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Originally posted by the_Etruscan:

quote:

Originally posted by Blueshift:
I know I've had thoughts along a similar vein from time to time, but in the end I always decided they were the wrong answer.

And that makes all the difference.

I'm sure Uberhind was only being rhetorically fascistic. OTOH, I know a Nietzschean when I see one.

When I burst into sobs at the sight of a man whipping his horse then am exiled behind the light of day until my death, you might be right. Until then, I'll associate myself more with Jean-Paul than with Friedrick.

I don't anyone who is actually a Nietzschean, even Fredrick himself wasn't a Nietzschean.

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When I burst into sobs at the sight of a man whipping his horse then am exiled behind the light of day until my death, you might be right.

And when that day comes, look over your shoulder, I'll be waiting in the wings to call you on it.

Maybe I misunderstood you, but it sounded more along the lines "I have to write to my representative" than "I have to replace my representative". Maybe it was that royal "We".

As for that unilateral autonomy, it was what the current administration used to justify all the foreign meddling it has been doing.

I am fairly sure that if the US (and NATO, but NATO is much less interventionist) forces were not on the defensive in Afghanistan, with limited reinforcements available, and only "The Hammer of God" (AKA Air Power) to keep the natives cowed, that guy would have been "rescued". But the superpower speech does not mean much in Afghanistan without a F-16 overhead. This shows that actually the US has no longer that autonomy, at least till they close some fronts. And the Afghans know.

That "We do it for their best, and they only return hatred" was one of the reasons why Colonialism collapsed back in the day (the fact that only a few privileged actually benefitted from the colonies also helped).

quote:

Originally posted by the_Etruscan:

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When I burst into sobs at the sight of a man whipping his horse then am exiled behind the light of day until my death, you might be right.

And when that day comes, look over your shoulder, I'll be waiting in the wings to call you on it.

The syphilis will be so rampant at that point I won't know who you are.

Actually, I wouldn't no who you were anyway unless you wore a sign or carried a cuticle around in a cup, but still...

Anorexic Bitch Abercrombie & Fitch Ad's pulled over obscenity charges.

About time. Hate these guys...

Nearly a quarter of Brits think Churchill was mythical.

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Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll which shows nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth, while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 per cent thought the 12th Century English King Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 per cent thought World War II prime minister Winston Churchill was made up.

The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three per cent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington were also in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 per cent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes actually existed, and 33 per cent thought the same of WE Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.

deary me. we've seen something like that from america too.

anyone done one down here (and the citizenship test doesn't count!)

I blame JK Rowling.

Gromit,

The frightening thing is that the whole concept of Democracy is based in discretion ("discernimento") and when education level sinks, people start loosing the discretion capability (ie, become unaware of the reasons and consequences of the choices they make).

So, bad education can lead to the decadence of Democracy.

And on that very subject...

Shouldn't that be "fewer than"?

I wonder, I mean truly, what it is like to exist as a person who doesn't know who Winston Churchill is, and when mentioned, decides that he is fictional.

Imagine the sort of mindset a worldview like that entails, imagine the life of someone like that. It would be almost like inhabiting an alien world, because, whatever it is that passes for reality for someone like that, it's clearly different from ours.

Sadly, it comes from a mind so ill considered in tis apprehension of the world that you would glean no insight from the very altered world in which said mind inhabits.

I can understand people not caring and learning such things, but when you take all the omissions of fact together, I can't imagine what their world is like from day to day.

Are they simply stupid and ignorant? Or, instead, are they so supremely solipsistic and phenomenological that nothing outside the context of themselves in their moment really exists?

It reminds me of Chia Pet McKenzie, who know what a swasitka is but not what it means, that there was a man named Hitler but not who he was...

Chia isn't stupid, but her world exists outside of history, indeed it exists as a pocket niche of pop culture. So highly specialized, so narrow, that the light from elsewhere doesn't often get in.

This is the way the children of today are being inculcated into society, or, perhaps, it is the way in which we are being inculcated into theirs.

And while it is easy for us to scoff at the stupidity we see there, their world might be much better. Unconcerned with the past, with our neuroses and pathos, perhaps, just maybe, they won't have the patience, inclination or interest to persist in the forward march of history.

