For free will to exist you need a soul. Otherwise, you are a slave to your biology and circumstance.
Most people aren't libertarians; they're compatiblists so you're arguing against a small population.
>>682019
How would free will work with a soul exactly?
Do you get to choose your soul?
Free will doesn't exist and you're a slave to the aforementioned forces. That wasn't hard.
What does /his/ think about Lord Kenneth Clark and his BBC documentary Civilisation? Do you agree that architecture is the best judge of what makes a culturemore than literature, art, etc.?
>>681863
Yes, because architecture is universal while reading and art are exclusive to the upper classes, especially in the pre-Modern periods. Although I would say a people's folklore and fairytales are even more important, but they was usually confined to a oral tradition so are largely lost to us.
>>681863
No, not when the oral tradition is factored into the concept of literature
>Dialectical materialism works like cocaine, let's say. If you sniff it once or twice, it may not change your life. If you use it day after day, though, it will make you into an addict, a different man.
>>681827
a lot of these are great
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words
>be General John Sedgwick
>"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"
>get shot
>>683780
nice, thanks
>>683780
>June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed.
>Who: Union Soldier
>Note: Found in a blood-spattered diary on the body of a Union soldier on June 3rd, 1864.[1]
Damn
Was Genghis Khan a happy man?
On the end of the day: are great war-lords happy people?
>>681820
Since he's not around to be sycho-analysed and we know next to nothing about his personal life, it's unknown.
Depends on the warlord. Some are just power hungry brutes and become burdened with the stresses of empire. I think Genghis felt that he was meant to be a conqueror and that gave him a sense of purpose.
>>681820
did the khan eat ass?
I'm just now learning about Greek mythology, is it true that the figure of Dionysus was a precursor to Christ?
>son of god and mortal
>revealed secrets of eternal life
>cultists partake of his body
Maybe the idea of this figure soaked into the greeks and influenced the idea of a Christ who "fulfilled" the old testament Yahweh cult.
Or is it just a coincidence.
Dyonisus is egyptian Osiris
I wouldn't really call him a precursor except superficially, the main similarity being that you eat and drink him (a not uncommon concept with crop or vine gods, since they were seen as the personification of crops or wine). In substance, though, they are not similar at all.
>>681778
It just seems like subconsciously they would create the Christ figure to have the well-known traits of the existing gods of their era. Esp when the New Testament is such a chronological and thematic break from the Old Testament.
Tell me about the Philippine-American war.
>>681655
>>681655
It was a continuation of the Philippine independence war against Spain that the Americans originally supported. However, during peace talks the Spanish, instead of releasing the Philippines, simply transferred governance to the American military, who then simply sat on the Philippines as military governors. Aguinaldo's government wasn't recognized by the US, who wanted to create their own government in order to secure a military base and influence in...
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Colt 45 made to kill cracked out Phillipines
>>682381
so the pinoys were vicious little buggers right?
Why is hedonism bad?
Isn't the persuade of joy and happiness the goal of every human on earth? Wouldn't smug self satisfaction in one's own strength/intellect/purity be worse or more dickish than consumption and pursuit of physical pleasure?
Are anti-hedonist just cucks who don't like fun?
It's not that I don't want carnal pleasure...sometimes even to the point that it's very painful for me to not have it. It's just that God is more important.
>>681601
t. best goy
>>681601
>Isn't the persuade of joy and happiness the goal of every human on earth?
Spending decades honing your art as a sculptor or refining your piety in a religious system is also a "pleasure". You can use word-games to define it that way. Doesn't change the fact that when people say "hedonism" they're usually speaking about retards in clubs who lack concept of anything but instant gratification, which becomes less "pleasurable" in the long-run...
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Cont. in next post
This is a wild theory so bear with me. Since the beginning of the 20th Century -- since the end of the war of 1904 (Japan vs. Russia) --, the US had been hatching some kind of longterm plan to virtually control the Pacific Ocean. Japan always knew one day, they'd have to face the US; likewise, the US always knew that their main rival in the Pacific was Imperial Japan. Indeed, Japan was the only major military and naval power in East Asia. Even then, the US greatly underestimated the capacity of the Empire of Japan to wage war at sea, even weeks after...
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Some could argue the US did all that to push Japan to war. Indeed, the US were sure to win in a naval war against Japan (or in any case, they were sure it would be an easy war). East Asia is an essential part of the world for the US: a number of precious resources can be found there, and most importantly, keeping East Asia under US control would mean the total safety of the US West coast. So it was only natural for the US to be willing to keep East Asia under their control.
Since the US victory in 1945, Japan is nothing more than a US colony really. It may sound provocative...
