Our biggest challenge is to finally and bravely claim back material
causation from the idealist mystifyiers of fear (superstitious /
deferential innaction). Science is humanity's liberator - hone your
thoughts.
Christopher Sawtell wrote:
On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:01, Carl Cerecke wrote:
Christopher Sawtell wrote:
On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:17, Nick Rout wrote:
more importantly a human is not a "device service or information"
While that's true from a strictly legal point of view, I assure you that
there are many people who are stuck in the lower echelons of our society
who feel that they have been reduced to that level. Haven't you heard
people refer to themselves as being "Just a cog in the machine ..." ?
Yes, but, hasn't that been more-or-less true for all of human history?
Today, more than perhaps anytime in the past, it is possible to get out
of the cog-in-the-machine feeling. Still difficult for many, I'll admit,
but certainly easier than times past. (I'm no historian, so feel free to
correct me, anyone)
The times when the cogs could do something effective about their situations
was when there had been a major disruptions to society as a whole. People who
were able to adapt to the new circumstances more quickly than their
neighbours where able to change their lives substantially.
This was the character of the twentieth century, under mechanisation.
Lots of new bureaucratic (& technocratic) castes rose to buffer the
middle and maintain the ancient pillaging structure. It is these now
feeling the squeeze - a volatile swing-vote, prone to uninformed reaction.
Examples in European recorded history include the period immediately after the
Black Death in the late 14th. Century. The population was halved, thus Labour
was extremely scarce, and land was available for the taking. Fortunes were
made.
The periods after all the wars in recent times have offered similar societal
disruptions and moments for change.
The next big one will be in 50 or so years when the petroleum age comes to an
end.
The (social) science (of economics) is imprecise, but current indicators
are that this phase has now started, in that supply has now been
exceeded by demand (from emergent Asia). Geopolitics and religious
war/attrocity daily are thereby explained - also in Eden,
non-coincidentally.
Our lifetime _is_ critical.
hth