Hasn't done us much good.

I think what we have here is a niche consciousness.

"Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

Perpetuating the status quo is in the best interest of some very big players, and you can be sure a mouth breathing, ignorant populace does a lot to secure them their "wealth".

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Originally posted by Boogerhead:
"Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

Perpetuating the status quo is in the best interest of some very big players, and you can be sure a mouth breathing, ignorant populace does a lot to secure them their "wealth".

Yes, but when said public looses all interest in their affairs and migrates to the increasingly virtual then the power they wield on the old world which they represent will become more irrelevant.

It's kind of like the new Western Schism only with one side trying to control the physical and the other to control the virtual.

Hmm... come to think of it, that was the schism, wasn't it?

I don't think we've ever seen what happens to a governing body when the public simply becomes totally apathetic to what they say and do while moving themselves into the post-geographic non-space of what will begin to comprise more and more of our daily reality.

There is something to be learned from how the country, as a whole, has reacted to the war in Iraq.

It form the background of the world for many of us, it's window dressing on a pane of glass we no longer look through and will soon forget is there. What does the war in Iraq matter to a 13 yr. old texting her friends instead of talking to them at lunch and watching YouTube instead of the Daily show (none of the surely having heard of what used to be called "the news.")

Granted, they are all kids now and likely wouldn't have had a huge interest in Gulf War One in 1991, but when these kids grow up I'm willing to bet the majority of them will have attitudes and behaviors that persist from being born into the world after reality.

I think a good deal of them are as "grown up" as they're going to get.

We are the Romans.

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Originally posted by ContritePuppy:

quote:

Originally posted by Boogerhead:
"Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

Perpetuating the status quo is in the best interest of some very big players, and you can be sure a mouth breathing, ignorant populace does a lot to secure them their "wealth".

Yes, but when said public looses all interest in their affairs and migrates to the increasingly virtual then the power they wield on the old world which they represent will become more irrelevant.

Um, isn't virtual reality where advertising happens? I tend to think corporate power is based in unreality.

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I don't think we've ever seen what happens to a governing body when the public simply becomes totally apathetic to what they say and do while moving themselves into the post-geographic non-space of what will begin to comprise more and more of our daily reality.

I don't know what happens to the governing body, but fully divorced from the world of consequences, I imagine people would have to develop the character and temperament of Olympian gods: vain, bored and sadistic.

But then, I doubt reality will go down without a fight. If 9/11 and Iraq weren't a tap on the shoulder, I have a feeling climate change will be a rude enough awakening. All that is required to restore reality is to cut off the juice; without electricity we may as well be living in the Iron Age.

The climate, sure, is very real. But government, like any other human institution, is only comprised of the nebulous, of ideas, of rules that aren't inherent in the natural world.

So, the transition, if from one form of selective reality to another.

Advertising, for the most part even still, relies on mass dissemination of and attention. Granted, the degree of attention varies. But if everyone is in a kind of niche world, as Gustave suggests, then they too have to redefine their reality insofar as the practice advertising. it's already moving in this direction, to niche marketing, long tail marketing as opposed to mass gaseous clouds of info-dumping.

I suppose, what we are talking about, is simply the fracturing of a dominant system of organization for a given "nation" or people.

Then again, it may simply persist in the manner it has and we, or I, am merely falling victim to the arrogance of all generations which seem to believe they exist on the cusp of some significant change, when in fact, they largely do not.

In any event, whatever does transpire, will not be decided upon consciously.

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The climate, sure, is very real. But government, like any other human institution, is only comprised of the nebulous, of ideas, of rules that aren't inherent in the natural world.

(You're forgetting about the army.)

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In any event, whatever does transpire, will not be decided upon consciously.

And therein lies the danger. Consciousness results from consequences.

Sarkozy & Bruni marry in Paris

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Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni reportedly met in November [actually Nov 23], soon after Mr Sarkozy's divorce.

Bruni 3 months pregnant
November 23rd... December 23rd... January 23rd... February... 5th? Something doesn't add up.