Of course, Huntington said a few controversial things, but I felt his work also had a normative dimension.

The trouble with the do-gooders, who will always say the politically correct thing, is that they are largely incapable of understanding the harsh realities of politics.

They will nearly always prefer to sound clever, to sound sophisticated and above the rubble of divisive argument.

In reality, having a strong opinion will always lead you to saying imperfect ideas in a imperfect world. I too would be guilty of this because I do have strong opinions and have clearly sided with the hawks on the CCP issue.

Politics is about the issues that can or do both unite and divide us.

But many in politics, in my opinion, choose to live in la la land.

I respect people who have a left or right opinion, as long as its supported with an understanding of the evidence, given that the complex and competitive world can have both a liberal and marxist summary that is reasonably plausible.

As of 2020, I doubt anyone has ever explained the complexity of humanity in political terms comprehensively. It is simply too hard and different people in different countries will have their own reasons to support a particular perspective or theory.

In the case of the CCP, I think it is pretty obvious the world needs to unite to provide a thorough and sustained response, albeit any response will have some possible ramifications.

The idea that Australia could somehow complain about the CCP by rightfully siding with the USA, but still enjoy a great trading relationship, is something only someone who does not understand life and politics could believe.

Not only would such a stance make Australia look gutless if it was to succumb to the CCP, which it wont, but it makes the CCP look even more stupid than it is.

The CCP, as an authoritarian regimes with immense resources and growing alliances, will indeed seek to punish Australia at any opportunity.

BTW, I am all for conferences and mediation.

Nations needs to adopt all measures to counter the CCP, albeit it would be interesting to see whether they would get anywhere.

But, I think a Cold War is here to stay for a while yet.

Huawei tension will probably spread to many other industry sectors.

I see hate, violence, fanaticism and inequality as part of the human condition. I recognise all those feelings within me. We are not equal. There are differences between us in intelligence, wealth, strength, sex,sexual orientation, agility and a host of other qualities. We hate those who hurt our children or anybody else we hold dear. I feel passionate about the separation of religion and state. Others feel passionate about other things. The boundary between passionate feelings and fanaticism is not clear. Most of us accept the state-sanctioned violence of war - especially when our country or anything else we hold dear is attacked. We strive to be above equality. We give medals and awards to those who show more intelligence, bravery, athleticism,compassion and exhibit more qualities that we feel are worthwhile.

Ridding ourselves of hate, violence, fanaticism and inequality would be ridding ourselves of humanity. It is an unrealistic goal. It is more realistic to keep hate, violence, fanaticism and inequality within reasonable bounds. Defining those bounds is a reasonable task.

David, I like your summary

david f,

If you are looking for answers to all those human related things you describe above you definitely won't find them in mathematica and computer science.

Why do you think I decided to study all the Arts things like history, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, etc. after I finished my engineering degree?

It's one thing to have a livelihood but it's another thing to be able to understand the world one lives in.

the regressives answer was the 'summer of love'. That worked out well didn't it? More blacks killed by blacks but of course no problems according to the woke left white crowd.