How can one say there is a larger market for consoles FOR televisions in China than in the United States.
I like you, you got a nice website. But read my post. I am talking about televisions, I don't give a rats ass about the market for televisions. The reality is Nintendo doesn't make televisions, they make video game systems. One comes with a a screen, one needs a television. The market for televisions in China may be huge, but that doesn't matter to Nintendo. The reality is 80% of chinese do NOT have televisions. That means the market for video game devices which require televisions amongst those people is small.
We are talking about how Nintendo can get money from each and every chinaman in china. That isn't going to happen with a Super Nintendo. Hypothetically speaking however, Nintendo could put a GBA in the hands of every Chinaman in China.
Drink down four or five egg yolks for a similar effect.
Most depression is caused by cholesterol deficiency. Cholesterol is actually so important to our body's health your body punishes you with depression as a result. Our brains, btw, are about 25% cholesterol on average. Cholesterol as you may know is a lipoprotein. That is its a protein with the hydrophobic properties of fat, perfect for the acquious solution of our brain. Our brains could never grow to the size they are without cholesterol.
Anyway, egg yolks are rich in cholesterol. Drink them down and you will feel tired and happy in a few minutes. Take it before bed time and you will have the a similar effect.
One of the reason low density lipoproteins are common today is because most cholesterol has been oxidized by heat. So its important to eat only RAW egg yolks. LDL's have no functional purpose in our bodies and do not stimulate seratonin.
He wasn't accurate, he said: "Given that many Chinese probably do not even have televisions". In reality 300 million Chinese HAVE televisions (compared to 215 million in US). Thus market for consoles is larger in China than in US.
Ahh I love the slasdot AC semantics crowd. By the posters own admission, 80% of Chinese do NOT own televisions wheras at least 80% of Americans do. How can one say there is a larger market for consoles FOR televisions in China than in the United States. 80% of Chinese do not have televisions and probably WANT to play video games. Rather than make them own a television FIRST you can just have them buy a Gameboy Advance. Problem solved.
I was never comparing the Chinese market to the American market or anywhere else. However, anyone who is selling something, from video games to opium would much rather sell it to every Chinaman in China. Thus it is EASIER to sell a device such as a gameboy advance than an SNES IN CHINA.
The Gameboy Advance is clearly based on the Super Nintendo. Given that many Chinese probably do not even have televisions, having an all in one unit like the GBA is probably a great idea. I doubt we will see the actual console as it once was, the unit will probably be very much like gameboy advance. Perhaps it will have a TV out or something of the kind.
1988? Where have you been? Typically I wouldn't respond but considering a lot of youngins have moderator access today...
This guy probably meant 1978, who knows.
What I can tell you is I had a 386 25 with a meg of ram and a 20 megabyte hard drive in 1988. MS-DOS 2.0 added support for hard drives. Even the original IBM AT had a hard drive as an option.
I even had 3.5 inch diskettes in 1988! amazing!
OS/2 1.0 was released the previous year, and it REQUIRED a hard drive.
So, this poster hopefully made a mistak otherwise... he needs to see a doctor. His memory is failing.
Friend, you are misunderstanding the issue. This is a debate that goes back to ancient Sparta versus Athens . Were American pioneers slaves? Yes, there were slaves, but they were never more than 20% of the total population, and even less early on. Were the people of Venice slaves? Florence? Why was beauty a staple of Venice
Do you think Thomas Paine would have sold his Common Sense and Age of Reason to the majority of American citizens if they were slaves? Do you think the majority of Americans would read such works today?
In 1880, 80% of Americans had an independent livelihood, where they were beholden to no man. There were no employees.
The main issue I am railing against is not existential, life is NOT pointless there are many things that can be done with ones life. The reality is that freedom is taken from us. From the moment you go to school you are raised to be a slave. Not only is the educational system designed to deprive you of choice, to induce conformity and submission, but it robs you of time. Will any 13 year olds be contemplating revolution in our society? No, not at all.
You believe that your life is free, but that is not the case. You will never contribute anything of value, like a great sculpture or piece of art, because you don't have the time. You spend the vast majority of your waking moments as a member of the bureucratic system, whether in training as a student or as a hack in the office. You may think you chose your life, but that choice really isn't possible until you are well in your twenties.
Part of this is you are ignorant of human history. Schools do this intentionally to MAKE you believe life is better today than it once was. You have a lot to learn, but you will realize my point later in life. But for you it will be too late, your life will be nearly over. My words are to free the next generation, those whose lives are not yet invested in the wretched machine of social engineering.
More than anything else, this is what Plato's Republic is all about, which you should probably read. It discusses the very society we have today. Just as the prisoners raised in the cave to view shadows, you can't see the real world. You need to open your eyes and consider a new ordering of society. Consider one where there are no employees, no students. Let that sit with your imagination and then read some philosophy.
Sheesh, the OS/2 GUI was great but not necessary. I ran a multinode BBS for years command line only. Especially in 1993 when 8 megs of ram cost some serious cash, using 2-3 megs for the GUI was unnecessary. Its funny you profess such knowledge because OS/2 had few GUI tools for administration. Almost all were command line and cable of being manipulated via REXX scripts. There were some GUI front ends, but most sucked and no one used them. As for the reboots, only Ring 0 drivers required a reboot, like Installable File System drivers. But, even Linux requires that. Oh wait, you need to recompile the kernel to that. *duh*
OS/2 SMP has always supported up to 1024 processors , and still is one of the best examples of multiprocessing today, better than Windows and Linux. You forget that IBM practically invented multiprocessing and in the early 90's with the slow advancement of CISC processors it really seemed like multiprocessing was the way for performance gains. I remember going to Comdex in 1994 seeing OS/2 2.1 SMP running on 128 processors. They ran this great image editing tool called Colorworks which was highly SMP enabled, the performance gains were amazing. Today however, the only amazing multiprocessing machines are IBM Power4 machines. Everything else is a toy. 2, 4 processors. BFD
I'm not sure it's fair to blame that 2% on technological progress. Sure, some people would rather commit crime than become educated and work, and maybe that contributes to a higher crime rate, but I would like to see some studies to back that up.
I have read (can't remember where) that a significant fraction (maybe 1/4 - 1/2) of that 2% is in prison because of nonviolent drug charges (i.e., users arrested for possession). I vaguely recall that they cited justice dept and/or prison bureau stats to back up that claim, but it's been a while. So it could be that social policies mostly unrelated to technical progress are responsible for some/most of that 2%.
This is a difficult topic. But when you create a national hierarchical pyramid scheme, and that IS what we have in the United States beginning with the forced educational system, you end up with a huge underclass that is not necessarily deprived of the bare necessities of life, but is none the less disenfranchised. These people have no real inscentive to be a part of society as exists today. Why bother working at walmart? Why bother giving a shit about my block? Why not just jack up on heroin all day? The point is we raise people to "succeed" in such a way that only a FEW can succeed, and the rest fail. The commit crimes because they truly don't give a fuck. I don't blame them, why should they. I would rather go to prison than work in walmart or mcdonalds. People need to belong to society and feel they are contributing something of value to that society. Being nothing more than a servant does not accomplish that goal.
Well, the 'traditional life' that humans have known for the past few millenia (up until a few hundred years ago) was pretty damn cruel and laborious. I think someone living in the third world today would gladly trade their life for one where they could go to school for 12 years for free, work at some (pointless?) job that would provide them with more food and shelter than they could ever use, and be able to live in relative comfort when they retire.
