And this is different from the whole world history... how? Yes, most people are complacent with order of things - be it current governments, Middle Age absolute monarchy or, say, bloody Aztec theocracy. Still, history teaches us that there is no need for the "masses" to be upset about anything for changes to come. On the contrary, mass starvation and poverty can lead to mass riots, even change ruling dynasty, but almost never to some radical changes in the country's ruling system.
For the real changes to come there must be a small percentage of unhappy "elite", like bourgeois in France or "intelligentsya / intellectuals" in Russia. Then they can lead masses to the revolution that will bring real changes. Problem is, our current elites are trying to use and even exploit existing systems of government, instead of trying to change it completely. So, yes, we won't have any real revolutionary changes in the foreseeable future, but not because of the "tubes". It's because everybody with the real power (even "middle class") are really happy with the current state of things.
Well, give your constitution at least a thousand years more and you won't be able to tell the difference (and not only because you'll probably be dead at this point). Of course it'll happen only if both the Bible and Constitution will be still relevant or even remembered then.
Well, living in Russia and seeing things from within - our governments are almost equal in the eyes of local populace. These so-called "political opponents" are almost as bad as our current ruling class, they're just younger and hungrier, plus we still have fewer people in prisons per capita, if I recall correctly. So - we are almost at match here.
At least I do not know about anyone who wants to emigrate in the USA. Thailand or India, or even Europe, OTOH, are really popular - there are many people who actively working on settling there permanently. Still, this is not a choice between "good" and "bad", but between "bad" and "even worse". And both Russia and USA are considered "worse" in this case.
"Mandatory minimum sentencing" sounds like a conscription, only without health checks and age/sex limits. "Serve your time and be a proud citizen!...until we get you again". I wonder, how far are we from such future?
Oh, absolutely. "Criminal masterminds caused untold damages to national music and filming industry by sharing three songs and one movie on vk.com". Damn, it's even better than planting heroin on them.
Oh, that's still mild by their standards. Considering their slow cancer-like growth through all aspects of our country's life that's just child play. Now teaching their dogmas to kids in every state school, poisoning army and fleet with their "spiritual guidance", even creating theological faculties in nuclear physics research institutes - that's some truly fucked up shit.
Well, even *if* they'd have their church registered there are many laws and regulations to silence unfavorable organizations. They can be accused of extremism, fraud, bribing officials, tax evasion, vandalism and many, many more truly phantasmagorical "crimes". Oh, and all that not counting hordes of brain-washed putinists, who would be happy to show this "sectants" some real orthodox christian love and compassion. Probably with metal pipes and bike chains.
So yeah, it seems like a funny way to speak your mind, but if they somehow manage to get real attention - they are surely going to regret it. Which is sad, but this is how government runs everything here now.
Great deal of blood? Nah, take it from the former citizen of USSR - such systems are either going down from within or rather swiftly and easily replaced by some military/secret service coup, which almost always means just "aggressive takeover" with new executives and old policies. "People" are irrelevant in this process - what are you couple of guys with pistols and rifles are going to do against drones and other modern military tech? And when you'll be mockingly tried or silently stuffed into prisons, like Manning and many others - what will you do then? And how many people are going to act to protect you? I mean not just write some strong-worded posts on several forums or sign some "online petitions", but really act? Well, my bet is - almost nobody. Dead serf is a bad serf - he brings no profit.
Heh, even Arabs with their "Arab spring" achieved more, because they were much more active in their protests... and, of course, because of heavy support from your government. So... considering this - sorry, no "USA spring" in the foreseeable future.
It is in the Civ 5, but it produces "culture" - for happiness there are stadiums, theaters, circuses and zoos. Not truly realistic. Now if you'll play Tropico 4 Modern Times someday, you'll be surprised by its realism.
Representative government system at work, flawless as ever. Not like some godawful Egyptian generals, who are causing turmoil just because of some "spirit of the law" and other unholy gibberish.
Ah, Gibson, Sterling and other cyberpunk masters, you were truly prophetic back in your time.
