Published on 12, July, 2020
Have any of you read that short story or listened to it for free on YouTube? It's by Dostoevsky and I get the feeling the character is Autistic.
How fitting, given how the worship of Science led to our demise, these past few years.
We were innocent, until the pursuit of endless knowledge. When, instead, we should pursue skills and responsibilities.
Yes, I think science is perfectly awful, taken to extremes. People are obsessed with having perfect teeth and living as long as possible but the soul is not cherished siometimes.
Most things are perfectly awful taken to extremes (religion, politics - just look at the far-right etc.), it depends what context you're applying that extreme to.
What have teeth got to do with this? The level of specious reasoning from you two is very alarming. What basis of scientific understanding has not having rotten teeth got to do with your version of social decay?
Here are some things science have done for your life:
Without scientists the world over, brilliant minds leading humanity forward in the face of capitalist greed, delusions, and stupidity, we're very much in trouble.
Hopefully, they'll be able to alleviate the climate crisis we're marching into. Unless you want to deny that exists (due to the propaganda and misinformation campaigns funded by major oil companies).
Is that the climate crisis caused by our Co2 emiisions (which are dwrfed by Volcanic co2 emissions but let's not let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good socialist politcal rant shall we?)
Is this the climate crisis that is SO SEVERE that our temps are approaching those found on the front pages of an 1800's newspaper?
OR is it the climate crisiis cooked up by a bunch of greedy rapscallions hell bent of tricking us all into eating bugs and living a micromanaged uniform existence, whilst they lord it over us?
And just in case it's real, (I'd like to see a series of public debates, myself, before Karl Scwab re-sets global food production policy for us all, and so would the farming community).
What changes have YOU personally made to reduce your energy consumption or waste production, before lecturing others about theirs?
And some of us are all bleating "follow the science" when they really mean "follow the guy who claims to be the science" whereas THE ACTUAL SCIENTISTS who engineered the MRNA tech and PCR test disagreed with much of what happend a couple of years agao and were censoered and ignored by most.
Just because you've got a single idea in your head "Socialism is the cure" is NOT and excuse to denigrate Desmonds way of life or ideas, is not an excuse to pillory him in public as you just did and I for one and getting sick or reading your "socialism is wonderful" screeds, becue the evidence throughout history suggests it's just a way of killng all aspiration in as group of people and dragging it down to the lowest social denominator.
I thought we had a no politics rule here, as well as a "be nice to people" rule?
I'm sorry if speaking my mind violates the be nice rule but EVERY BLOODY DAY BP64 is banging on along the lines of "socilism is highest possible for of human endeavour" when it plainly isn't.
Why can't we try Robert Heinleins idea of "Enlightened Self-Interest" which at least doesn't require us all to think and act the same or follow a discredited and faulty dogma peddled by self serving, virtue signalling, idiots??
Yes.
My daily commute to work was 75 miles each way for about 5 years.
A large luxurious but old & hence inexpensive car was exactly the right tool for my life situation. It helped me pay the bills.
There is a steady supply of large luxury vehicles that no one wants because they confer no "status" but they still have 100's of thousands of miles left in them. The resources have already been pulled from mother nature, AND I had basic diagnositc and vehicle maintenacne skills.
20 years later I still have the same Daimler 4.0 I don't need such a car any more, but no one else wants it, (yet, but it's on the upwards part of the desirabilty curve again now) there's still a good few miles left in it, and I like driving it when I can.
As for "Socialism" it's to often used a tool for those who cannot have a thing, due to inescapable life limitations, to try and take it away from those who can. I'm sorry for those poor people out there who unlike me, becuse of lack of skills and knowledge can never own an old Jaguar, (even more sorry for those who lack those skills etc, but try anyway!) LIFE is NOT FAIR.
We are not all identical mindless "consuming units" like they try to tell you you are, we are all DIVERSE, and want different things, and means we get a society where some are richer than others, some are more good looking, some are socially advantaged.
Simplifiying sich a complex tapestry of desires, means, and abilities, into a simple left,right / socialist,cosnervatve paradigm is doomed to failure.
I am a socialist. I believe in eqaulity, but I cannot see any way to achieve it. I do not believe anyone should own a large or luxurious car unless they are disabled physically. Capitalism has ruined a lot of things. But I cannot force people to be socialists, people have free will, and most people will choose to not be socialists, based on my experience, therefore I struggle to see how there is any hope at all, because I am not willing to kill myself to benefit other people, I am not Jesus, is that what it takes to find paradise?
What Desmond is continuously doing on this forum is conflating the issue as it suits his agenda. And the reality is rather damning for a personal set of ideologies like his.
The fact is, the 20th century was dominated by hard-right capitalist ideology.
Especially since Thatcherite and Reaganite economics from the '80s, which directly links to a huge proportion of modern problems. Not least avarice, inequality, and economic uncertainty.
But as always, the standard ultra-conservative response to that is gaslighting. Take zero accountability, blame everyone else. So even though it's grounded in ignorance, specious reasoning, and utter cluelessness, these people look to scapegoat. So societal woes are due to everything else except the very thing causing all the problems. It's classic grand scale Dunning-Kruger effect in action and, sadly, a reflection of how effective the right-wing billionaire press demagogue has been.