But you made my point. All of those examples were external threats. The military worldview breaks down when the enemy is close to home. I think if you try to tell the average grunt that Texas is now the enemy, he is simply not going to buy it. The internet is a big factor. MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and other social (as in "let's you meet hot girls") websites are extremely big among the E-3 and below crowd. Those sites, scorned by the snobbish geeks, are still a connection to the larger world, a connection that will expose them to different points of view. Eventually. If that viewpoint is contrary to the CO's viewpoint, it'll spread in the ranks like wildfire.
Ouch. The sanity thing was a big blunder. Here, let me fix it
...but you appear sane...
There, fixed. I was trying to express that it is occasionally difficult to suss out a person's motive and judge those motives as reasonable. As to guessing you were sane, I assumed that your motive for posting was a yearning to share your knowledge, something I consider reasonable. From this, I concluded you were sane. The rest of your post seemed combative to me. I hope I'm not being provocative.
You certainly have odd ideas about reasonable discourse. I ask you for the source of your assertion that cave people cared for the old. I did this because, while I certainly could do my own research, you would know the best source. You made the claim very authoritatively. When I followed your link just now, all I found was some waffling about herbs and witch doctors. The Wikipedia article certainly set an all new low for unverifiable claims. I would be grateful if you pointed the way.
As to the claims about the Church, I am at a loss. The Roman Catholic Church held a stranglehold on people's lives and afterlives for a millennia. It was, in part, the mass distribution of common language Bibles that freed people like Martin Luther to develop their own take on religion. ("Hey! Where is the part about indulgences?")Without the Protestant Reformation, it'd still be okay to burn atheists at the stake. I'd call that a lessening of "influence." Therefore I connect the printing press to a freedom of religion, an advancement which many first world countries now enjoy.
WW2 is your idea of society advancing?
The point of my prisoner/guard example was that they did cooperate, even though it was to the prisoners' detriment.
Actually, no. I personally don't see anything when I read. I may imagine what the scene looked like after I finish reading, but not during. I didn't realize that this was atypical. For me, there is no difference between a book and a video game, because, when I complete them, I have been introduced to new ideas about the world.
Sorry, no. As much as the belief that military personnel are drooling morons makes you feel superior, it isn't true. The average military guy is twice as cynical about the government as a civilian is. They are just not allowed to talk about it.
Yes, that is all well and good for you, but you're sane. Not everyone fits into the sane category. Also, despite the conviction that you can detect insanity in others (which you share with many people), some of the insane are quite convincing and able to fool people into following them. Sometimes insanity develops even when everyone involved is sane. Plus, I'd like to see a source on the caveman statement. I would argue that it is the freaks of nature that advance society, opposed to people "working together." In the Middle Ages, everyone worked together to produce some kickass cathedrals, but it took a crazy Guttenberg to get people out from under the Church's thumb.
Bone marrow transplant isn't what happened to this girl. Her entire immune system replaced itself w/o help or pain. This is what the GP was refering to. So why the/sarcasm?
The problem is that music isn't a product. Music is an idea. Yes, it required an extravagant amount of work to create, but you can't erase the idea of it from people's heads. I can sing the entire chorus of the "Macarena" and no one would, mercifully, hear it. It would be a recreation though, my very own "Macarena" mp3. Is the RIAA going to litigate me?
Forgive me, if this next part is incorrect. I am basing this on my limited understanding of the art world.
You can buy a poster of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" for about $5.00. The original is priceless. There is no real difference between the original and the replication. They still both convey the same idea. The only reason the original is priceless is because of a mythic quality. It is the "original." So, in a nutshell, it is valuable because of its bragging rights. I was going to draw a comparison from the "original" to the concert, but I realized that music is so much more than that.
The "Starry Night" is permanent, Van Gogh is never going to paint it again. A live performance of a song is going to be different every single time. Live music is an art piece that is eternally transient. It is the difference between a butterfly and a butterfly on a pincushion. That reduces the piracy question, for me, to "Is it art or is it a product?"
Ahhh, but the military is a special case. Money is spent on the military regardless of where the troops are. If there are funding cuts, that just means that troops are given less bullets, get less to eat, and move in and out of theatre less often. No government official in their sane* mind is going to cut military spending completely. OTOH, if NASA doesn't get all the funding it requests, science projects stop getting done. Sure, at first, the projects are things like "A Study of Resulting Gerbil Splat Patterns from Drops of 1000, 3000, and 5000 feet," but the critical stuff will come to the chopping block if no one says anything. In fact, I believe that critical projects are getting cut now, because of budget restraints.
Without people pressuring the politicians to fulfill NASA's funding requests, NASA begins to fail at its mission. Why keep a failure? Politicians could use that money to build a bridge. This is the slippery slope of public support.
*sane to mean the normal political thinking. I am well aware that some/. readers believe that the military should be abolished, but that would be a kiss of death for any politician
They are artificial legs designed specifically to go faster. This guy doesn't walk around with his blades on all day. He only uses the blades to run. He has normally looking legs for everyday use and he isn't going to compete in those.
No, just lazy. Why should I educate you? Here is a Wikipedia article on France's military involvement in the Revolutionary War, a direct, and I feel, unarguable contradiction to your assertion that no standing army was involved on the American side. A second source is here, lest you attack me over Wikipedia's credibility. Also, the Americans were organized into the Continental Army which you could say was not officially "standing," since it was formed specifically to fight in the war, but it was a government run army.
