4 hours ago: Christians do not really believe they are immortal. Their World view is completely different from that. And I'm not talking about "being" anything in particular , except interested in an accurate , scientifically oriented Word View.
4 hours ago: I would have thought that Outsourcing , Offshoring, etc. would have put an end to the idea that Land values are a big factor in "Production" of anything, except vacation resorts.
4 hours ago: David: as a sort of Historian, I find your idea that we "can easily determine the Will of the People" to be rather self-contradictory. What leader or Dictator did NOT believe he was" determining" the W.o.P?(Pun intended or not?) Hitler? Stalin? Obama? Churchill ? Even Jesus? This is actually what politics has always been about.
5 hours ago: We live in a Utopia now, compared to many former societies. What has made this possible , really, besides a lot of luck , is the Industrial Revolution, along with cheap coal and oil power for the last hundred years, which is now running out. So my Utopian vision is that we , somehow, take advantage of the recently invented cheap source of power, i.e. Thorium LFTR nuclear fission, which is Green, pretty safe compared to Uranium plants, and has limitless fuel, cheaper than coal. With that, we could rather easily keep on with the "progress" of the past, and not be forced to leave anyone behind, as we are doing now. (Because we "can't afford not to"). With enough civilized, educated people in the world, it would probably occur to them, just for self-preservation, that it would be wise to establish Legal structures to avoid being forced to resort to war to "solve" the simplest political problems, as we do now.
We need to do all this , so that we can afford to be able to go on with the real adventure, which is to colonize Space, while we still have a chance to do so. This idea of having everyone "just get along" on Earth is just too Utopian to work..
5 hours ago: The whole discussion about Equality is muddied up by the assumption that "Groups" , whether families, ethnicities or whatever have no real existence, or importance in the world . The facts are that groups are cooperative, social and people like it that way, where individual differences can be not only entertaining, but have "Survival Value " for the group, as long as their actions do not damage the group seriously. But that is just where we are right now: the "Smartest People in the Room" have trashed the world economy for their own benefit, clever as they are, without apparently noticiing that their activities are cutting out the ground beneath their feet.. (I mean , if too many people are impoverished, where are the customers going to come from?! "Overseas" is not an unlimited resource ).
5 hours ago: Blade: "Competitiveness " has had a good run in the West, but it seems clear enough that it is so far from the nature of animals, to say nothing of Humans, that we seem to be in the middle of its complete breakdown. The reason being that all these ultra competitive types have figured out how to evade competitiveness for themselves, but not allowed for the hoi-polloi, As someone already said, what we have now is Socialism for the Rich, and "Free"Competition for everyone else. As the Elephant said as he danced among the Ants.
5 hours ago: "Equality" is far too murky and self-contradictory an idea to be anything more than a rule of thumb ,a social goal of sorts. Also, It is not found in nature, therefore is a human artifact, subject to the usual approval or disapproval of the "Tribe". It is more of a occasion for creating disputes than anything useful. One reason the Chinese are not all Christians now , historically , was the Christian Missionaries fanatic insistence that Jesus requires that we love everyone equally. The Confuscian mindset finds that ridiculous, and not even desirable.
2 days ago: The bottom line is that "Nation States", are intrinsically unstable, mainly because not being based on Law, with its ideas of fairness and procedures of accountability, they basically have no better way of dealing with disagreements than the Mafia does, i.e. force and fraud, with little concern for anything but "winning"
What that implies is either 1.) One nation eventually conquers all the others, or 2). the nations finally create a voluntary union based on agreed on Laws, procedures, budget,and administration ,and Police Force. i.e. a World "State of United Nations" similar to the US in1787. I know, a can of Worms, But pity the national leaders of today . In the last few hundred years, what national leader starting a disastrous war did NOT truthfully say, "But we had no alternative"?
May 13 2013: Robert : you're quite right, but that just means we are pressuring other countries that don't need airplanes either, to impoverish their citizens for dubious reasons.
I kinow it's not all bad. It was a secret government nuclear aircraft engine project that potentially solved the world energy crisis for us, 40 years ago. The Liquid Fueled Thorium Reactor (LFTR) We forgot about it, but apparently the Chinese have not.
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A comment on Conversation: What does your utopian future look like?
A reply on Conversation: What does your utopian future look like?
A reply on Conversation: What does your utopian future look like?
A reply on Conversation: What does your utopian future look like?
A comment on Conversation: What does your utopian future look like?
We need to do all this , so that we can afford to be able to go on with the real adventure, which is to colonize Space, while we still have a chance to do so. This idea of having everyone "just get along" on Earth is just too Utopian to work..
A reply on Conversation: Is equality feasible and is it worth achieving? Subquestion: By your definitions, is equality synonymous with fairness?
A reply on Conversation: Is equality feasible and is it worth achieving? Subquestion: By your definitions, is equality synonymous with fairness?
A comment on Conversation: Is equality feasible and is it worth achieving? Subquestion: By your definitions, is equality synonymous with fairness?
A comment on Conversation: This idea needs a lot more examination than it got. "Nation States" have been responsible for most of the major catastrophes recently.
What that implies is either 1.) One nation eventually conquers all the others, or 2). the nations finally create a voluntary union based on agreed on Laws, procedures, budget,and administration ,and Police Force. i.e. a World "State of United Nations" similar to the US in1787. I know, a can of Worms, But pity the national leaders of today . In the last few hundred years, what national leader starting a disastrous war did NOT truthfully say, "But we had no alternative"?
A comment on Conversation: Number crunching the US unemployment figures
I kinow it's not all bad. It was a secret government nuclear aircraft engine project that potentially solved the world energy crisis for us, 40 years ago. The Liquid Fueled Thorium Reactor (LFTR) We forgot about it, but apparently the Chinese have not.