[unloadedgunn]

Well astro, if I understand what you are saying. It boils down to something like "don't we all have a lot of gall to be contemplating these deep issues, when the 3rd world, which can not even hope to have its collective physical needs met hasn't the time, energy or capacity to ruminate like us fat and happy westerners"

I will attempt to convey my 2 cents about this...here goes.

1) We have ALL had our collective struggles NO MATTER what our ethnicity. I personally am Scottish, and not only have my clansman been persecuted and displaced generally by the Crown, but my clan SPECIFICALLY was marked by certain royals for total genocide...TWICE. Name and ethnic group (never mind I will) that hasn't been effected adversely by the PTB... um, I can't really think of one so I will list the ones who HAVE been screwed over.

The Native Americans, Aztecs, Aborigines, Africans, Central and South Americans, Eskimos, Hawaiians, Tibetans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Jews, Germans, Pretty much all the Slavics, Iraqis, Muslims, Palestinians, Maoris, Timorese, Serbs, Philipinos, Albanians, Indians, etc. So just because our status TODAY places us above worrying about our day-to-day needs and affords us the opportunity to dwell on the issues discussed herein...well that brings me to item 2.

2) IF YOU BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ HERE, ASTRO, THEN YOU BELIEVE THAT OUR TURN IS COMING! How many of the whistleblowers do you have to listen to before you believe that in all likelihood the next MAJOR war will occur on AMERICAN soil? Perhaps we have enjoyed a few years of relative peace, but we may yet pay for it in the end. Relative peace brings me to item 3.

3) Our ancestors arrived here as early as around 1600 and STRUGGLED to eke out a living. I am still awestruck by the vast stretches of pasture here in New England with all of the stone walls. I am in awe of it because this was done by back breaking labor, blood, sweat, and tears...um and maybe an oxen or two. The early settlers worked 18 hour days to get us where we are today. THEN came the Revolutionary War, then the Civil War, the mass slaughter which was WW II, then Korea, then Viet Nam, the Grenada, then Gulf War I, then Bosnia, then Afganistan, then Gulf War II, now we have the ugly specter of a potential conflict with Iran looming on the horizon, and I personally think we WILL be seeing Chinese and/or Russian troops HERE with 2 years.

4) On a more personal note; my mom was a single parent raising 4 children with no child support, before that, during the Depression, my uncle had to "jack" deer in order to put food on the table. WE ALL pull ourselves up from whatever our environmental conditions to become what we are (MAYBE) See if you believe any of the metaphysical ***** you read on this site, then you believe that we make a choice to incarnate into whatever situation we now find ourselves in. I'm guessing the poor African baby who dies of an easily curable condition like diarhea, gets where its going a lot quicker than you and me, fat and happy as we are.

5) If we, who have the time energy and the computers to study this stuff, and hopefully DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, don try, who will???

If you ask me if we are elitist (meaning me) I would have to say "no". You on the other hand...