Ummmm... go read a history book. Your comment reveals a painful lack of knowledge about history, combine that with my inherent laziness and there is no way I'm going to be the one to catch you up.
know you didn't mean it literally, but politicians don't do space travel. Scientist do. Saying that politicians are researching space is like saying you change your own oil, when you mean that you pay an auto mechanic to do it.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does sex feel good then? If it is only for reproduction, it seems kind of odd to make all the various non-reproductive sex positions feel good.
Claims and counter-claims please. The subject sounds interesting.
But you made my point. All of those examples were external threats. The military worldview breaks down when the enemy is close to home. I think if you try to tell the average grunt that Texas is now the enemy, he is simply not going to buy it. The internet is a big factor. MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and other social (as in "let's you meet hot girls") websites are extremely big among the E-3 and below crowd. Those sites, scorned by the snobbish geeks, are still a connection to the larger world, a connection that will expose them to different points of view. Eventually. If that viewpoint is contrary to the CO's viewpoint, it'll spread in the ranks like wildfire.
Gotcha. Thanks for explaining it.
You certainly have odd ideas about reasonable discourse. I ask you for the source of your assertion that cave people cared for the old. I did this because, while I certainly could do my own research, you would know the best source. You made the claim very authoritatively. When I followed your link just now, all I found was some waffling about herbs and witch doctors. The Wikipedia article certainly set an all new low for unverifiable claims. I would be grateful if you pointed the way.
As to the claims about the Church, I am at a loss. The Roman Catholic Church held a stranglehold on people's lives and afterlives for a millennia. It was, in part, the mass distribution of common language Bibles that freed people like Martin Luther to develop their own take on religion. ("Hey! Where is the part about indulgences?")Without the Protestant Reformation, it'd still be okay to burn atheists at the stake. I'd call that a lessening of "influence." Therefore I connect the printing press to a freedom of religion, an advancement which many first world countries now enjoy.
WW2 is your idea of society advancing?
The point of my prisoner/guard example was that they did cooperate, even though it was to the prisoners' detriment.
Actually, no. I personally don't see anything when I read. I may imagine what the scene looked like after I finish reading, but not during. I didn't realize that this was atypical. For me, there is no difference between a book and a video game, because, when I complete them, I have been introduced to new ideas about the world.
Sorry, no. As much as the belief that military personnel are drooling morons makes you feel superior, it isn't true. The average military guy is twice as cynical about the government as a civilian is. They are just not allowed to talk about it.
Yes, that is all well and good for you, but you're sane. Not everyone fits into the sane category. Also, despite the conviction that you can detect insanity in others (which you share with many people), some of the insane are quite convincing and able to fool people into following them. Sometimes insanity develops even when everyone involved is sane. Plus, I'd like to see a source on the caveman statement. I would argue that it is the freaks of nature that advance society, opposed to people "working together." In the Middle Ages, everyone worked together to produce some kickass cathedrals, but it took a crazy Guttenberg to get people out from under the Church's thumb.
I disagree. What is vision? Is it the details or the story narrative itself? Do you really see little pictures in your head when you read?
So, my imaginary apple is a Fiji, whereas yours is a Red Delicious. That isn't going to change the ending of Adam and Eve.
Or get re-immunized?
Bone marrow transplant isn't what happened to this girl. Her entire immune system replaced itself w/o help or pain. This is what the GP was refering to. So why the /sarcasm?
Huh? How are books not someone else's vision? Just because they don't supply the pictures?
Forgive me, if this next part is incorrect. I am basing this on my limited understanding of the art world.
You can buy a poster of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" for about $5.00. The original is priceless. There is no real difference between the original and the replication. They still both convey the same idea. The only reason the original is priceless is because of a mythic quality. It is the "original." So, in a nutshell, it is valuable because of its bragging rights. I was going to draw a comparison from the "original" to the concert, but I realized that music is so much more than that.
The "Starry Night" is permanent, Van Gogh is never going to paint it again. A live performance of a song is going to be different every single time. Live music is an art piece that is eternally transient. It is the difference between a butterfly and a butterfly on a pincushion. That reduces the piracy question, for me, to "Is it art or is it a product?"
Now we know the truth about all those "handicap accessible" building codes!!
Maybe because it moves up and down at predictable intervals?
Well, technically, one lifetime. Neither one succeeded to pass 40, so if the average lifetime is ~78...
Without people pressuring the politicians to fulfill NASA's funding requests, NASA begins to fail at its mission. Why keep a failure? Politicians could use that money to build a bridge. This is the slippery slope of public support.
*sane to mean the normal political thinking. I am well aware that some /. readers believe that the military should be abolished, but that would be a kiss of death for any politician
They are artificial legs designed specifically to go faster. This guy doesn't walk around with his blades on all day. He only uses the blades to run. He has normally looking legs for everyday use and he isn't going to compete in those.
No, just lazy. Why should I educate you? Here is a Wikipedia article on France's military involvement in the Revolutionary War, a direct, and I feel, unarguable contradiction to your assertion that no standing army was involved on the American side. A second source is here, lest you attack me over Wikipedia's credibility. Also, the Americans were organized into the Continental Army which you could say was not officially "standing," since it was formed specifically to fight in the war, but it was a government run army.
Ummmm... go read a history book. Your comment reveals a painful lack of knowledge about history, combine that with my inherent laziness and there is no way I'm going to be the one to catch you up.
know you didn't mean it literally, but politicians don't do space travel. Scientist do. Saying that politicians are researching space is like saying you change your own oil, when you mean that you pay an auto mechanic to do it.
Have her join the Air Force or Army. Then they will fund it.
A society that depends on the "support of its people" alone is a society of naive fools who will never see the wolf coming.