This is the myth presented by the so called free marketeers today. You really need to think about this a little more. Free people don't WANT to go to school for free. More than anything else it is SCHOOL that is slavery. Actually, you really need to go to a foreign country. This concept that the United States is this bastion of prosperity is exagerated in the extreme. We are prosperous in only the most superficial of ways. As humans we are deprived. When I say "traditional" I refer to the community based life that existed world wide until one hundred years ago. Knowing your neighbors, building a better community, or even a city. We have suburbanite families who move to the suburbs because they think thats what they are supposed to do. They don't allow apartments in the suburbs however so all their kids live in the cities. Then families ditch the house when they turn 60 and move to a golden age ghetto in florida. That may seem like an ideal life to you now, at this relatively young age, but eventually you will see that society as we have in the United States is wholly inhuman.
The current system does allow people to "explore the infinite possibilities of existence on their own" - so long as they are willing to take the risk of doing so. I know plenty of people that are too afraid to quit their stable jobs and go 'exploring.' Maybe we can blame that on the education system or society, but some people still manage to overcome these things and break out of the normal pattern.
How pray tell, is one to explore existence when they spend 16 years in school, when they are the most sharp and enthusiastic? People used to have a lot of time. Even Negro slaves in the south had time to sing songs and play instruments. The reality is it is those early years when people are the most driven to explore existence. The primary reason schools were created was because many in the past chose to explore existence by joining a revolutionary cause. Youthful rebellion was once a major force in the upheaval of society, and we have our Independence from England as a result. Case in point, look up one Admiral Faragett at some point. A rather famouse American naval officer, he received his first command at the ripe old age of 12. You find me a single 12 year old willing or even capable of such a feat today.
The exploration of existence requires time and privacy to contemplate life, ask questions, and pursue the answers at your own pace. More than anything else, it is that the government wishes to take from you.
Some people do break out, but usually not until they are much older. When you have your youthful vigor this never seems apparent, but once you turn 30 and realize how much of your life has pased you by and how much of it you have wasted, you think what you could have accomplished. Only with the freedom to do whatever you want, can you truly have limitless possibilities. Perhaps that is not an option indefinitely, but we owe our children that freedom.
While I might agree with you that the educational and social services systems have done a great deal of harm by pressuring people to conform to some idealized social norm, or encouraging/enabling them to be less productive than their potential might allow, I don't agree with your statement that (somebody) must "give" people their lives back. The human condition has almost always involved people having to claim the potential of their lives from the grip some external force, whether from the uncaring natural world, the chains of an enslaving nation, or suffocating social norms. Some might have a harder fight than others to claim their life for themselves, but it is up to the individual to make the effort. I am not opposed to helping people with a particularly difficult fight, but in the end nobody can make that individual effort for them.
It is not my argument to enable some sort of communist state. In all honesty, it is nearly impossible to return to the world as it was before forced education. But freed from the dumbing down of education, our people will be much more productive and have to work less. You think the free countries or free, but that is really not so. Freedom died a long time ago. The problem is you are thinking within the framework of the system. Once you realize how much work is irrelevant to human existence, and how efficiently it is done precisely to "make work" you realize the productivity issue is merely the result of MOTIVATION. The psychological manipulation system of western countries was more successful than communist ones, but that doesnt make it right. People in Russia just stopped giving a fuck, and their society fell apart. In the US, for a variety of reasons, people kept at it. Maybe if Russia set up a huge system funding cookie cutter homes for all their people things would have continued on as they were.
The closest social organization I am advocating is a nation of independent people, no employees, no leaders. 150 years ago, less than 10% of Americans were "employees". Slavery was necessary in the south because you couldn't get free men to work in that fashion. School was created to train humans to accept a subserviant life. We do not need a hierarchical society, and we do not need a hierarchical economy. This was, by the way Thomas Jefferson's ideal vision of America. Family farmers, forming communities, with independent tradesmen making the necessities of life.
There is another way, but until you first realize school is the source of the problem you will not see the solution. Until you realize people are kept in school for 16-20 years so they DON'T work because there really isn't enough work to go around, you won't see the solution. Until you realize that there is an inherent contradiction to the modern era, we have LESS free time than 150 years ago despite so much more technology... Technology by its definition is something which ELIMINATES work, yet it has not at all for the average American. It has provided nothing more than entertainment of the most superficial kind. Technology hasn't made our lives easier, it is simply the new Opiate.
You think you are free but you have NEVER been free. You were barely off your mother tit when you enslaved in school. After 12 years of conditioning you accepted your fate and went to college where you at least wasted four years and probably incurred serious debt. Which then forced you to go to grad school to get an even better job, or made you work hard to pay that debt. Suddenly, you are 30, and half your productive life is over. You have done nothing but eat, sleep, fuck (hopefully), and "work". Will we ever have an Athens in our modern age? Will we have a civilization which contributes something of value to future generations outside of toys?
Capitalism always has an element of "service economy" - if I produce a product or service, I am answerable to the customer to produce something that they want. It's not necessarily like slavery, unless one allows themselves to work in an environment that makes it feel that way
you really need to think about that. Capitalism was NEVER a "service" economy. Capitalism, especially American capitalism was primarily agrarian with a small amount of manufacturing and trade. A good example of true capitalism would be the Amish. They produce nearly everything within their community, sell some excess goods, and buy some farm equipment. They don't sell their services. They sell the fruits of the labor, and even that is overall a luxury, not a necessity. The problem is that you believe the purpose of capitalism is inherently to produce something that people want. If you really think about that, you realize why this we are now fucked. By and large, people want a lot of shit they don't really need. They do this because they are TRAINED to do this. We NEED consumers, otherwise our society falls apart. You see your life and your future as being nothing more than a source of energy for the economic machine. Your idea of capitalism is about as capitalistic as the British setting up an opium cartel in China. Sell an addictive drug, and only have one seller. That was the only way you could have "modern" capitalism back then. But today, we train our children to be frivolous, lazy, and crave variety. That is not life. 200 years ago, the only free people who were truly involved in the "service" economy were prostitutes.
I just don't think our history gives much credence to the idea that advances in tools lead to a bunch of mind-numbed drones toiling away at 'make work' - such a thing is a human problem, not a technological problem.
The two are intimately related. I am also not claiming that is the case. A great hypothetical situation, which this story ultimately raises, is what happens when we no longer need people to produce anything? What happens when we have a magic machine that gives us everything we want? We are approaching that level quickly. When that happens, how then do we order society? The corporate-fascist system we have today will not cut it. With every technological innovation, we come ever close to the irrelevency of work as a necessary part of human survival or happiness (to acquire shit)
I used to think this was due to greed on behalf by the few and ignorance or insanity by the many, but now I think it's because humanity needs to be driven forwards relentlessly [at the price of fulfillment and happiness for the majority] in order to achieve a sufficient level of technological prowess within a short time frame, I dunno why, maybe this is necessary to avoid wipeout by an asteroid or something.
In the United States, the financiers of the monetary system, JP Morgan, et al, created the educational system we have today for this purpose. They realized 100 years ago that modern technology was going to make most of the people irrelevant from a labor standpoint, especially in the production of goods. They financed colleges and organizations specifically to devise a schooling system which makes people accept monotony and tedium and a hierarchical social structure to cope with this reality. No one would work in a factory until he was raised in a school.
