1/20/16 Acting Dumb Is A Skill Of The Masses?

    I am almost done reading The Lucifer Principle, and the ideas it keeps proposing still astonish me, even with less than thirty pages left to read.  The latest one starts out being proposed at the animal level.  He is talking about his german shepherd dog and how he loves going out to the park, his dog normally is bigger and thus usually wins in their sniff each other and bounce around thing that dogs do.  He loves the interaction because for the most part he comes out on top.  There are exceptions and it seems that when he is encountered by a bigger dog, such as a great dane, his dog acts blind, or aloof.  He will not head in the direction of the larger animal, he already knows he will not win.  This tactic is seen all the time in the wild.  It is observed in baboon populations when the established male is being challenged by a new alpha male who might best him, sometimes all the older male will do is ignore the new challenger.  He might act like he doesn't notice him and instead act real interested in a paper wrapper, like he is studying it.  If he has been a good leader and has good relations with the other males, sometimes this can be enough to deter a new challenger and keep the old male in power a little longer, but the end is coming, he knows it.
    He uses this to explain what happened in Cambodia shortly after we were "defeated" in Vietnam.  We did not have the fortitude to go in again, we had in the world view been knocked down a few pegs, and could not take another challenge to our psyche.  Our best approach was to ignore what was happening to the millions of people that were slaughtered by Pol Pot.  Because we have not risen back to the top seat as the world's police, he insists, is the main reason we do not engage currently in what is happening in Africa.  We are letting the slaughter of millions of innocent Africans happen because we do not want to engage only to find that we are again short handed and left embarrassed on the world stage again.
    After World War I, America's standing army had been reduced to almost nothing, they declared after winning the first World War, they would not involve themselves again, America was in a recession, this must have given the Japanese the heads up and ambition to think if we strike and take out their navy, we can keep the Americans conquered.  I can see why then they would risk doing what they did in Pearl Harbor, unfortunately for them, America was in a position to react thanks to the steel industries and the military complex spread throughout the United States.  Ships were being built on both coasts, it would have been impossible to take out the building shipyards, as ships were coming out of Maine all the way around to San Francisco.  Once forced in, GI Joe would not stop until Hitler was forced into a suicide situation and Japan tasted the first two nuclear bombs.