Right, even if that doesn't look truly sincere and likely will have no long-lasting consequences for anybody it is still something. Maybe it's one of the positive sides of having this many parties in EU - if "bigger fish" would try to ignore this issue, smaller parties will get more support on the next elections, so everybody has to do something (or, at least, pretend to do something good enough). Pirate Party is surely going to rally their supporters over this issue.
No arguing here. Might (and fear of might) are trumping freedoms on the daily basis, although between citizen's fears and government's fears I think first is much stronger. And, paradoxically, in the "more civilized" countries governments fears (actions of) their citizens less than in "less civilized" ones. Take Turkey, for example, where government recently backed down somewhat after continuous protests. Then take USA or Russia, where all of the recent "public outrage" has absolutely no effect on the actions of respective governments.
BTW, your sig explains much of this nicely - modern "progressive" governments utilize much more effective propaganda and "sleight-of-hand" techniques than less "progressive" ones, being not so different in their core.
One possible (but quite improbable) answer to that is that someone is testing the overall complacency of the people. Why bother with PR, Senate hearings, even wristslapping when you can simply remove whistleblower from equation and show everyone "we're playing by our own rules, get used to it!". Basically, incompetence multiplied by power trip. They know for sure that there will be zero troubles for them ("them" in the large sense), so why bother with all that show?
I don't think that's the case here, but sometime in the future someone in the government will surely ask "Why do we need a good PR if it works as good as a bad PR or no PR at all?".
Well, if (most of) people someday start to learn some history and logic, there is a chance of genocide finally going away. Chances of people willingly learning, though... are not so good.
This means only that government of USA is a much better player of the "say what they want to hear, do what you want to do" game. Yes, you can vote out the President you consider a liar (although Bush and Obama were happily reelected, so most of the people seem to think that they were honest enough), but that only guarantees that the next guy will break a slightly different set of promises. Being politely voted out of the White House is not the same as being thrown out by the military. Gives no incentive for the next guy to hold onto his words.
You are absolutely correct, but one question remains - what can we do? What can we hope for, if there are no real "selected few" - some are trying to become ones but then they are casted down faster than last-year one-hit bands. Take Snowden - in popular opinion he is just "drama queen", "whiny idiot" or even outright "traitor".
Here, in Russia, there are examples of that too - many of the so-called "opposition leaders" are just crazy ass-clowns, and others are too idealistic to be accepted as true leaders. One of the most scary things in modern Russia is that Putin is really the most popular politician in this country, and this status quo is not going to change anytime soon.
So the question remains - what can we, the people, do? What real power do we have today? My own answer for today is "just wait until this broken system destroys itself from inside", but it still may well outlive me. Not a shiny perspective, I must say.
Sadly, this is more insightful than it is comfortable to admit to the average "westerner". But I think history will show us that ideals are just this - ideals, not reality. Reality is hard (albeit virtual) cash, useful connections and art of sociopathy. We may not like it, but it is time to accept that Declarations of Independence or of Human Rights are simply well-worded texts without some real power behind them.
And that power is gone now - Nelson Mandela is just some cool old guy, Martin Luther King Sr. is some dead copyright pusher and Che Guevara is nothing more than a terrorist, righteously executed for his crimes. There is no driving force behind ideals and ideas, and no leader charismatic enough to create such force. So we'll have to accept this new reality and be thankful that someone in the government still admits something. Soon even that wouldn't be necessary.
Postgres all good and funky, but switch from MySQL to MariaDB = ~ 10 min of admin time (plus some for backups, if not doing them regularly). Switch all running webapps from MySQL to Postgres = from week to month(s) of programmer's time (there are many nifty MySQL-specific tricks that don't translate to Postgres so well). So I think we all know where all of this is going...
Slashdot Mirror
And this is different from the whole world history... how? Yes, most people are complacent with order of things - be it current governments, Middle Age absolute monarchy or, say, bloody Aztec theocracy. Still, history teaches us that there is no need for the "masses" to be upset about anything for changes to come. On the contrary, mass starvation and poverty can lead to mass riots, even change ruling dynasty, but almost never to some radical changes in the country's ruling system.
