated like slaves in order to feed their major cities. Its very unfortunate, but sadly I can't shake this feeling that they are a threat to their south neighbors. I could be entirely wrong, and I am open to hearing critiques to the arguments I have mentioned.

so, recently I've been doing a bit of research into North Korea, and what I've found has been rather disturbing. These people are told stories of their great leaders from the time they are in elementary school(yes I know all too famliar, but on a much more direct level) and are bread with an innate hatred of America, and, even to the point where many of them believe they are stronger than the united states. What really concerns me though, is that if America were to outright disband, we would leave south korea to fend for themselves, and I believe the mathematics of war are pretty clear there, north korea would decimate south korea without the US to back it. The city of Seoul would be reduced to a "sea of fire"(their words not mine) and it would be a huge tragedy. So I guess I just wanted to run this thought by other liberty minded folk. It deeply concerns me, because I do believe liberty is in our grasp, but how do we walk away from a situation we are so strongly embedded in? Right now the only reason we are in South Korea as far as I know is as a part of a continuing campaign to encircle China, posturing ourselves so that we would have air and naval bases on all sides in the event of an all out war with China. If America were to disband, would there be any reason left to continue our military aid in South Korea and if not, what would become of them.

I never tried drugs for the longest time. The girlfriend I had when I got out of the military was a pot smoker and then the next one I met was a meth head so I've done both. I would like to add to that though: I refused to try the drugs for the longest time because of this fear, but I still bought it to supply her at times. I ended up getting arrested with a gram and a half on me for something incredibly stupid. Basically my car got towed, I went to pick it up. The guy on the dispatch had told me that all i would need would be an idenification and bill of sale since i only very recently bought the car. He told me that wasn't enough, so i asked to look inside the car for the registration which was in Joel's name, so that I would have it when he got here. While I was in there I grabbed my sidearm which I had stowed under the driver's seat and I put it in my pants pocket. I tried to be discreet but apparently the guy was watching me cuz he said "i saw the gun, you need to put that back" so I asked "what gun" and walked away. I was picked up by police who were waiting for me right outside my house. You might be asking what on earth would I be getting arrested for, larceny? no, my good sir, assault in the 2nd degree, because apparently this guy, either by his own will or through coercion told the police that I had pointed my gun at him. In the probable cause hearing the DA even made comments about possibly adding on a grand larceny if it turned out the car wasn't mine. I was in jail for 11 days, when I got out, I just stopped caring. I was in a place psychologically that I did not want to be, and I said fuck it, pass me that. I was terrified i would get addicted, but I had faith in my own abilities. So the long story short, and it is a 2 year or so long story but its behind me now, the guy had like 14 felonies on his own record, once the DA found out they offerred me a plea bargain down to a felony harrassment(the criteria for which is to say that you threatened to kill another person) and I accepted that resentfully. It was 12 months of probation and a mark as a felon vs years in prison. It was a terrible choice to have to make, but I chose the former and I did my probation out. I avoided meth during the time I was on probation, save for maybe like 1 or 2 instances when I knew i could get away with it(it gets out of your system in 3 days). So let me just add on to that. I know you won't meet a lot of people who consider hard core drugs a part of who they are and are still able to function on the highest level of maslow's heirarchy. But some people are, I assure you. There's a lot more people in our society who do hardcore drugs than you might think, its just that most never admit to it, but I for the most part have just stopped caring. And this is the place it should be mentioned I suppose. Also note that I'm not a consistent user. The last time I used was about 2 months ago and I have no drive to use more right now. I generally only use it for quick boosts in productivity and frankly its worth it. If I really need something done I can buy 50 dollars of meth and be up for the next 3 days chipping away at the problem. Then I crash, and don't use it again for a while.

sure absolutely give me your feedback. I'm interested. But first I will start by saying that I felt compelled based on my religious experience that there had to be a God, and that I was just in the wrong faith. I was certain that whoever God was, they were just, and that I didn't need to fear consequences for not finding the right religion(as with Christianity) but I still wanted to find the truth, and to me the ultimate truth for the first couple decades of my life was God. I'm not saying I was as critical as I could have been but I was certainly more logical than most christians who grew up with my background. I was scared at a young age into believing that I needed to repent from each and every sin, or else I would go to hell. I had religious experiences in which I believed I heard the voice of God and because of that, I felt it was therefore reasonable to assume that the answers I was looking for existed somewhere in religion, even if that religion wasn't Christianity. Fire away though I may sound defensive but I'm just trying to paint a better picture for you of my background.

What I meant is that I am over most of what was talked about in the first paragraph, just thought it was a critical part of who I am worth mentioning. So, I'm no longer "passively suicidal" if I were in the road with a semi coming, I would move(that's a question one of my psychologists always asked). I am no longer a fan of the military industrial complex or of using religion to cope with the top of my maslow's pyramid. Thoughts on the pursuit of self knowledge. Well, I believe it is important to understand yourself. I also believe its a lot harder to understand yourself than it is to look at someone else and understand them. I always thought the whole passage in the bible was ironic about not pointing out the spec in your neighbors eye when there is a log in your own, because in my view, you should want your close friends to look for your imperfections, as they are the most equipped to do so. Subconciously I think most people have very high opinions of themselves, which, prevents them from having a very objective opinion about could be imperfections.

So, my name, as you may have deduced is Jeremiah. I was convinced at a young age by hollywood and my local culture that police and military were virtuous careers. I was also mildly/passively suicidal, so I joined the US army as an 11/B-Infantry. I guess the reason I was so 'passively suicidal' is because I gave up the hoax of Christianity at the age of 17, the same year I enlisted. I was a very logical person, and I just couldn't put my finger on why Hell is ok. I tried, very hard, to work this problem out, but in the end, I couldn't. It left a "God-sized hole" in me which I tried to fill. I did extensive research into several religions, hoping to find one that fit the bill. I eventually gave up, and figured that all of them had incredible teachings, but none of them were 100% correct. So in the middle of all that I guess I tried to fill that with the Godly image of what we in the United States hold our United States armed forces to be. I don't really struggle with much of that anymore. One of my current struggles is that I have a very addictive personality. I've filled it with everything from hardcore drugs, to video games, to relationships. I have something most addicts don't have which is the ability to pick one addiction up and let to of another. So I guess that's something I got going for me. Sometimes when I talk to people I'm not sure if I'm a psychopath or if everyone else is just dead asleep in this centuries long slumber. I made someone break down into tears yesterday by saying that I consider children to be more deserving of sympathy than the women who have them in impoverished conditions. I couldn't even get a rational response back. Anyway, so I've been listening to Stefan Molyneux for about a month now. The first video I watched by him was actually the one where he speaks to Adam Kokesh, as, I had been following Adam for a while, he's an amazing activist. Started listening to Stefan for a while, and there's not a lot I can disagree with him on. He makes very rational, objective, and well thought out points and so it was my hope that people who would find themselves at this message board would be people attracted by those qualities. Thank you for reading this far and I hope I can have some good discussions with you all.