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Doug Introduction

Hello to my fellow intellectually-vibrant Forum posters!

I am an old white male American, and a conservative to boot. (Doesn't sound very promising, I grant, but don't click off yet.) My interests are: politics, history, philosophy, science. I read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction, (and like to exchange tips on good books with other readers).

My chief political interest is: how can we bring liberal democracy to the Third World? (By 'liberal democracy' I mean: rule of law, democratically-accountable government, lightly-regulated market economy.) My answer at a very high level of abstraction is: European soft power (the Europeans having little hard power) + American hard power (the Americans being so inept at wielding soft power).

Although I am an American citizen, living in Britain, I consider myself an internationalist.

I am an atheist. However, I believe that a worldview which says that only matter-energy and space-time exist; that humans are only the accidental product of natural selection over time, and thus merely an assemblage of molecules; and that consciousness [and free will] are simply the emergent properties of a sufficiently-complex organisation of matter -- is inadequate to explain our experience. I don't know what is adequate ... if you do, enlighten me.

I was a Marxist for about twenty-five years, a member of a small but dedicated communist organisation. I was active in the Civil Rights movement in the South (I am a Southerner) in the early 60s. After finishing university I was drafted into the American Army (this was during the Vietnam war) and trained as a combat infantryman, but deserted on the way to Vietnam. I later served 6 months in military prison for this.

I was opposed to the Iraq war on prudential grounds until the successful elections there in January, which made me change my mind. I suppose you could say that today I am closest to the American tendency which is called "neo-conservative".

Introduction Doug

Welcome to this International Community!

To become integrated into the community you MUST understand these facts or your membership can be deleted:

1. All discussion is at an intellectual & constructive level, this means proper use of the English language, grammar and spelling!
2. Before you post ANYTHING please read the Constructive Posts thread to avoid us telling you
3. You must abide by ALL rules. We enforce them! If you did not read them - do so now
4. We immediately delete any member account found being sarcastic, spamming, using the community to advertise commercial products or services and / or seeking to violate any of the terms agreed upon sign-up.
5. Keep your profile up to date - especially your Email address. If we get several bounces from a full or unused Email address then your account will be deleted.
6. Members that do not post are eventually deleted along with their intro posts
7. If you still have questions AFTER reading the FAQ Board then please ask them WITHIN this thread, do not start a new thread just to ask a question.


Now that we have scared you sufficently - The best way to become integrated into our community is to post messages. Remember, you are one user out of hundreds of members. If anyone is going to 'see' you then they need to read your posts. Posts are messages you leave on the various boards we have here. Select 'See All Boards' or 'Site Map' from the top menu, it will load a page full of different boards.

Doug Introduction Sharing Member & Introductions

Welcome to the Forum, Doug! We are glad to have you join us. Thank you for a wonderful introduction! Please do update your profile to help us get to know you better (and to get rid of the "frog"), and follow our simple rules as Latina outlines above, and you should enjoy your activity here.

A former Marxist, now Neo-Con?! I'm sure you'll have much to say in our International and Activism topics, but please don't limit yourself to those boards.

We welcome your participation here, and look forward to your posts.

Welcome, and Enjoy!
Roz

Introduction Doug

Dough, I had to erase your last post on the thread 666 because it was not constructive. There are no reasons whatsoever to call anybody "idiots", so please read our guideliness for posting. Thanks.