For the real changes to come there must be a small percentage of unhappy "elite", like bourgeois in France or "intelligentsya / intellectuals" in Russia. Then they can lead masses to the revolution that will bring real changes. Problem is, our current elites are trying to use and even exploit existing systems of government, instead of trying to change it completely. So, yes, we won't have any real revolutionary changes in the foreseeable future, but not because of the "tubes". It's because everybody with the real power (even "middle class") are really happy with the current state of things.
Well, give your constitution at least a thousand years more and you won't be able to tell the difference (and not only because you'll probably be dead at this point). Of course it'll happen only if both the Bible and Constitution will be still relevant or even remembered then.
Well, living in Russia and seeing things from within - our governments are almost equal in the eyes of local populace. These so-called "political opponents" are almost as bad as our current ruling class, they're just younger and hungrier, plus we still have fewer people in prisons per capita, if I recall correctly. So - we are almost at match here.
At least I do not know about anyone who wants to emigrate in the USA. Thailand or India, or even Europe, OTOH, are really popular - there are many people who actively working on settling there permanently. Still, this is not a choice between "good" and "bad", but between "bad" and "even worse". And both Russia and USA are considered "worse" in this case.
That's a good one, pity I have no mod points today.
Nah, they're frauds, masking as prostitutes - with them you have absolutely no guarantees to get at least some satisfaction for your money.
"Mandatory minimum sentencing" sounds like a conscription, only without health checks and age/sex limits. "Serve your time and be a proud citizen! ...until we get you again". I wonder, how far are we from such future?
Oh, absolutely. "Criminal masterminds caused untold damages to national music and filming industry by sharing three songs and one movie on vk.com". Damn, it's even better than planting heroin on them.
Oh, that's still mild by their standards. Considering their slow cancer-like growth through all aspects of our country's life that's just child play. Now teaching their dogmas to kids in every state school, poisoning army and fleet with their "spiritual guidance", even creating theological faculties in nuclear physics research institutes - that's some truly fucked up shit.
Well, even *if* they'd have their church registered there are many laws and regulations to silence unfavorable organizations. They can be accused of extremism, fraud, bribing officials, tax evasion, vandalism and many, many more truly phantasmagorical "crimes". Oh, and all that not counting hordes of brain-washed putinists, who would be happy to show this "sectants" some real orthodox christian love and compassion. Probably with metal pipes and bike chains.
So yeah, it seems like a funny way to speak your mind, but if they somehow manage to get real attention - they are surely going to regret it. Which is sad, but this is how government runs everything here now.
Great deal of blood? Nah, take it from the former citizen of USSR - such systems are either going down from within or rather swiftly and easily replaced by some military/secret service coup, which almost always means just "aggressive takeover" with new executives and old policies. "People" are irrelevant in this process - what are you couple of guys with pistols and rifles are going to do against drones and other modern military tech? And when you'll be mockingly tried or silently stuffed into prisons, like Manning and many others - what will you do then? And how many people are going to act to protect you? I mean not just write some strong-worded posts on several forums or sign some "online petitions", but really act? Well, my bet is - almost nobody. Dead serf is a bad serf - he brings no profit.
Heh, even Arabs with their "Arab spring" achieved more, because they were much more active in their protests... and, of course, because of heavy support from your government. So... considering this - sorry, no "USA spring" in the foreseeable future.
We've always been at war with Eastasia!
Damn, it's hard to resist quoting 1984 nowadays...
It is in the Civ 5, but it produces "culture" - for happiness there are stadiums, theaters, circuses and zoos. Not truly realistic. Now if you'll play Tropico 4 Modern Times someday, you'll be surprised by its realism.
Representative government system at work, flawless as ever. Not like some godawful Egyptian generals, who are causing turmoil just because of some "spirit of the law" and other unholy gibberish.
Ah, Gibson, Sterling and other cyberpunk masters, you were truly prophetic back in your time.
