Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!gitpyr!ccoprmd
From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: chauvinism (was : Re: Discovery - UFO Close Encounter?)
Summary: No chauvinism, just realism
Message-ID: <7805@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: 1 Apr 89 21:02:42 GMT
References: <7751@pyr.gatech.EDU> <10245@nsc.nsc.com> <7787@pyr.gatech.EDU> <368@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 37

In article <368@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> sw@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (Stuart Warmink) writes:
>In article <7787@pyr.gatech.EDU>, ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Matthew T. DeLuca) writes:
>> [...]
>> As to who the aliens would contact...well, where would the best place be?  I
>> would vote for the United States, because (1) by almost any standard, we are 
>> the most advanced nation on earth, [...]
>
>I think you are lucky that usually postings to sci.space are restricted
>to the USA, otherwise you would soon be buried in flames by a lot of 
>Europeans and Japanese, and quite a few other nationalities too.
>Canadians are probably too polite to even comment on your statement, :-),
>but it really bugs me...

(Much drivel deleted)

I stand by my statement.  I did not say that the U.S. was the greatest nation 
on earth, or the freest, just that we are the most advanced.  And we are.  
Like I said in a previous posting, we have the largest infrastructure of any
nation (this includes roads, bridges, dams, power distribution systems...), 
we are the overall most technologically capable nation (yes, every nation
has its strong points, and many nations are better at things than the U.S., 
but overall, the U.S. is still on top (although not for long, if we don't 
do something)), and we have a damn fine political system, to boot (not to 
say that it's perfect...).  I say this to make a simple observation, not
to denigrate other nations; I dislike American ethnocentrism quite a bit, 
and try not to indulge in it myself (except in the case of France, whose
government I have serious differences with).  But don't confuse simple facts
with chauvinism, okay?




-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca                      :
Georgia Institute of Technology     : Remember, wherever you go, there you are.
ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu        :