About "change"

[MO]

Change you can believe in?

A must read-
www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=37597

[angrypuppy]

'Everybody is happy now'

A world of genetically modified babies, boundless consumption, casual sex and drugs ... How does Aldous Huxley's vision
of a totalitarian future stand up 75 years after Brave New World was first published, asks Margaret Atwood
"O brave new world, that has such people in't!"
Miranda, in Shakespeare's The Tempest, on first sighting the shipwrecked courtiers

In the latter half of the 20th century, two visionary books cast their shadows over our futures. One was George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, with its horrific vision of a brutal, mind-controlling totalitarian state - a book that gave us Big Brother and thoughtcrime and newspeak and the memory hole and the torture palace called the Ministry of Love and the discouraging spectacle of a boot grinding into the human face forever.

The other was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), which proposed a different and softer form of totalitarianism - one of conformity achieved through engineered, bottle-grown babies and hypnotic persuasion rather than through brutality, of boundless consumption that keeps the wheels of production turning and of officially enforced promiscuity that does away with sexual frustration, of a pre-ordained caste system ranging from a highly intelligent managerial class to a subgroup of dim-witted serfs programmed to love their menial work, and of soma, a drug that confers instant bliss with no side effects.

Which template would win, we wondered. During the cold war, Nineteen Eighty-Four seemed to have the edge. But when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, pundits proclaimed the end of history, shopping reigned triumphant, and there was already lots of quasi-soma percolating through society. True, promiscuity had taken a hit from Aids, but on balance we seemed to be in for a trivial, giggly, drug-enhanced spend-o-rama: Brave New World was winning the race.

That picture changed, too, with the attack on New York's twin towers in 2001. Thoughtcrime and the boot grinding into the human face could not be got rid of so easily, after all. The Ministry of Love is back with us, it appears, though it's no longer limited to the lands behind the former iron curtain: the west has its own versions now.

On the other hand, Brave New World hasn't gone away. Shopping malls stretch as far as the bulldozer can see. On the wilder fringes of the genetic engineering community, there are true believers prattling of the gene-rich and the gene-poor - Huxley's alphas and epsilons - and busily engaging in schemes for genetic enhancement and - to go one better than Brave New World - for immortality.

Would it be possible for both of these futures - the hard and the soft - to exist at the same time, in the same place? And what would that be like?

Surely it's time to look again at Brave New World and to examine its arguments for and against the totally planned society it describes, in which "everybody is happy now". What sort of happiness is on offer, and what is the price we might pay to achieve it?

www.huxley.net/studyaid/bnw.html

[midcan5]

If there is one truism in this world, it is that prognosticators for future bad things to happen are always wrong, actually even for good things they are often wrong. Life is lived, not viewed through a negative filter of bad news.

For thought consider Iraq, we would be greeted as liberators and it would be over in no time? They now want us gone and what year is it?

Or consider how deregulation would free up the markets and happy days would be here again.

Or consider the enormous wealth that would have come to retirees, if only they had invested in the market. You know that one that sank and sank and.... who needs SS?

Or consider how global outsourcing would contribute to the well being of all Americans? As knowledge jobs leave and the voice on the other end is foreign and you have no idea what to do next...

Folks, support America, buy American when you can and vote for Obama/Biden. Change is a requirement and fantasy just that fantasy.

[angrypuppy]

Oct 20, 2008 19:18:56 GMT -5 midcan5 said:

If there is one truism in this world, it is that prognosticators for future bad things to happen are always wrong, actually even for good things they are often wrong. Life is lived, not viewed through a negative filter of bad news.

For thought consider Iraq, we would be greeted as liberators and it would be over in no time? They now want us gone and what year is it?

Or consider how deregulation would free up the markets and happy days would be here again.

Or consider the enormous wealth that would have come to retirees, if only they had invested in the market. You know that one that sank and sank and.... who needs SS?

Or consider how global outsourcing would contribute to the well being of all Americans? As knowledge jobs leave and the voice on the other end is foreign and you have no idea what to do next...

Folks, support America, buy American when you can and vote for Obama/Biden. Change is a requirement and fantasy just that fantasy.

If there is one truism in this world, it is that prognosticators for future bad things to happen are always wrong, Life is lived, not viewed through a negative filter of bad news.


Sounds like You are drinking your own Kool-Aid Midcan. Here is a Truism for You. "Don't Believe Everything You Read". Your Premise starts off with a Bold Faced Lie and then goes down hill.