Right, even if that doesn't look truly sincere and likely will have no long-lasting consequences for anybody it is still something. Maybe it's one of the positive sides of having this many parties in EU - if "bigger fish" would try to ignore this issue, smaller parties will get more support on the next elections, so everybody has to do something (or, at least, pretend to do something good enough). Pirate Party is surely going to rally their supporters over this issue.
No arguing here. Might (and fear of might) are trumping freedoms on the daily basis, although between citizen's fears and government's fears I think first is much stronger. And, paradoxically, in the "more civilized" countries governments fears (actions of) their citizens less than in "less civilized" ones. Take Turkey, for example, where government recently backed down somewhat after continuous protests. Then take USA or Russia, where all of the recent "public outrage" has absolutely no effect on the actions of respective governments.
BTW, your sig explains much of this nicely - modern "progressive" governments utilize much more effective propaganda and "sleight-of-hand" techniques than less "progressive" ones, being not so different in their core.
One possible (but quite improbable) answer to that is that someone is testing the overall complacency of the people. Why bother with PR, Senate hearings, even wristslapping when you can simply remove whistleblower from equation and show everyone "we're playing by our own rules, get used to it!". Basically, incompetence multiplied by power trip. They know for sure that there will be zero troubles for them ("them" in the large sense), so why bother with all that show?
I don't think that's the case here, but sometime in the future someone in the government will surely ask "Why do we need a good PR if it works as good as a bad PR or no PR at all?".
Well, if (most of) people someday start to learn some history and logic, there is a chance of genocide finally going away. Chances of people willingly learning, though... are not so good.
This means only that government of USA is a much better player of the "say what they want to hear, do what you want to do" game. Yes, you can vote out the President you consider a liar (although Bush and Obama were happily reelected, so most of the people seem to think that they were honest enough), but that only guarantees that the next guy will break a slightly different set of promises. Being politely voted out of the White House is not the same as being thrown out by the military. Gives no incentive for the next guy to hold onto his words.
You are absolutely correct, but one question remains - what can we do? What can we hope for, if there are no real "selected few" - some are trying to become ones but then they are casted down faster than last-year one-hit bands. Take Snowden - in popular opinion he is just "drama queen", "whiny idiot" or even outright "traitor".
Here, in Russia, there are examples of that too - many of the so-called "opposition leaders" are just crazy ass-clowns, and others are too idealistic to be accepted as true leaders. One of the most scary things in modern Russia is that Putin is really the most popular politician in this country, and this status quo is not going to change anytime soon.
So the question remains - what can we, the people, do? What real power do we have today? My own answer for today is "just wait until this broken system destroys itself from inside", but it still may well outlive me. Not a shiny perspective, I must say.
Sadly, this is more insightful than it is comfortable to admit to the average "westerner". But I think history will show us that ideals are just this - ideals, not reality. Reality is hard (albeit virtual) cash, useful connections and art of sociopathy. We may not like it, but it is time to accept that Declarations of Independence or of Human Rights are simply well-worded texts without some real power behind them.
And that power is gone now - Nelson Mandela is just some cool old guy, Martin Luther King Sr. is some dead copyright pusher and Che Guevara is nothing more than a terrorist, righteously executed for his crimes. There is no driving force behind ideals and ideas, and no leader charismatic enough to create such force. So we'll have to accept this new reality and be thankful that someone in the government still admits something. Soon even that wouldn't be necessary.
Mod parent informative.
Considering they seriously sent this C&D letter, chances of them understanding sarcasm are slim to none. Simply put, you can't bite coprolite.
Postgres all good and funky, but switch from MySQL to MariaDB = ~ 10 min of admin time (plus some for backups, if not doing them regularly). Switch all running webapps from MySQL to Postgres = from week to month(s) of programmer's time (there are many nifty MySQL-specific tricks that don't translate to Postgres so well). So I think we all know where all of this is going...
So they'll get several millions guaranteed sells then?
Well, as I recall, he committed a crime of unsafe bicycle driving. Repeatedly.