Re:thoughts on Katz, Eugenics, and such
on
Frankenstein Time
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· Score: 1
To eliminate the lower, you must also eliminate the higher. By raising the current "dregs" of society into a higher playing field, you only replace them with others who will then, by comparison, become the dregs. The nature of competition is that it is all relative. Improvement of any level merely adjusts the median, nothing more.
If you have a program that has a problem, you fix it. Then, a new problem arises. The cycle repeats itself. Genetics will be the same way. The search for perfection will only lead to discovery of more imperfections.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic or morbid, but this is all true. Competition in any form completely disolves the possibility for equality. We're merely entering into another infinite loop.
This analogy is simple. If you have a contest for who can do the best landscape, whether a watercolor or a pencil sketch or a painting is turned in, no one cares. It's about the subject. But if you have a best painting contest, and someone turns in a pencil sketch, it's not eligible. Same with films. This isn't to say it's right -- I think the digital process has much more to offer. But it's their awards... and who really cares anyway? Fight Club rocked, and it didn't win shit. So it's screwed up anyway.
By far the best anime I've ever seen has to be Ghost in the Shell. I'm sure at least a thousand other people have already put that up, but it's just that good, and it deserves yet another mention.
Does the chain of events following the Columbine shootings remind anyone else of the Red Scare of post-WWII America? It reminds me of this immensely, and it frightens me, too.
Paranoia that your friend or classmate might be a Communist swept the country in a very similar fashion. Children worried about the patriotism of their parents and their fellow students. College students were kept under close wraps. Peaceful protests were violently broken.
Is there really that much difference between disliking your society and disliking your government? If someone doesn't like the way things are done, should they be prosecuted? Unfortunately, this seems to be the way America tends to go. Someone intending harm is a threat, this is an unavoidable fact, but deciphering that simply from an act of anger or a lowering of grades is completely ridiculous.
The problem here is not with the companies trying to cash in on this. The problem lies with the repeated buildup of hysteria we have seen before. Just as the Red Scare indelibly imprinted America's history, so will this, unless people can stop panicking long enough to open their eyes and see reason.
One thing we must keep in mind is not to look at the problem; look for the solution.
Slashdot Mirror
To eliminate the lower, you must also eliminate the higher. By raising the current "dregs" of society into a higher playing field, you only replace them with others who will then, by comparison, become the dregs. The nature of competition is that it is all relative. Improvement of any level merely adjusts the median, nothing more.
If you have a program that has a problem, you fix it. Then, a new problem arises. The cycle repeats itself. Genetics will be the same way. The search for perfection will only lead to discovery of more imperfections.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic or morbid, but this is all true. Competition in any form completely disolves the possibility for equality. We're merely entering into another infinite loop.
This analogy is simple. If you have a contest for who can do the best landscape, whether a watercolor or a pencil sketch or a painting is turned in, no one cares. It's about the subject. But if you have a best painting contest, and someone turns in a pencil sketch, it's not eligible. Same with films. This isn't to say it's right -- I think the digital process has much more to offer. But it's their awards... and who really cares anyway? Fight Club rocked, and it didn't win shit. So it's screwed up anyway.
By far the best anime I've ever seen has to be Ghost in the Shell. I'm sure at least a thousand other people have already put that up, but it's just that good, and it deserves yet another mention.
Paranoia that your friend or classmate might be a Communist swept the country in a very similar fashion. Children worried about the patriotism of their parents and their fellow students. College students were kept under close wraps. Peaceful protests were violently broken.
Is there really that much difference between disliking your society and disliking your government? If someone doesn't like the way things are done, should they be prosecuted? Unfortunately, this seems to be the way America tends to go. Someone intending harm is a threat, this is an unavoidable fact, but deciphering that simply from an act of anger or a lowering of grades is completely ridiculous.
The problem here is not with the companies trying to cash in on this. The problem lies with the repeated buildup of hysteria we have seen before. Just as the Red Scare indelibly imprinted America's history, so will this, unless people can stop panicking long enough to open their eyes and see reason.
One thing we must keep in mind is not to look at the problem; look for the solution.