For thought consider Iraq, we would be greeted as liberators and it would be over in no time? They now want us gone and what year is it? I don't know, maybe We can ask a Soldier stationed in Germany, Japan, Italy, S. Korea, Kosovo, Bosnia, what Year it is. Tell me this though What Year of the Jihad is it?

Or consider how deregulation would free up the markets and happy days would be here again.

Or consider the enormous wealth that would have come to retirees, if only they had invested in the market. You know that one that sank and sank and.... who needs SS?
I Too have a Problem with Big Government in bed with Big Corporate Monopolies. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , Predatory Lending, High Fee's and Taxation, are really hard to overcome. I Support Natural Law, Government needs to focus more on maintaining a clean Playing Field, not so much choosing the winner of a game before the game is even started. In My neck of the woods that Trait would disqualify the Referee. Of course High Gas Prices had nothing to do with tanking the economy either midcan... huh. How is Social Security going to be paid out 10 years from now? in Yen?

Or consider how global outsourcing would contribute to the well being of all Americans? As knowledge jobs leave and the voice on the other end is foreign and you have no idea what to do next...

Folks, support America, buy American when you can and vote for Obama/Biden. Change is a requirement and fantasy just that fantasy.


Consider that the effect of High Taxation is Outsourcing, The more burdens & restrictions placed on a manufacturer, the greener the pasture that is anywhere but here. I believe in Qualified Restrictions, that involve Justification, Transparency and Accountability.

Change is a Constant Midcan.

[midcan5]

So you know a fortune teller who knows that these negative things will happen when Obama is elected. Can we wait a few years and see how many are right? My bet is none. Yes, change is constant but that isn't relevant.

Iraq is already a fact and that statement is a fact, you have no argument there. Jihad is a word as is terrorism and invading a sovereign nation for trumped up reasons had nothing to do with Jihad or terrorism.

SS is sound. Natural laws? that's a tough one. Tell me a natural law?

Cheap labor is the main cause of outsourcing, taxes may play a part but are not key.

[angrypuppy]

Midcan: So you know a fortune teller who knows that these negative things will happen when Obama is elected.

I Don't Need a Fortune Teller to Recognize a Force that Claims that I and Everything I have, how much, or how little, is the Property of The State. Wait and See While The State Out Laws Dissension, Difference of Opinion, Free Speech, Free Will. We have Hate Crimes, Thought Crimes, New Speak.

Can we wait a few years and see how many are right? My bet is none.
Bet Your Own Funds and Future, Not Anyone Else's without Consent.

Yes, change is constant but that isn't relevant.

Does This Statement even warrant a Response? Does Your Mommy know what Your Stand is on this Matter? Cause Has Effect, Ignore It at Your Peril. You may Presume that Natural Law is Unrelated to Government, and that in Itself may be the Root of Your Dilemma.


Iraq is already a fact and that statement is a fact, you have no argument there.

Yes I do. Though I may have issues with the timing, and Miss steps along the way. The Part of Islam I have Issue with is that Which Professes World Domination, The Islamic Totalitarian State. Now I know that Marxist share similar Views there, and it hard for You to pull away from the Fantasy of Lock step long enough to see that Their beet is different from Yours, but Stepping away far enough, You should see that Though Your Beats are similar, They are not compatible, and the end Result will be Your Ruin as well as the Ruin You Force on Those under Your Guidance. Islam needs to learn to play fairly with All of the other kids in the sand box, Midcan, So do the Marxists. There is No Containment, This being the Case, Intervention is Required. Play with Yourself, Play with Others, Play with Your Toys, I encourage You to Share, and be Tolerant of Others. Do Not Steal, or attempt to Take from Others what is not Yours to Take. Do not Corrupt Principal, while Negotiating with Others. Play Nice now, and remember "Do Not Covet".


Jihad is a word as is terrorism and invading a sovereign nation for trumped up reasons had nothing to do with Jihad or terrorism.

Jihad is a Title Wave, Who's End is Totalitarian. It is Existent in Most Countries, It is Not Contained by Geographical Boundaries. The Sovereign Nation You Refer to Was Not Innocent, and was Not Neutral.


SS is sound.

Have You Learned a Single Lesson in this Last Month, or have You Slept through it?

Natural laws? that's a tough one. Tell me a natural law?
Water boils at 212 Degree Fahrenheit at Sea Level.
For Every Action there is a Reaction..... oh let Me think .....

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

Cheap labor is the main cause of outsourcing, taxes may play a part but are not key.

Cost, Labor, Resource, Transport, Restriction, Fines, Fee's Penalties, Surcharges, Gas, Gas, Gas, Gas, Gas. What cleaned out Our Reserves before the Fall? Gas Prices. Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill.