@interfluidity @Phil

> Finland,

I am not in Finland, but there are a lot of Finns on fedi, and I have heard (I'd like to stress that this is second-hand) that the view is that resisting the Soviet occupation was a Pyrrhic victory in the sense that their current foreign and economic policy are largely driven by whether the US or Russia is applying more pressure.

> The US nuclear umbrella is globally important big government.

The globe doesn't fund it, though; the globe protests it, incessantly carries out online activism about American elections on American platforms, etc. The umbrella is one of the tendrils of US hegemony, and most of the people in charge have been interested in wielding this hegemony to run the world. Nuland said that her goal with Ukraine was to "give Russia its own Afghanistan"; hardly in the interest of the Ukrainian people to be used as a quagmire. It's not in the interest of Americans, either.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address (I'm quoting the reading copy; I don't know if there are substantial differences in the sections I quoted):

> AMERICAN MAKERS of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. [...] THIS CONJUNCTION of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. [...] IN THE COUNCILS of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

The feeling here is a very American non-interventionist sentiment, but in government, it's split between that and globalist hard-liners. Most regular people don't want to continue the sugar cane war that Teddy Roosevelt started with Brazil a century ago and the only thing keeping it going is that most people don't know about it. You ask almost any South American how they feel about US intervention, they've got different opinions.

> Whatever free riding is in that hadn't translated to Nordic levels of well-being in Greece or the UK.

The UK maintains its own nuclear arsenal.

> The Nordics are obviously doing some things right.

Libertas inaestimabilis res est. I'm glad to have what prosperity we do have, but cattle have a very high standard of living: I'd rather be free than a rich serf.

You know, if you wanna talk about standard of living, Liechtenstein has a very high one and has the legal right to abolish their government, cities have the right to secede.
07--the_3rd_world.mp3