More Fridge-magnet Fodder & Food 4 thought!
One rant coming up:
One of the biggest problems in the world today, to my mind, is our collective lack of a conceptualized future. Our ancestors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had some vision of a better tomorrow... as proposed by such visionaries as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and their heirs.
Now it seems we can can't extrapolate trends past next weekend (except a handful of writers/scholars - Noam Chomsky, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Camille Paglia and a few others), let alone 20 years into the future. Wha' happen?
Something seems fundamentally wrong with this mindset, and i believe its a collective cross-cultural "cop-out" as they used to say in the 1970's. i may be a big cynic, but i thinks maybe everyone's in denial because it all boils down to doing some real hard work. Long term thinking (that is to say, logical extrapolation of current data, or as the cops in "Law & Order" always say - "Play it out", like a hand of cards, or a chess problem for example) involves some hard knocks to the old reality model, especially if you start thinking about major technological, commercial, climactic and geo-politcal trends over the last 30+ years.
The future, apart from being none too rosey, also isn't what it used to be. These images may be a little niave and goofy - say what you will- our parents and grand parents at least had some ideas on the topic. Now we just seem to go where events take us, shrugging our shoulders at the most insane and horrific latest developments. But i don't think it has to remain that way. A little bit of thought and planning by each of us would sure go a long way.
i know i'm up on the soapbox about this, but this issue is kinda fundamental to what i'm trying to do here in some small off-kilter way - i know, as a species, we are WAY more capable than we think....... but we do have to THINK about what kind of future we want for ourselves, our descendants and our species before the words of the great Johnny Rotten come true - "No Future For You".
Or to put it into simpler terms "What i don't know can't hurt me" can turn into "I never knew what hit me" if ya don't watch out... and it will too.
Well i feel a lot better getting that out of my system. Many thanks for your indulgence.
Regular, more tranquil reports will follow as normal programming is resumed.
Please return to your homes. Nothing to see here. Please move along. That is all.
One of the biggest problems in the world today, to my mind, is our collective lack of a conceptualized future. Our ancestors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had some vision of a better tomorrow... as proposed by such visionaries as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and their heirs.
Now it seems we can can't extrapolate trends past next weekend (except a handful of writers/scholars - Noam Chomsky, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Camille Paglia and a few others), let alone 20 years into the future. Wha' happen?
Something seems fundamentally wrong with this mindset, and i believe its a collective cross-cultural "cop-out" as they used to say in the 1970's. i may be a big cynic, but i thinks maybe everyone's in denial because it all boils down to doing some real hard work. Long term thinking (that is to say, logical extrapolation of current data, or as the cops in "Law & Order" always say - "Play it out", like a hand of cards, or a chess problem for example) involves some hard knocks to the old reality model, especially if you start thinking about major technological, commercial, climactic and geo-politcal trends over the last 30+ years.
The future, apart from being none too rosey, also isn't what it used to be. These images may be a little niave and goofy - say what you will- our parents and grand parents at least had some ideas on the topic. Now we just seem to go where events take us, shrugging our shoulders at the most insane and horrific latest developments. But i don't think it has to remain that way. A little bit of thought and planning by each of us would sure go a long way.
i know i'm up on the soapbox about this, but this issue is kinda fundamental to what i'm trying to do here in some small off-kilter way - i know, as a species, we are WAY more capable than we think....... but we do have to THINK about what kind of future we want for ourselves, our descendants and our species before the words of the great Johnny Rotten come true - "No Future For You".
Or to put it into simpler terms "What i don't know can't hurt me" can turn into "I never knew what hit me" if ya don't watch out... and it will too.
Well i feel a lot better getting that out of my system. Many thanks for your indulgence.
Regular, more tranquil reports will follow as normal programming is resumed.
Please return to your homes. Nothing to see here. Please move along. That is all.
posted by hyperdave at 2:45 AM
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