[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Mad SCO Disease

gepr at tempusdictum.com gepr at tempusdictum.com
Wed Jun 30 01:45:51 UTC 2004


Jeme A Brelin writes:
 > Carry it, and you keep things as they are or maybe
 > make them just a tiny bit worse.

_If_ that's true (and I'm not saying it is), then count me in as one
of the people who will either make the world stay the same or make
it worse.  Because, to be quite honest, I don't care about these
abstract concepts of "the world" or "peace" or "violence".  I _do_
care whether I can garner enough resources to take care of my tribe.

Call me evil if that makes you feel better.  But, there it is.  I 
_do_ read alot, though.  And I watch tv.  So, if you can get your
message out there and repeat it enough times, perhaps I'll begin 
to believe it.

In the meantime, I have to stockpile my resources for a rainy day.

 > There's more to it than that.  The fear and violence are used as an
 > effective means of making sure some have very much while others have very
 > little.

Sure, but they're also used to provide certain people with unimaginable
wealth so they can fart around in their laboratories without worrying
about working for a living.  Look at all the "great scientists" of the
past.  They've all been rich guys who had nothing better to do with 
their time than sit around in salons and argue.

Rich guys.  Guys who profited from the fear and violence you rail 
against.  Slave owners.  Rapists.  Monsters, really.  You'd have
us eliminate people like Jefferson and da Vinci, eh?  Sheesh, where
would that leave us?

 > > Yeah, I agree.  And, to be honest, most of the people who have carried
 > > their weapons into my house or my friends' houses while I've been there
 > > and pulled them out for some reason have freaked me out a bit.
 > 
 > Right.  It's not just about how EFFECTIVE your solution might be, it's
 > about how pleasant it is, too.

That's true.  But, my emotions of "freaked out" were not such bad
things, really.  In fact, if all my friends were pacifists, I'd be
quite bored at parties.  Half the fun is watching the spaz get lit and
pick a fight.

 > We're not talking about equilibrium, we're talking about minimum
 > standards.  There's a huge difference.

No, we're talking about equilibrium.  You want to limit the dynamics
of social evolution (as distinct from biological evolution).  And 
if you limit those dynamics, you approach equilibrium.

 > > Or "public education", which is a policy that is intended to provide
 > > anyone and everyone with the same education.  Ack!
 > 
 > Again, it's a base-line.  Hopefully you didn't get ALL of your education
 > from school.

They tried like hell to limit me to the stilted concepts they wanted
me to learn.  For instance, the presentation of Calculus is horribly
demented.  I much prefer the original alchemical purposes for which it
was developed.  And I'm also quite fond of Jack Parsons' (one of the
founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) firm belief that explosive
devices were siblings to the more subtle potions that couls summon
elementals and fabulous riches.

 > The Universal Declaration of Human Rights isn't an insistence that
 > everyone become the same, but a recognition that there are some small ways
 > in which we ARE the same and those needs should be assured before we can
 > spend serious time working on those things that make us different.

It may not be an _insistence_ (whatever that may mean); but, it 
_is_ a suggestion that we should all try to be like the other 
people in the clique.  Yech.  I wasn't a conformist in high school
and I'll be damned if I'm going to be one at my age, even if I 
were capable.

So, you go form your Utopia... I'll be waiting offshore with my
longboats and broadswords anxious for a taste of those luscious,
ivory-skinned beauties who were reared on milk and honey.  And
then when I and my fellow brutes land, you can argue with us about
how wrong it is to kill you and take your women. (Sorry, ladies, 
I suppose I could just as easily inverted the image.)

-- 
glen e. p. ropella              =><=                           Hail Eris!
H: 503.630.4505                              http://www.ropella.net/~gepr
M: 971.219.3846                               http://www.tempusdictum.com





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