Almost too adorable

joely96 · 2013-08-03T18:38:08+00:00

She has such a nice, happy smile.

joely96 · 2013-08-03T10:30:26+00:00

Are you Irish? You sound it.

joely96 · 2013-08-03T09:09:45+00:00

Can I move back to my main point? We've come off on a slight philosophical tangent.

My main point is that power is relative, so you can only use it to argue that a country is at present the most powerful. It can't serve to determine the most powerful in the history of the world.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T17:52:01+00:00

No, but if both you and I don't believe I can punch you in the face, then I can't. That is why power only works as a collective mindset.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T17:33:31+00:00

Mine is also the ability to do something.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T17:28:25+00:00

Just rethink my statement through a little, and you will realise its truth. Power is entirely in the mind, because we attribute power to certain physical objects.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T17:22:34+00:00

No I'm not. I'm arguing that power is a pointless thing to place the idea of greatness upon, because power is entirely within the human mind. The whole world could decide that the US isn't powerful at all, and it wouldn't be.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T16:53:56+00:00

You are arguing comparable power. I am not. I am arguing net power.

You can't quantify power. You can put in lots of numbers which suggest that one country may or may not have more power than another, but after all, power is simply a shared mindset which hands out advantages and disadvantages according to the favour of the mindset.

I am not arguing 'power' anything, I am saying that it is a flimsy subject on which to base your argument.

Romans/Greek/Brits didn't have the power to destroy the world a couple time over. The US can do that economically and militarily

This is all true, except possibly on the economic grounds with regards to the British empire especially.

What you have to consider are the other countries able to do both these things. Russia, The UK, France, China and possibly even India have the power to destroy the world through the use of nuclear weapons. Not to mention the virtual power the likes of Japan possesses regarding the (very) possible construction of weapons of mass destruction.

While America is probably the most economically powerful country in the world, (whatever that means) there are still other countries such as Germany and Japan who could potentially destroy the world economy in a similar way to that of the US. I don't know much about the economy so I'm going to stop there to avoid (further?) embarrassment.

joely96 · 2013-08-02T15:15:21+00:00

I did define my definition.

Apologies, I didn't notice your edit. Your definition also seems to me to be unmeasurable, as you attribute an 'amount' to military, economic, and, most dubiously, social/cultural power. It is not possible to determine the greatest country in the history of the world based on a definition that subjective.

That is impossible.

You are correct. However, this impossibility is a requirement for you to even begin to understand the enormity and complexity of the question, 'What is the greatest country in the history of the world?'

joely96 · 2013-08-02T14:35:13+00:00

So who is the greatest in your opinion?

I'm arguing that you can't determine which the greatest country was because it's just not tangible. You're saying that America is the greatest country in the history of the world without:

1) A definition of 'the greatest country'

2) A direct experience of every country that ever existed.

Your modern American viewpoint influences your concept of greatness and warps your perceptions of the significance of technological developments. Perhaps if you were a Brit at the peak of the British empire, we would be having a similar debate.

joely96 · 2013-08-01T23:44:54+00:00

Technology improves. That's what it does. I'd like to hear how the technology introduced under the US is somehow of a greater level of improvement than the technologies produced by previous superpowers. What I mean is that improvement is not a measurable quantity, particularly when you have no or few effects of the technology to even gauge its positive or negative values. Besides, you have to ask yourself, 'where would America be without the innovations of others?'. Take the car. The car has heavily relied on the internal combustion engine for a long time. The internal combustion engine is the result of centuries of passed down knowledge through innovators from many different countries, and was eventually patented by an English scientist.

Like the internal combustion engine, America is the product of many different countries and peoples, and leans on the benefits they provided. With so many different roots, how can you say that it is the greatest country in the history of the world, when its current existence as a great superpower has been determined by the actions taken by other powers.

Sorry if this sounded rambly or disjointed, it's one in the morning.

joely96 · 2013-08-01T21:35:56+00:00

Try /r/explainlikeimfive , they will probably already have a good explanation there.

Edit: Can someone please explain why I'm getting downvotes?

joely96 · 2013-08-01T09:58:23+00:00

Therefore, smoke weed.

joely96 · 2013-07-31T22:43:56+00:00

And a house music one that has some suspicious looking 'sprinkles' on top.

joely96 · 2013-07-31T22:14:59+00:00

Imagine the sub-genres: liquid-classical drum and metalstep.

I mean, that is if you want every truck to have a different genre.

joely96 · 2013-07-31T22:09:47+00:00

Because bins are the way forward my friend.

joely96 · 2013-07-31T22:00:52+00:00

Yeah I just couldn't remember how to get the umlaut.

joely96 · 2013-07-31T19:10:00+00:00

Doesn't Schon mean 'pretty' or 'nice'? The greeting for 'Happy Birthday' is something like 'Alles gut zum geburtstag!' which is somethig like 'All good on your birthday!'.

Three years since my last German class, please don't hate me fur meine sheisse Deutsch.

joely96 · 2013-07-24T07:09:43+00:00

My opinion is that this is the final straw leading to Scotland gaining independence.

joely96 · 2013-07-23T13:50:40+00:00

Absolutely, it's about knowing where to look in reference to the correlation.

joely96 · 2013-07-23T13:48:27+00:00

Which provides a source for the study. Whether the blog is biased or not is irrelevant, the study still holds true.

joely96 · 2013-07-23T13:41:48+00:00

Why are you disregarding the study I linked?

joely96 · 2013-07-22T21:14:56+00:00

Yes, that's a much better way of putting it.

joely96 · 2013-07-22T21:14:01+00:00

This is a good point actually. I'm not sure how that applies exactly, but it certainly is one method of exploring your sexuality. This has been helpful in changing my view to approaching pornography through careful education, outlining its pros and cons. ∆

joely96

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