Reply #20: "Stoner dude?"

[Muddleoftheroad]

You must be from California. In Virginia, I've never heard anyone use that term.

I think part of our basic disagreement is the concept of slavery. Slavery was more than just economics. It was a social institution that devastated the lives of millions. THAT is not just economic.

What was at stake was the future of an entire race of people on the American continent. What was at stake was the future of the freedoms that all Americans hold dear. Lincoln knew that, though he only reluctantly eliminated slavery.

As for war, it is also more than just a business institution. War is politics as one side tries to enforce its collective will on the other. War, in this case, was Bloody Kansas and John Brown's Raid taken to their logical social and political conclusions. War was more than just some industrialist getting his pockets lined. Those industrialists didn't make the war happen and they couldn't have stopped it short of ending slavery.

There have always been things in the world worth fighting for. Sometimes directly against those same industrialists, sometimes against men who would seek to do harm to others. Not all problems can be solved over the negotiating table. That is where you and I shall always disagree.