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Malthaussen · 11-23-2004, 09:14 PM

For that matter, why is Legolas a blond with pointy ears? That surely wasn't in the book. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I am not an optimist. The current reactionary political environment that has taken over the world makes me fear that the clock WILL be turned back to the Fifties, will we, nil we. And the fifties were not an era of "family values" and law-abiding, forelock-pulling minorities, but the days of McCarthyism and bomb shelters. I know, I remember -- I was there.

The Star Trek phenomenon occurred in the context of the late 60's in the USA, a time when civil disobedience was at an all-time high. The young generation (of which I was a part) were feeling their power and exercising their rebellious natures. And what has happened? Listen to the song "Stop In the Middle of Your Life" (from the Doonesbury comic strip). The young, loud-voiced liberals of that time have mutated into the conservative, repressive rulers of today. The yippies became yuppies, and now they want to do their best to make sure that their own children don't have anywhere near as much fun as they did.

There is still an underground, and the underground is what produces Open Source and all community, cooperative-oriented things. The mainstream is in the hands of the same old types as always -- and thus we have Tolkeinien elves with pointed ears. It's about money, it's about access, and it's about keeping the people on top, on top, and the devil take the hindmost. The Internet is searched diligently by agents of law and order to ensure that things don't get out of hand, and I doubt that will change when everthing in society seems to be moving in the direction of more repression (in the name of Homeland Security) rather than less. Meanwhile the ruling classes even in the soi-disant democracies are growing farther and farther from their constituents, and the underclasses throughout the first, second, and third worlds continue to be crushed, manipulated, and otherwise ignored. Or so it seems to me in my gloomiest moods.

I call myself Malthaussen because I am a believer in the theories of Malthus, who essentially said that the population of the world will eventually outstrip the resources available, leading to a complete collapse of civilization. We have been able to avoid Dr Malthus's predictions by increasing productivity to the point that the vast majority of the world have no real need to work to provide for their basic needs, yet are still expected to work. And the USA and the rest of the west prospers, to a greater or lesser extent, by fostering a society of waste ("consumerism") which will only hasten the day when the Earth's natural resources are depleted. Possibly by getting off the planet and into the rest of the solar system, and thus increasing manifold the amount of resources we can exploit, could our society as currently structured continue to exist. But I doubt any such move will take place until it is too late for most of us. It simply requires too much up-front investment to be attractive to our short-sighted leaders, who admittedly are expected to fix everything yesterday.

Fortunately, I expect to be safely dead before the crunch comes, and I have no children to worry about. If I did, I would dread even more.

-- Mal

11-23-2004, 09:14 PM	#7
Malthaussen Manshoon Join Date: May 10, 2001 Location: Horsham, PA USA Age: 69 Posts: 151	For that matter, why is Legolas a blond with pointy ears? That surely wasn't in the book. [img]smile.gif[/img] I am not an optimist. The current reactionary political environment that has taken over the world makes me fear that the clock WILL be turned back to the Fifties, will we, nil we. And the fifties were not an era of "family values" and law-abiding, forelock-pulling minorities, but the days of McCarthyism and bomb shelters. I know, I remember -- I was there. The Star Trek phenomenon occurred in the context of the late 60's in the USA, a time when civil disobedience was at an all-time high. The young generation (of which I was a part) were feeling their power and exercising their rebellious natures. And what has happened? Listen to the song "Stop In the Middle of Your Life" (from the Doonesbury comic strip). The young, loud-voiced liberals of that time have mutated into the conservative, repressive rulers of today. The yippies became yuppies, and now they want to do their best to make sure that their own children don't have anywhere near as much fun as they did. There is still an underground, and the underground is what produces Open Source and all community, cooperative-oriented things. The mainstream is in the hands of the same old types as always -- and thus we have Tolkeinien elves with pointed ears. It's about money, it's about access, and it's about keeping the people on top, on top, and the devil take the hindmost. The Internet is searched diligently by agents of law and order to ensure that things don't get out of hand, and I doubt that will change when everthing in society seems to be moving in the direction of more repression (in the name of Homeland Security) rather than less. Meanwhile the ruling classes even in the soi-disant democracies are growing farther and farther from their constituents, and the underclasses throughout the first, second, and third worlds continue to be crushed, manipulated, and otherwise ignored. Or so it seems to me in my gloomiest moods. I call myself Malthaussen because I am a believer in the theories of Malthus, who essentially said that the population of the world will eventually outstrip the resources available, leading to a complete collapse of civilization. We have been able to avoid Dr Malthus's predictions by increasing productivity to the point that the vast majority of the world have no real need to work to provide for their basic needs, yet are still expected to work. And the USA and the rest of the west prospers, to a greater or lesser extent, by fostering a society of waste ("consumerism") which will only hasten the day when the Earth's natural resources are depleted. Possibly by getting off the planet and into the rest of the solar system, and thus increasing manifold the amount of resources we can exploit, could our society as currently structured continue to exist. But I doubt any such move will take place until it is too late for most of us. It simply requires too much up-front investment to be attractive to our short-sighted leaders, who admittedly are expected to fix everything yesterday. Fortunately, I expect to be safely dead before the crunch comes, and I have no children to worry about. If I did, I would dread even more. -- Mal __________________ \"Of two choices, I always take the third.\"