Personally, I think this relentless pursuit of technology I think has been rather frivolous. We really aren't that better off. I live in a 100 year old apartment, shop for food in what has been a grocery store for 70 years, and take a train in a subway tunnel dug over 100 years ago. So the trains are new, but they use the same electric motors they have always used. So I work in software, but outside of that, my life could easily be just as it was 100 years ago.
I firmly believe that the relentless pursuit of technology is nothing more than a game to keep people from revolting.
I don't think we would have this system if people were not raised in schools, where they learned on their own and were not taught conformity and a need for variety. The bell in school came about because of Pavlov... he also tested his theories on humans, not just dogs. Humans who have their freedom constantly interrupted by a bell become docile and more willing to accept orders. That is why no one truly enjoys the moment or invests for the future in a logical way. The monetary system is a part of it, a big part, but education as it exists today is the other part.
To read about the whole psychology and motivation behind the design of modern factory schools read this book. Thanks for the tip btw.
Of course, the first company to do this was NexGen and their Nx586. NexGen never had their own fabrication plants, so they got IBM to do it. Cyrix didn't always do this, they only licensed some of their
Also, the IBM 6x86 was typically a better processor than the Cyrix. It definitely could be overclocked much more easily.
Thats not true at all. The AMD K6 233 beat the Pentium Pro 233 and Pentium 266 for some time (about 4-5 months) before the Pentium II's came out. The K6 is really a processor that has been underappreciated, but in 1997 it was great. Remember, AMD purchased NexGen which had the Nx586 which was a great processor in its day. NexGen was founded by quite a few ex-intel engineers who wanted to bring RISC computing to the desktop. The K6 is what would have become the NexGen Nx686. To this day, the Athlon uses RISC instructions internally.
What made the Athlon special was how its floating point performance was so far superior to the Pentium II's and III's. The original NexGen Nx586 didn't even HAVE a floating point unit and the K6 had relatively terrible floating point performance. Going all the way back to the original Nx586 P60 (50 mhz), clock for clock the technology always beat Intel for integer performance. NexGen STARTED the P- rating system because of this. This was the same fate that befell Cyrix which has been out of the game for years because the FPU performance sucked.
In reality you are right, this is the same game that has been going on now for eight years. Intel competitors create processors more efficient than Intel, but Intel can ratchet up the performance.
For geeks however, the floating performance was an issue even five years ago for games, filters, and such.
Its just unfortunate when some people are ignorant of the whole story, because its really fascinating. Me, I haven't owned an Intel processor since 1994 with my first NexGen Nx586 66, so I have a long history of antiquated boxes to prove it.
Even if everything does get cheaper, we will all end up getting paid less a result. Of course, then our student loan debt will be an enormous portion of our income. Of course, housing prices have been rising at an insane level the last five years. Useless shit may be a lot cheaper but the necessities of life will become a much larger portion of our annual expenditures.
Re: Service Economy = Servitude = Slavery
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And as for labor's basic place in economics, it should be noted that in present day US, only 10% of the work force or so have industrial jobs.
And 20% are paper pushers working in the white color bureucratic world office world, 30% are government workers.. umm working, 10% work hard in the healthcare field making sure everyone can eat as much food as they could ever want. 20% work in the educational/social services establishment making sure everyone is as dumb as possible thus ensuring their own future employment. Everyone else works in some franchise service industry.
Oh, and lets not forget the 2% of Americans in PRISON.
The reality is we went from independent farmers in the United States (not in EUROPE however), to factory workers, to jobs.
Jobs today don't actually contribute anything of value to society. What we have is a gigantic make work program in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. Keep your citizens in school for half their productive life, keep 'em busy in some pointless job, and then shove 'em in a retirement apartment complex for however long they live past 65.
The economic impact of efficient production is not devastating; quite the opposite.
This is certainly true. The reality is human ingenuity has made work unnecessary to accomplish anything of real value. The problem we have today is that in a society where we are raised from kindgergarten or earlier to follow orders and be part of a "team", people have to either lead or be led or they cause all sorts of trouble (in the eyes of our rulers). The reality is work is no longer necessary for the vast majority of our citizens and employment/unemployment has little to do with life as it is today.
I absolutely agree with you that the we should not stop innovation. HOWEVER technology and human ingenuity are making traditional life as humans have known for the past few millenia pointless. Just when technology is allowing for people to spend their lives truly living, we are further turning our people into mindless drones to serve a bureucratic system rather then letting them explore the infinite possibilities of existence on their own.
Now is the time to give people their lives back. The educational/social services system must be abolished. The industrial economy at least produced things of value, often questionalable. The service economy is nothing more than modern slavery, which the schools gleefully train us to accept. Servitude is for slaves, it is not the foundation of a society or an economy.
Its not just a rom upgrade. Ogg Vorbis requires significantly better floating point performance than mp3 or wma. This, more than anything, has been the hinderence to its adoption in the appliance department.
As soon as cheap processors become available that can effectively decode Ogg Vorbis, it will be adopted. Be patient, and buy a sharp zaurus in the meantime.
absolutely. My favorite game is still F-zero, and you absolutely *need* the L/R buttons on the top of the unit. Even if this new GBA has these buttons, the width of the unit is going to make accessing them awkward.
This was true back in the day. Even in 1994-1995 when OS/2 was gaining a lot of ground, software reviews or even mentioning OS/2 compatibility in a hardware review was non-existant.
Now there is windows and office. No new software really comes out for windows anymore, and all hardware works pretty well. Not only are many other magazines reviewing hardware but how many sites do as well. I haven't used a magazine or one of their sites for a hardware review in years.
So, Ziff Davis is realizing that geeks actually like in depth reporting and make enough money to throw them $50 a year without giving a shit. Problem is, I still hate them for the pro-microsoft stance, even though its been nearly ten years...
for long range trips we'll be using our mid-range bmw, another great example of engineering, when fuel cell and / or hydrogen vehicles come out, we'll have that as the main car (we're hoping bmw offers a model and we're willing to wait for that too).
Ahh yes, this people apparently really know whats great for the environment and the nation. Another pointless toy for the rich do-gooders.
I think I will stick with the subway. Not that I have the money to purchase a segway. Or a car for that matter.
I'm dubious. At one point in time, perhaps to a small degree...nowhere near the order of, say, early 1900s Germany, which fell to external, not internal forces.
Listen, I could sit here and list off many 20th century sources which indicate how precisely the entire system of mass forced schooling was designed from the beginning to instill obedience and submissive behavior, but I have already given you the best one which discusses many of the chief sources. All I can say is you are wrong. Once you see ths studies and works published by prominant folks from Indiana University to Columbia, and statements from early heads of the department of education you will see. The connection between the educational establishment and the military is astounding both in terms of similar psychological mechanisms employed today and the near parallel rise of the modern military machine with the entire concept of compulsory schools.
The command economy is not simply directing production and artificially creating demand and utilizing wealth redistribution, it begins with forced schools making people content to live their lives as pawns of the state. That is the key, look there and you will understand. Read the first book I referenced in the last post. What more can I say? This concept of the psychology of social structure is a huge topic which began with Nietzsche 140 years ago. Just as religion was the tool of control, the educational establishment and our illusory meritocracy today is the new religion.
Doesn't begin to compare. Our rulers aren't dicking around, completely ignoring what's going on (granted, Bush could pay more attention to the economy, but this is on a totally different scale). Our tax system doesn't make the little guy pay a higher ratio of his income than the big guy, we haven't run out of money, and the wealthy do not have hereditary legal rights. Our country's wealthy are more like a string of merchants than titled lords. By French standards, they are wealthy Third Estate.
This is a little more difficult to explain. All I can say is freedom died once every citizen was raised by the state in the educational system. The revolution of tomorrow is not going to result from the obvious infringements on freedom, it is going to arise because the existence we have today does not fit with human nature. Humans by nature are free. Part of the service economy is to SERVE, and servitude is something for slaves. When real meaningful work is obviously not something the average person can do, nihilistic tendencies will manifest. The revolution will not be large and organized, rather it will be violent unrest. Violence is one of the most effective ways to feel alive.
It is this view of the future which prompted Nietzsche to write Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future
This was written when German idealism ruled Prussia. The german work ethic was insufficient for the future because work is a small part of human existence. In the future, technology will make this ever more apparent and without that Philosophy for the Future, decadence and decay would become the dominant feature of society. Nietzsche never truly discovered what the future philosophy was, but you would very surprised how accurate his depictions of the future are.
So to summarize, revolution is not necessarily related to economic statistics. Human existence and nature is not related to economics, it is the government which seeks to control human nature for economic ends. Someday, the dichotomy which exists between the two will lead to violent conflict.
The only reasons I can see people have for being upset that you've cited is poor music and an inability to indulge in illegal drugs, which I do *not* see starting a revolution (if it didn't in the '60s, when there were more substantial political reasons , it isn't going to happen now).
you missed the parent post which said it happened in the sixties. I posited the view the revolution in the sixties was nothing more than that. However, the existential question will be the root of revolution. Read above.
God, to people in Cambodia or something we must come off as spoiled princes or something. Okay, look. No one is forcing you to listen to any music you don't like, pop or otherwise. I mean, hell, I don't really care much for football, but I just don't watch the thing.
Yes, people in oppressive countries probably would not understand. But, an Athenian from 600 BC probably would. Art is very much a part of advanced civilization because only with technological advancement do people have time to do something as unnecessary for survival as art. Again, I brought up music in part to be flippant, but also because I have been a musician since I was five. Because virtually all work today is created simply to maintain the illusion of an economy and to keep the masses busy, they lose out on artistic expression. I am not going to make this an aesthetic debate, but if you think the world is MORE artistic than it was 100 years ago, I implore you to seriously start studying some art history.
Look, if you're going to call the United States a command economy, you're going to have to call the rest of the *world* a command econonmy.
I do. The popular discontent of which I speak is happening virtually everywhere outside of western europe and the United States, and I suppose Canada.
The reality is that this is marvelously unsustainable, because you end up with a bunch of heroin addicts. Why do you think governments today didn't take a page from Hitler and dope up their troops (I'm talking about other than painkillers)?
Well, this unfortunately isn't true. You are right about narcotic pain killers. Heroin is nothing more than diacetylmorphine. Bayer was the company to sell it and Heroin was their brand name. It was one of the first mass produced, marketed, and branded drugs ever. The other was Aspirin. Its just morphine and vinager. The military can still use heroin as necessary, as it has many properties which make it superior to morphine.
Amphetamine is another story. This is still used extensively by the military, with little trouble. It is no longer used by the army, but naval and air force pilots still use it. The US airmen charged in that friendly fire bombing in Afghanistan just claimed their error was caused by them using amphetamine at the time. Just read about this a few days ago.
But never mind, I am not advocating drugs. Its a part of life. The 1960's was all about drugs however, and I think it was bullshit. Drugs are not about "revolutionary", they are functional tools. Amphetamine and heroin were the pinnacles of modern medicine in 1910. New drugs are being developed without the same side effects.
One of those most sad examples of the new opiate is the incredible usage of antidepressants today. If there is anything which indicates the masses are not happy with their existence its that. In many ways, I wish heroin or opium were legal so we could simply see how many people are truly unhappy. If we said 25% of our population took opium daily instead of prozac the public might be a little more aware of the problem at hand.
So, the people at home are on drugs which artificially make them feel contented and your military is on drugs which increase aggressiveness and enhance physical strength and mental stamina... As most people who have taken anti-depressants or even drugs like heroin or cocaine or amphetamine, the effects are difficult to quantify. After a while you begin to accept those feelings as "normal".
Interestingly, I am home sick and jacked up on codeine cough syrup as I write this.
So...Lockheed-Martin is going to collapse, resulting in Wagner becoming popular. I'm dubious.
What literature are you basing this on, anyway?
It was a tongue in cheek response. The military-industrial complex is not so important because of the straight industries which rose to support it, but for the fact we operate in a command economy where demand is artificially created. Read my previous post to see how the educational establishment was created first in a militaristic style modelled on the Prussian system of indoctrination. It was this system which then allowed for the mass direction of the people towards a military goal. Schools as we know them, were engineered to foster obedience. Today, if you combine the number of people employed by the military, the government bureauocracy supporting the military, and military supporting industries, and the educational system it is nearly half of all jobs in the country. Read this book to see a pretty good history of how exactly the modern school is essentially militaristic in origin.
The system is going to collapse because the average young American is not a part of that system and his future is bleek. Rather repeat myself, I believe the situation today is much as it was in France in 1800. Large numbers of well educated literate people have no real place in their society and hav no problems rebelling against it.
Music, well thats my personal opinion. I happen to hate "pop" music and blame the trivial nature of our society for allowing its popularity to rise. The sort of feelings which come with wholescale war, dread, the thrill of victory... they make people like more emotional music. It is my belief that even music like modern rap music is militaristic in the sense it is stark, and has a regular harsh beat perfect for marching. This is a subject I have wanted to study further, its just my personal musings.
As an avid fan of Nietzsche, he would say that Wagner's popularity was due to militaristic nature of German society at the time. The relationship between Nietzsche and Wagner is quite fascinating. This book contains many of the works by Nietzsche placing Wagner in the historical context of the first Reich. As for our current economic situation... Look at Japan or any other self professed command economy. Stagnation is the rule, and so shall it be for us.
As far as drugs, the classic 60's drugs have nothing to offer a revolution. Marijuana and LSD will be completely marginalized. But the US military today stockpiles massive quantities of morphine and methamphetamine. I admit, I said heroin because in tough times, its so easy to mix vinager with your morphine to get heroin and double the amount of useful drug you have it will happen. The reality is amphetamine and narcotics are quite useful in war time. Amphetamine keeps you awake and makes you aggressive. Narcotics make the pain of war, both physical and psychological, more tolerable. Even in vietnam there were far more heroin addicts than regular marijuana users. For good info on how the militarism is the source of most modern drugs of abuse check out this site. There are tons of references there.
Germany gave us most of them. They first isolated morphine from crude opium, cocaine from coca paste. Bayer created heroin. All amphetamine analogs were created in Germany, mostly by Merck. Methamphetamine was created specifically for military uses. When opium was no longer accessible to Germany during WWII, they manufactured methadone the first synthetic opioid.
Slashdot Mirror
Look at what I wrote...
How can one say there is a larger market for consoles FOR televisions in China than in the United States.
I like you, you got a nice website. But read my post. I am talking about televisions, I don't give a rats ass about the market for televisions. The reality is Nintendo doesn't make televisions, they make video game systems. One comes with a a screen, one needs a television. The market for televisions in China may be huge, but that doesn't matter to Nintendo. The reality is 80% of chinese do NOT have televisions. That means the market for video game devices which require televisions amongst those people is small.
We are talking about how Nintendo can get money from each and every chinaman in china. That isn't going to happen with a Super Nintendo. Hypothetically speaking however, Nintendo could put a GBA in the hands of every Chinaman in China.
Drink down four or five egg yolks for a similar effect.
Most depression is caused by cholesterol deficiency. Cholesterol is actually so important to our body's health your body punishes you with depression as a result. Our brains, btw, are about 25% cholesterol on average. Cholesterol as you may know is a lipoprotein. That is its a protein with the hydrophobic properties of fat, perfect for the acquious solution of our brain. Our brains could never grow to the size they are without cholesterol.
Anyway, egg yolks are rich in cholesterol. Drink them down and you will feel tired and happy in a few minutes. Take it before bed time and you will have the a similar effect.
One of the reason low density lipoproteins are common today is because most cholesterol has been oxidized by heat. So its important to eat only RAW egg yolks. LDL's have no functional purpose in our bodies and do not stimulate seratonin.
He wasn't accurate, he said: "Given that many Chinese probably do not even have televisions". In reality 300 million Chinese HAVE televisions (compared to 215 million in US). Thus market for consoles is larger in China than in US.
Ahh I love the slasdot AC semantics crowd. By the posters own admission, 80% of Chinese do NOT own televisions wheras at least 80% of Americans do. How can one say there is a larger market for consoles FOR televisions in China than in the United States. 80% of Chinese do not have televisions and probably WANT to play video games. Rather than make them own a television FIRST you can just have them buy a Gameboy Advance. Problem solved.
I was never comparing the Chinese market to the American market or anywhere else. However, anyone who is selling something, from video games to opium would much rather sell it to every Chinaman in China. Thus it is EASIER to sell a device such as a gameboy advance than an SNES IN CHINA.
Think people. Please.
The Gameboy Advance is clearly based on the Super Nintendo. Given that many Chinese probably do not even have televisions, having an all in one unit like the GBA is probably a great idea. I doubt we will see the actual console as it once was, the unit will probably be very much like gameboy advance. Perhaps it will have a TV out or something of the kind.
1988? Where have you been? Typically I wouldn't respond but considering a lot of youngins have moderator access today...
This guy probably meant 1978, who knows.
What I can tell you is I had a 386 25 with a meg of ram and a 20 megabyte hard drive in 1988. MS-DOS 2.0 added support for hard drives. Even the original IBM AT had a hard drive as an option.
I even had 3.5 inch diskettes in 1988! amazing!
OS/2 1.0 was released the previous year, and it REQUIRED a hard drive.
So, this poster hopefully made a mistak otherwise... he needs to see a doctor. His memory is failing.
Friend, you are misunderstanding the issue. This is a debate that goes back to ancient Sparta versus Athens . Were American pioneers slaves? Yes, there were slaves, but they were never more than 20% of the total population, and even less early on. Were the people of Venice slaves? Florence? Why was beauty a staple of Venice
Do you think Thomas Paine would have sold his Common Sense and Age of Reason to the majority of American citizens if they were slaves? Do you think the majority of Americans would read such works today?
In 1880, 80% of Americans had an independent livelihood, where they were beholden to no man. There were no employees.
The main issue I am railing against is not existential, life is NOT pointless there are many things that can be done with ones life. The reality is that freedom is taken from us. From the moment you go to school you are raised to be a slave. Not only is the educational system designed to deprive you of choice, to induce conformity and submission, but it robs you of time. Will any 13 year olds be contemplating revolution in our society? No, not at all.
You believe that your life is free, but that is not the case. You will never contribute anything of value, like a great sculpture or piece of art, because you don't have the time. You spend the vast majority of your waking moments as a member of the bureucratic system, whether in training as a student or as a hack in the office. You may think you chose your life, but that choice really isn't possible until you are well in your twenties.
Part of this is you are ignorant of human history. Schools do this intentionally to MAKE you believe life is better today than it once was. You have a lot to learn, but you will realize my point later in life. But for you it will be too late, your life will be nearly over. My words are to free the next generation, those whose lives are not yet invested in the wretched machine of social engineering.
More than anything else, this is what Plato's Republic is all about, which you should probably read. It discusses the very society we have today. Just as the prisoners raised in the cave to view shadows, you can't see the real world. You need to open your eyes and consider a new ordering of society. Consider one where there are no employees, no students. Let that sit with your imagination and then read some philosophy.
Sheesh, the OS/2 GUI was great but not necessary. I ran a multinode BBS for years command line only. Especially in 1993 when 8 megs of ram cost some serious cash, using 2-3 megs for the GUI was unnecessary. Its funny you profess such knowledge because OS/2 had few GUI tools for administration. Almost all were command line and cable of being manipulated via REXX scripts. There were some GUI front ends, but most sucked and no one used them. As for the reboots, only Ring 0 drivers required a reboot, like Installable File System drivers. But, even Linux requires that. Oh wait, you need to recompile the kernel to that. *duh*
OS/2 SMP has always supported up to 1024 processors , and still is one of the best examples of multiprocessing today, better than Windows and Linux. You forget that IBM practically invented multiprocessing and in the early 90's with the slow advancement of CISC processors it really seemed like multiprocessing was the way for performance gains. I remember going to Comdex in 1994 seeing OS/2 2.1 SMP running on 128 processors. They ran this great image editing tool called Colorworks which was highly SMP enabled, the performance gains were amazing. Today however, the only amazing multiprocessing machines are IBM Power4 machines. Everything else is a toy. 2, 4 processors. BFD
I'm not sure it's fair to blame that 2% on technological progress. Sure, some people would rather commit crime than become educated and work, and maybe that contributes to a higher crime rate, but I would like to see some studies to back that up.
I have read (can't remember where) that a significant fraction (maybe 1/4 - 1/2) of that 2% is in prison because of nonviolent drug charges (i.e., users arrested for possession). I vaguely recall that they cited justice dept and/or prison bureau stats to back up that claim, but it's been a while. So it could be that social policies mostly unrelated to technical progress are responsible for some/most of that 2%.
This is a difficult topic. But when you create a national hierarchical pyramid scheme, and that IS what we have in the United States beginning with the forced educational system, you end up with a huge underclass that is not necessarily deprived of the bare necessities of life, but is none the less disenfranchised. These people have no real inscentive to be a part of society as exists today. Why bother working at walmart? Why bother giving a shit about my block? Why not just jack up on heroin all day? The point is we raise people to "succeed" in such a way that only a FEW can succeed, and the rest fail. The commit crimes because they truly don't give a fuck. I don't blame them, why should they. I would rather go to prison than work in walmart or mcdonalds. People need to belong to society and feel they are contributing something of value to that society. Being nothing more than a servant does not accomplish that goal.
Well, the 'traditional life' that humans have known for the past few millenia (up until a few hundred years ago) was pretty damn cruel and laborious. I think someone living in the third world today would gladly trade their life for one where they could go to school for 12 years for free, work at some (pointless?) job that would provide them with more food and shelter than they could ever use, and be able to live in relative comfort when they retire.
This is the myth presented by the so called free marketeers today. You really need to think about this a little more. Free people don't WANT to go to school for free. More than anything else it is SCHOOL that is slavery. Actually, you really need to go to a foreign country. This concept that the United States is this bastion of prosperity is exagerated in the extreme. We are prosperous in only the most superficial of ways. As humans we are deprived. When I say "traditional" I refer to the community based life that existed world wide until one hundred years ago. Knowing your neighbors, building a better community, or even a city. We have suburbanite families who move to the suburbs because they think thats what they are supposed to do. They don't allow apartments in the suburbs however so all their kids live in the cities. Then families ditch the house when they turn 60 and move to a golden age ghetto in florida. That may seem like an ideal life to you now, at this relatively young age, but eventually you will see that society as we have in the United States is wholly inhuman.
The current system does allow people to "explore the infinite possibilities of existence on their own" - so long as they are willing to take the risk of doing so. I know plenty of people that are too afraid to quit their stable jobs and go 'exploring.' Maybe we can blame that on the education system or society, but some people still manage to overcome these things and break out of the normal pattern.
How pray tell, is one to explore existence when they spend 16 years in school, when they are the most sharp and enthusiastic? People used to have a lot of time. Even Negro slaves in the south had time to sing songs and play instruments. The reality is it is those early years when people are the most driven to explore existence. The primary reason schools were created was because many in the past chose to explore existence by joining a revolutionary cause. Youthful rebellion was once a major force in the upheaval of society, and we have our Independence from England as a result. Case in point, look up one Admiral Faragett at some point. A rather famouse American naval officer, he received his first command at the ripe old age of 12. You find me a single 12 year old willing or even capable of such a feat today.
The exploration of existence requires time and privacy to contemplate life, ask questions, and pursue the answers at your own pace. More than anything else, it is that the government wishes to take from you.
Some people do break out, but usually not until they are much older. When you have your youthful vigor this never seems apparent, but once you turn 30 and realize how much of your life has pased you by and how much of it you have wasted, you think what you could have accomplished. Only with the freedom to do whatever you want, can you truly have limitless possibilities. Perhaps that is not an option indefinitely, but we owe our children that freedom.
While I might agree with you that the educational and social services systems have done a great deal of harm by pressuring people to conform to some idealized social norm, or encouraging/enabling them to be less productive than their potential might allow, I don't agree with your statement that (somebody) must "give" people their lives back. The human condition has almost always involved people having to claim the potential of their lives from the grip some external force, whether from the uncaring natural world, the chains of an enslaving nation, or suffocating social norms. Some might have a harder fight than others to claim their life for themselves, but it is up to the individual to make the effort. I am not opposed to helping people with a particularly difficult fight, but in the end nobody can make that individual effort for them.
It is not my argument to enable some sort of communist state. In all honesty, it is nearly impossible to return to the world as it was before forced education. But freed from the dumbing down of education, our people will be much more productive and have to work less. You think the free countries or free, but that is really not so. Freedom died a long time ago. The problem is you are thinking within the framework of the system. Once you realize how much work is irrelevant to human existence, and how efficiently it is done precisely to "make work" you realize the productivity issue is merely the result of MOTIVATION. The psychological manipulation system of western countries was more successful than communist ones, but that doesnt make it right. People in Russia just stopped giving a fuck, and their society fell apart. In the US, for a variety of reasons, people kept at it. Maybe if Russia set up a huge system funding cookie cutter homes for all their people things would have continued on as they were.
The closest social organization I am advocating is a nation of independent people, no employees, no leaders. 150 years ago, less than 10% of Americans were "employees". Slavery was necessary in the south because you couldn't get free men to work in that fashion. School was created to train humans to accept a subserviant life. We do not need a hierarchical society, and we do not need a hierarchical economy. This was, by the way Thomas Jefferson's ideal vision of America. Family farmers, forming communities, with independent tradesmen making the necessities of life.
There is another way, but until you first realize school is the source of the problem you will not see the solution. Until you realize people are kept in school for 16-20 years so they DON'T work because there really isn't enough work to go around, you won't see the solution. Until you realize that there is an inherent contradiction to the modern era, we have LESS free time than 150 years ago despite so much more technology... Technology by its definition is something which ELIMINATES work, yet it has not at all for the average American. It has provided nothing more than entertainment of the most superficial kind. Technology hasn't made our lives easier, it is simply the new Opiate.
You think you are free but you have NEVER been free. You were barely off your mother tit when you enslaved in school. After 12 years of conditioning you accepted your fate and went to college where you at least wasted four years and probably incurred serious debt. Which then forced you to go to grad school to get an even better job, or made you work hard to pay that debt. Suddenly, you are 30, and half your productive life is over. You have done nothing but eat, sleep, fuck (hopefully), and "work". Will we ever have an Athens in our modern age? Will we have a civilization which contributes something of value to future generations outside of toys?
Capitalism always has an element of "service economy" - if I produce a product or service, I am answerable to the customer to produce something that they want. It's not necessarily like slavery, unless one allows themselves to work in an environment that makes it feel that way
you really need to think about that. Capitalism was NEVER a "service" economy. Capitalism, especially American capitalism was primarily agrarian with a small amount of manufacturing and trade. A good example of true capitalism would be the Amish. They produce nearly everything within their community, sell some excess goods, and buy some farm equipment. They don't sell their services. They sell the fruits of the labor, and even that is overall a luxury, not a necessity. The problem is that you believe the purpose of capitalism is inherently to produce something that people want. If you really think about that, you realize why this we are now fucked. By and large, people want a lot of shit they don't really need. They do this because they are TRAINED to do this. We NEED consumers, otherwise our society falls apart. You see your life and your future as being nothing more than a source of energy for the economic machine. Your idea of capitalism is about as capitalistic as the British setting up an opium cartel in China. Sell an addictive drug, and only have one seller. That was the only way you could have "modern" capitalism back then. But today, we train our children to be frivolous, lazy, and crave variety. That is not life. 200 years ago, the only free people who were truly involved in the "service" economy were prostitutes.
I just don't think our history gives much credence to the idea that advances in tools lead to a bunch of mind-numbed drones toiling away at 'make work' - such a thing is a human problem, not a technological problem.
The two are intimately related. I am also not claiming that is the case. A great hypothetical situation, which this story ultimately raises, is what happens when we no longer need people to produce anything? What happens when we have a magic machine that gives us everything we want? We are approaching that level quickly. When that happens, how then do we order society? The corporate-fascist system we have today will not cut it. With every technological innovation, we come ever close to the irrelevency of work as a necessary part of human survival or happiness (to acquire shit)
This is a very interesting site, thanks for the link.
I used to think this was due to greed on behalf by the few and ignorance or insanity by the many, but now I think it's because humanity needs to be driven forwards relentlessly [at the price of fulfillment and happiness for the majority] in order to achieve a sufficient level of technological prowess within a short time frame, I dunno why, maybe this is necessary to avoid wipeout by an asteroid or something.
In the United States, the financiers of the monetary system, JP Morgan, et al, created the educational system we have today for this purpose. They realized 100 years ago that modern technology was going to make most of the people irrelevant from a labor standpoint, especially in the production of goods. They financed colleges and organizations specifically to devise a schooling system which makes people accept monotony and tedium and a hierarchical social structure to cope with this reality. No one would work in a factory until he was raised in a school.
Personally, I think this relentless pursuit of technology I think has been rather frivolous. We really aren't that better off. I live in a 100 year old apartment, shop for food in what has been a grocery store for 70 years, and take a train in a subway tunnel dug over 100 years ago. So the trains are new, but they use the same electric motors they have always used. So I work in software, but outside of that, my life could easily be just as it was 100 years ago.
I firmly believe that the relentless pursuit of technology is nothing more than a game to keep people from revolting.
I don't think we would have this system if people were not raised in schools, where they learned on their own and were not taught conformity and a need for variety. The bell in school came about because of Pavlov... he also tested his theories on humans, not just dogs. Humans who have their freedom constantly interrupted by a bell become docile and more willing to accept orders. That is why no one truly enjoys the moment or invests for the future in a logical way. The monetary system is a part of it, a big part, but education as it exists today is the other part.
To read about the whole psychology and motivation behind the design of modern factory schools read this book. Thanks for the tip btw.
Of course, the first company to do this was NexGen and their Nx586. NexGen never had their own fabrication plants, so they got IBM to do it. Cyrix didn't always do this, they only licensed some of their
Also, the IBM 6x86 was typically a better processor than the Cyrix. It definitely could be overclocked much more easily.
Thats not true at all. The AMD K6 233 beat the Pentium Pro 233 and Pentium 266 for some time (about 4-5 months) before the Pentium II's came out. The K6 is really a processor that has been underappreciated, but in 1997 it was great. Remember, AMD purchased NexGen which had the Nx586 which was a great processor in its day. NexGen was founded by quite a few ex-intel engineers who wanted to bring RISC computing to the desktop. The K6 is what would have become the NexGen Nx686. To this day, the Athlon uses RISC instructions internally.
What made the Athlon special was how its floating point performance was so far superior to the Pentium II's and III's. The original NexGen Nx586 didn't even HAVE a floating point unit and the K6 had relatively terrible floating point performance. Going all the way back to the original Nx586 P60 (50 mhz), clock for clock the technology always beat Intel for integer performance. NexGen STARTED the P- rating system because of this. This was the same fate that befell Cyrix which has been out of the game for years because the FPU performance sucked.
In reality you are right, this is the same game that has been going on now for eight years. Intel competitors create processors more efficient than Intel, but Intel can ratchet up the performance.
For geeks however, the floating performance was an issue even five years ago for games, filters, and such.
Its just unfortunate when some people are ignorant of the whole story, because its really fascinating. Me, I haven't owned an Intel processor since 1994 with my first NexGen Nx586 66, so I have a long history of antiquated boxes to prove it.
Even if everything does get cheaper, we will all end up getting paid less a result. Of course, then our student loan debt will be an enormous portion of our income. Of course, housing prices have been rising at an insane level the last five years. Useless shit may be a lot cheaper but the necessities of life will become a much larger portion of our annual expenditures.
And as for labor's basic place in economics, it should be noted that in present day US, only 10% of the work force or so have industrial jobs.
And 20% are paper pushers working in the white color bureucratic world office world, 30% are government workers.. umm working, 10% work hard in the healthcare field making sure everyone can eat as much food as they could ever want. 20% work in the educational/social services establishment making sure everyone is as dumb as possible thus ensuring their own future employment. Everyone else works in some franchise service industry.
Oh, and lets not forget the 2% of Americans in PRISON.
The reality is we went from independent farmers in the United States (not in EUROPE however), to factory workers, to jobs.
Jobs today don't actually contribute anything of value to society. What we have is a gigantic make work program in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. Keep your citizens in school for half their productive life, keep 'em busy in some pointless job, and then shove 'em in a retirement apartment complex for however long they live past 65.
The economic impact of efficient production is not devastating; quite the opposite.
This is certainly true. The reality is human ingenuity has made work unnecessary to accomplish anything of real value. The problem we have today is that in a society where we are raised from kindgergarten or earlier to follow orders and be part of a "team", people have to either lead or be led or they cause all sorts of trouble (in the eyes of our rulers). The reality is work is no longer necessary for the vast majority of our citizens and employment/unemployment has little to do with life as it is today.
I absolutely agree with you that the we should not stop innovation. HOWEVER technology and human ingenuity are making traditional life as humans have known for the past few millenia pointless. Just when technology is allowing for people to spend their lives truly living, we are further turning our people into mindless drones to serve a bureucratic system rather then letting them explore the infinite possibilities of existence on their own.
Now is the time to give people their lives back. The educational/social services system must be abolished. The industrial economy at least produced things of value, often questionalable. The service economy is nothing more than modern slavery, which the schools gleefully train us to accept. Servitude is for slaves, it is not the foundation of a society or an economy.
Its not just a rom upgrade. Ogg Vorbis requires significantly better floating point performance than mp3 or wma. This, more than anything, has been the hinderence to its adoption in the appliance department.
As soon as cheap processors become available that can effectively decode Ogg Vorbis, it will be adopted. Be patient, and buy a sharp zaurus in the meantime.
The GameGear didn't come out till 91 or so. But, the Atari Lynx had a backlit LCD in 1989.
absolutely. My favorite game is still F-zero, and you absolutely *need* the L/R buttons on the top of the unit. Even if this new GBA has these buttons, the width of the unit is going to make accessing them awkward.
Whoa... this is why I should not be working until 6:30...
Ah, and don't forget:
- Enjoy your job
- Make lots of money
- Work within the law
Pick any two.
I'll pick #1 and #3.
At least I am honest. Why practice demolition for profit when I can do it for fun? There isn't that big of a market for demolition anyway...
Microsoft passport.
Not that I am happy microsoft is doing it, but it is an idea people have thought of before.
Of course, there is paypal.
This was true back in the day. Even in 1994-1995 when OS/2 was gaining a lot of ground, software reviews or even mentioning OS/2 compatibility in a hardware review was non-existant.
Now there is windows and office. No new software really comes out for windows anymore, and all hardware works pretty well. Not only are many other magazines reviewing hardware but how many sites do as well. I haven't used a magazine or one of their sites for a hardware review in years.
So, Ziff Davis is realizing that geeks actually like in depth reporting and make enough money to throw them $50 a year without giving a shit. Problem is, I still hate them for the pro-microsoft stance, even though its been nearly ten years...
I'd much rather see PRT [taxi2000.com] everywhere in the future.
They have something similar to that here. Its call the subway.
for long range trips we'll be using our mid-range bmw, another great example of engineering, when fuel cell and / or hydrogen vehicles come out, we'll have that as the main car (we're hoping bmw offers a model and we're willing to wait for that too).
Ahh yes, this people apparently really know whats great for the environment and the nation. Another pointless toy for the rich do-gooders.
I think I will stick with the subway. Not that I have the money to purchase a segway. Or a car for that matter.
I'm dubious. At one point in time, perhaps to a small degree...nowhere near the order of, say, early 1900s Germany, which fell to external, not internal forces.
Listen, I could sit here and list off many 20th century sources which indicate how precisely the entire system of mass forced schooling was designed from the beginning to instill obedience and submissive behavior, but I have already given you the best one which discusses many of the chief sources. All I can say is you are wrong. Once you see ths studies and works published by prominant folks from Indiana University to Columbia, and statements from early heads of the department of education you will see. The connection between the educational establishment and the military is astounding both in terms of similar psychological mechanisms employed today and the near parallel rise of the modern military machine with the entire concept of compulsory schools.
The command economy is not simply directing production and artificially creating demand and utilizing wealth redistribution, it begins with forced schools making people content to live their lives as pawns of the state. That is the key, look there and you will understand. Read the first book I referenced in the last post. What more can I say? This concept of the psychology of social structure is a huge topic which began with Nietzsche 140 years ago. Just as religion was the tool of control, the educational establishment and our illusory meritocracy today is the new religion.
Doesn't begin to compare. Our rulers aren't dicking around, completely ignoring what's going on (granted, Bush could pay more attention to the economy, but this is on a totally different scale). Our tax system doesn't make the little guy pay a higher ratio of his income than the big guy, we haven't run out of money, and the wealthy do not have hereditary legal rights. Our country's wealthy are more like a string of merchants than titled lords. By French standards, they are wealthy Third Estate.
This is a little more difficult to explain. All I can say is freedom died once every citizen was raised by the state in the educational system. The revolution of tomorrow is not going to result from the obvious infringements on freedom, it is going to arise because the existence we have today does not fit with human nature. Humans by nature are free. Part of the service economy is to SERVE, and servitude is something for slaves. When real meaningful work is obviously not something the average person can do, nihilistic tendencies will manifest. The revolution will not be large and organized, rather it will be violent unrest. Violence is one of the most effective ways to feel alive.
It is this view of the future which prompted Nietzsche to write Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future
This was written when German idealism ruled Prussia. The german work ethic was insufficient for the future because work is a small part of human existence. In the future, technology will make this ever more apparent and without that Philosophy for the Future, decadence and decay would become the dominant feature of society. Nietzsche never truly discovered what the future philosophy was, but you would very surprised how accurate his depictions of the future are.
So to summarize, revolution is not necessarily related to economic statistics. Human existence and nature is not related to economics, it is the government which seeks to control human nature for economic ends. Someday, the dichotomy which exists between the two will lead to violent conflict.
The only reasons I can see people have for being upset that you've cited is poor music and an inability to indulge in illegal drugs, which I do *not* see starting a revolution (if it didn't in the '60s, when there were more substantial political reasons , it isn't going to happen now).
you missed the parent post which said it happened in the sixties. I posited the view the revolution in the sixties was nothing more than that. However, the existential question will be the root of revolution. Read above.
God, to people in Cambodia or something we must come off as spoiled princes or something. Okay, look. No one is forcing you to listen to any music you don't like, pop or otherwise. I mean, hell, I don't really care much for football, but I just don't watch the thing.
Yes, people in oppressive countries probably would not understand. But, an Athenian from 600 BC probably would. Art is very much a part of advanced civilization because only with technological advancement do people have time to do something as unnecessary for survival as art. Again, I brought up music in part to be flippant, but also because I have been a musician since I was five. Because virtually all work today is created simply to maintain the illusion of an economy and to keep the masses busy, they lose out on artistic expression. I am not going to make this an aesthetic debate, but if you think the world is MORE artistic than it was 100 years ago, I implore you to seriously start studying some art history.
Look, if you're going to call the United States a command economy, you're going to have to call the rest of the *world* a command econonmy.
I do. The popular discontent of which I speak is happening virtually everywhere outside of western europe and the United States, and I suppose Canada.
The reality is that this is marvelously unsustainable, because you end up with a bunch of heroin addicts. Why do you think governments today didn't take a page from Hitler and dope up their troops (I'm talking about other than painkillers)?
Well, this unfortunately isn't true. You are right about narcotic pain killers. Heroin is nothing more than diacetylmorphine. Bayer was the company to sell it and Heroin was their brand name. It was one of the first mass produced, marketed, and branded drugs ever. The other was Aspirin. Its just morphine and vinager. The military can still use heroin as necessary, as it has many properties which make it superior to morphine.
Amphetamine is another story. This is still used extensively by the military, with little trouble. It is no longer used by the army, but naval and air force pilots still use it. The US airmen charged in that friendly fire bombing in Afghanistan just claimed their error was caused by them using amphetamine at the time. Just read about this a few days ago.
But never mind, I am not advocating drugs. Its a part of life. The 1960's was all about drugs however, and I think it was bullshit. Drugs are not about "revolutionary", they are functional tools. Amphetamine and heroin were the pinnacles of modern medicine in 1910. New drugs are being developed without the same side effects.
One of those most sad examples of the new opiate is the incredible usage of antidepressants today. If there is anything which indicates the masses are not happy with their existence its that. In many ways, I wish heroin or opium were legal so we could simply see how many people are truly unhappy. If we said 25% of our population took opium daily instead of prozac the public might be a little more aware of the problem at hand.
So, the people at home are on drugs which artificially make them feel contented and your military is on drugs which increase aggressiveness and enhance physical strength and mental stamina... As most people who have taken anti-depressants or even drugs like heroin or cocaine or amphetamine, the effects are difficult to quantify. After a while you begin to accept those feelings as "normal".
Interestingly, I am home sick and jacked up on codeine cough syrup as I write this.
So...Lockheed-Martin is going to collapse, resulting in Wagner becoming popular. I'm dubious.
What literature are you basing this on, anyway?
It was a tongue in cheek response. The military-industrial complex is not so important because of the straight industries which rose to support it, but for the fact we operate in a command economy where demand is artificially created. Read my previous post to see how the educational establishment was created first in a militaristic style modelled on the Prussian system of indoctrination. It was this system which then allowed for the mass direction of the people towards a military goal. Schools as we know them, were engineered to foster obedience. Today, if you combine the number of people employed by the military, the government bureauocracy supporting the military, and military supporting industries, and the educational system it is nearly half of all jobs in the country. Read this book to see a pretty good history of how exactly the modern school is essentially militaristic in origin.
The system is going to collapse because the average young American is not a part of that system and his future is bleek. Rather repeat myself, I believe the situation today is much as it was in France in 1800. Large numbers of well educated literate people have no real place in their society and hav no problems rebelling against it.
Music, well thats my personal opinion. I happen to hate "pop" music and blame the trivial nature of our society for allowing its popularity to rise. The sort of feelings which come with wholescale war, dread, the thrill of victory... they make people like more emotional music. It is my belief that even music like modern rap music is militaristic in the sense it is stark, and has a regular harsh beat perfect for marching. This is a subject I have wanted to study further, its just my personal musings.
As an avid fan of Nietzsche, he would say that Wagner's popularity was due to militaristic nature of German society at the time. The relationship between Nietzsche and Wagner is quite fascinating. This book contains many of the works by Nietzsche placing Wagner in the historical context of the first Reich. As for our current economic situation... Look at Japan or any other self professed command economy. Stagnation is the rule, and so shall it be for us.
As far as drugs, the classic 60's drugs have nothing to offer a revolution. Marijuana and LSD will be completely marginalized. But the US military today stockpiles massive quantities of morphine and methamphetamine. I admit, I said heroin because in tough times, its so easy to mix vinager with your morphine to get heroin and double the amount of useful drug you have it will happen. The reality is amphetamine and narcotics are quite useful in war time. Amphetamine keeps you awake and makes you aggressive. Narcotics make the pain of war, both physical and psychological, more tolerable. Even in vietnam there were far more heroin addicts than regular marijuana users. For good info on how the militarism is the source of most modern drugs of abuse check out this site. There are tons of references there.
Germany gave us most of them. They first isolated morphine from crude opium, cocaine from coca paste. Bayer created heroin. All amphetamine analogs were created in Germany, mostly by Merck. Methamphetamine was created specifically for military uses. When opium was no longer accessible to Germany during WWII, they manufactured methadone the first synthetic opioid.
Anyway, check it out.