Alexander the great; can he be reapeted?

[maximus]

Hello one and all
Alexander the great as we all know was one of the greatest military leaders of all time. He conquered nearly all of the known world in his suprisingly short life span. However could an Alexander the great figure ever emerge again? An out of the ashes greek general? Or maybe a gung ho american field marshal?My question is not whether Alexander's military tact or genius could be repeated, but, whether another milatry figure could rival his achievments? Could a chinaman take over all of Asia? or perhaps America will put its aims to conquering the Middle East, instead of, rather unsuccesfully, pacifying it.Was Alexander the Great's military mind so intune with the military situation at his time or was his pure genius the main factor behind his success, and if so could a modern day general rivil his feat? It is true that we have groups like the United Nations to protect the military minds of people like Alexander to stop their ambitions reaching fruition, however as we saw with the Iraq, they can be bypassed. Was Alexanders feats due to the lack of comparable enemies? Memnon of Rhodes, his only true equal, was dead?U can make ur minds up for yourselves, however please share them!Ben(Maximus)

[jan]

Good question, and the answer is NO! The television is the only world conqueror today! Maybe the internet will give television a run for its money, but no major world conquerors will ever subjugate the existing world to its will ever again!Christians believe that Christconsciousness will manifest itself, but no single entity alone will ever be able to approach even the agenda of Adolph Hitler. Television and instant communications is the main reason why. So long as images can be piped into your home, you have knowledge which empowers you to act against a potential foe.Whether Alexander is friend or foe is a matter of opinion too!

[marcus]

I agree that the answer is no, but I'm not sure I agree with your statement that the ubiquitousness of television is what prevents anyone from being able to achieve such a level of conquest. Used cleverly enough, all forms of communication media can turn, potentially, millions of people to understanding, believing or whatever, almost anything. Just remember what a panic Orson Welles' radio dramatisation of "The War of the Worlds" caused - OK, so to some extent people were less sophisticated over the use of the media then; but the principle can be seen in more modern times - the drastic action the US government had to take, releasing otherwise classified documents in the wake of Oliver Stone's "JFK"; and the way in which people are taken in wholesale, every day, by what are, quite frankly, lies in the tabloid press.What will stop a wannabe world conqueror is the existence of too many large and technologically resourceful powers, with too many of their own agendas for similar 'world conquest' (I don't mean to intimate by that that the US, UK, Russia, China or any other state is actually planning their own world conquests, by the way). I would suggest that the last time any 'conquest' happened that was at all comparable to Alexander's conquests was the rapid spread of world communism - and that occurred as a result of nearly 200 years of socio-political 'revolution' (or lack of it, depending on where you look).All the bestMarcus