jlc

I like Churchill's version: “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

Jan

That was an interesting poll, CBJ. Thank you for posting. I think that you are right in that 'how something is termed' greatly influences the results of the poll. I also note that the Reason poll was unavoidably biased in favor of 'people who were willing to take the time to answer a poll on the telephone'. That SO would not have included me!

Jan

Point for over-the-top rhetoric.

Jan

It is certainly the liberals who are currently promoting the idea that new tech (esp. anti-aging) will only be available to the elite. The greatest barrier to new tech is regulation, not elitism.

Jan

I have some friends and acquaintances who are involved in Maker stuff. One of the, a dropout from a Chem PhD program, has started several Maker facilities.

If I had lots of extra time on my hands...

Jan

It was a wonderful movie; I need to see it again. The scene where the bone transforms into the space vehicle one of the best ever filmed.

One of the ways in which the movie is apparently correct is that we have since learned that the size of hominin brain increased in approximate conjunction with their dentition changing to carnivore. It is meat that fuels our brains.

Insofar as the new tech only being available to the elite. Ha! They may wish it were so, but that rabbit jumped out of the bag long since. Between 3D printing and Makerfairs, biotech is becoming more distributed (and hence less controllable) every year, just as power is. We need Time.

Jan

They are fleeing 'being killed'. (Except for the handful who are sprinting toward 'killing others'.)

Jan

Awwww. Sweet.

What an excellent metaphorical (and probably real!) collection to have.

Jan

Thank you. I am still playing around with some of the parts of this idea, trying to test it's soundness. I don't think it is quite set yet...

Jan

It is a historical perspective that I have on this, blarman. I will try to get a detailed response when I have a bit of time...

Jan

Chuckle!

Interesting that it makes sense to you (the first part, not the drowning kids part). This is still a new idea that I am playing around with in my head. Not quite baked yet.

Jan

I would love to. I have posted long entries on this before, but I cannot page back far enough to find them - it will probably take less time to recreate them.

It is busy at work right now, so it may be a while before I can get around to this.

Jan

No, johnpe, I struggle with this question: If I understood why it happened in the ME, I might be better able to assess the chance of it happening here (with Christian fundamentalism).

The best I can come up with is that humans seem to prefer an inaccurate certainty to an accurate uncertainty. If desperation for certainty becomes great, then you are willing to accept increasingly absurd requirements (such as "Blow yourself up.") to shore up a feeling that 'the universe is KNOWN'.

Jan

But that is not how the Muslim religion was practiced in the past, and it IS how Christianity was practiced in the past. It is not the religion per se, it is a particular era's interpretation of that religion. The Inquisition and the Terrorists are both extremists of the same ilk. There is more similarity between them than there is between the Inquisition and modern Christianity.

Jan

Jan

Is out. (Checked ears, even.)

Jan

I agree. About half my friends are Christians. I sometimes accuse them of being militantly tolerant Christians. (The man holding my right hand in the circle at a pagan wedding was an Episcopal minister.)

Jan

I completely disagree with you. You are factually incorrect that all Muslims oppose living with other religions and that the Muslim religion is inherently opposed to American ideals. You are projecting the hatred of the terrorists onto the entire spectrum of Muslim thought.

Jan

I think you are correct, but that means that if cause-and-effect can be reestablished, more people will come forward to espouse the Tea Party views.

Jan

My father was an acquaintance of the Shah, and a friend of his Minister of Finance (I have some good stories) and the changes that have occurred since that time were incredible. It is not the 'Muslim' part that changed, it is the social culture that switched from modern to 'fundamentalist'.

If the religious fundamentalists gained control of the US, one could imagine this happening to us but with a Christian theme. Happily, we have so internalized the culture of racial and gender realization that it would be more difficult than in a country that was still, as jimjj put it, "near stone age".

Jan

Thank you for an excellent and thoughtful post, RealBill. I agree with what you have said (though I hope that you meant "piracy" instead of "privacy"...?). I am definitely amongst those who do not equate the Muslim religion with Evil. That does not excuse the Muslim terrorists who use their current interpretation of that religion as a scaffolding for repression, ignorance and destruction.

Jan

Right now it feels more 'tired' than 'hopeful'. It is kinda like asking someone, "Are you the sort who pulls the bandage off in a series of painful jerks or in single agonizing tear?"

Jan

Thank you. I will read the thread.

Jan

There are many times I have thought 'the last straw' had been reached, and that we were going to collapse. But Iook out the window and there are pleasant streets, people going about their business, stores open.

I think that we will just keep muddling along. The socialists will continue to grab and redistribute our wealth, our freedoms will continue to gradually erode (though there are some successful pushbacks happening), but there is So Much of what we have that it will take another generation or so of government irresponsibility to deplete that reservoir. And, during that time, more technology will be produced that may make socialism irrelevant.

Jan

Thank you for the mention of the movie Alongside Night. I had not heard of it. Now...I think I will read the novel and then maybe see the movie.

Jan