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A good deal of your post(s) reminds me of a scene from a Tom Clancy novel. The head of the KGB complains that the Party and government want to know what foreign leaders are thinking, despite the fact that these leaders often don't know themselves. He asks himself why the agency doesn't use gypsy fortune tellers. Governments often don't do advanced plans well, as the government (in the US, at least) changes every 4 or 8 years.
>>681354
>>681364
Ehh, it has a few holes in it.
For instance.
>The naval treaty of 1921, which limitated the naval forces of each signing countries, the second treaty of 1930, then the third in 1936, were quite annoying for Japan, which needed to keep a strong naval force, being an island nation.
The naval treaties established a 5:5:3 ratio in tonnage between the U.S., UK, and Japan. (And some other nations were involved,...
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tfw no free will
>>681348
Ok. Does it matter?
I don't notice or care so whatever. Hell, it might make life a little easier pre-cognition or whatever
Prove it
stick a finger up your ass, why would a higher power ever want you to do that
How were the Albanians treated in the Ottoman Empire? Did they adopt Islam to appease to the Turks or were they significantly Turkified at some point?
>>681307
>Albanians
>a thing before WW1
Nice one, OP.
>>681307
Albanians and Bosnian Serbs were either allies, auxiliaries, vassals or enfranchised nobles of the Turks even since Pecheneg Turks way back in 11th century.
Most Turkified Albanians and Bosniaks are basically close special relationships during Pecheneg, Seljuk, Ottoman times nearly for a millennium. Those serbs who fought beside Beyazid the Thunderbolt against Timur's Army in the Battle of Angora were given "timarli" status (only given to Turkic landowners) as a sign of their bravery. Most (including...
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>>681307
Balkan Muslims were generally respected and often given very prestigious positions.
Abanians were pretty Islamic until the advent of Hoxha's meme communism.
I wonder if Albanians realize how stupid they sound when they say " I'm not Muslim/Christian... my religion is Albanianism" For some reason keep hearing it from them.
This guy walks up to you, with a boombox on his shoulder playing this song, asking you how everything's going to turn out.
What do you do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzu01gO3pi4&list=RDbzu01gO3pi4#t=2
Convert to the cult of the supreme being immediately
>>681275
Declare my neighbor a counter-revolutionary
How was the Korean war from a military technological standpoint?
Everyone had their shiny toys they developed during the WW2 and now they had new ones too, and then they hoped that this jet shit actually works?
>>681045
The two Koreas performance was a massive shitshow.
>South Koreans get BTFO in all fronts at the start
>But this is understandable as they didn't get the same military assistance as North Korea (i.e. USSR gave NK a "My first modern army" set pretty much.)
>NK got BTFO by Americans
>NK and its mechanized army was saved by - of all people- a largely infantry Chinese army to whom even...
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>>681045
On the Chinese side, the innovations were not technological. They were doctrinal and thus were vastly more important than any flash toy.
>>681081
being mostly infantry allowed the PLA to outflank MacArthur and block his supply roads. Trucks can't drive over hilly terrain that well
War , when it comes down to it, is all about the humble grunt. Always have been and always will be, since that is the means by which territory is held and defended
After the rise of Buddhism in India, Hinduism was pushed to the side for many years
After the decline of Buddhism and the revival of Hinduism, Hinduism had changed
It's focus shifted away from vedic deities such as Indra and focused more on the Trimuri (Mainly Shiv、and Vishnu)
How true is this?
buddhism came from hinduism, neither declined but are geographically separated
hinduism came from vedism, indra was only ever vedic not hindu
>>681015
redpill me on relevance of jainism and sikhism
i heard the whole idea of karma itself comes from the former
>>681033
karma comes from tantrism which goes into far more depth on the topic than jainism
>tfw you're devastated your countrymen burned down one of the most beautiful gardens of history.
I support imperial Britain and the ideas that were behind it, but we also did terrible things (pic related occurred during the arrow war).
Was it all worth it /his/?
>>680990
>I support imperial Britain and the ideas that were behind it
>>680990
Make an enemy of Britain and your life and culture is forfeit.
>I support imperial Britain
*tips fedora*
was Yugoslavia only good when a Croat ruled it ?
yes, after he died serbs started with their nationalistic bullshit again
>>680949
was Tito a Croat nationalist? what do croats and what do serbs think of him today?
>>680952
it's complicated
one the one hand: Tito was a croat that did what croats wanted - decentrilized yugo, brought constitution, kicked the serbian "royal" family out of the country, gave Croatia its coast back, etc.
but, nationalists hate him because he wasnt an ustasha, they're idiots, most croats love him
i think some serbs like him aswell tho, specially the yugoboos and old people, but nationalists depict him as a ustasha
small nations like him the most, like macedonia and...
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