Ah. Bullying. Got it.

The F-14 could not out-dogfight an F-15.

Companies assume they have the right to use force, and they occasionally even resort to murder. There is no place for them in a free market.

Once it gets into the hands of the pubescents out there, any social norms may be thrown out the window. Today's kids grew up w/ the likes of FB/twitter/etc, and saw no problems with sharing everything about their lives on the 'net. Today, many or most do not care that they are constantly broadcasting their location to the ether, with GPS accuracy (I might add, as most of us put up with the fact that we broadcast our locations to cell towers at all times). Tomorrow's kids, once price and availability for Glass (or something like it) are more consumer oriented, will glom onto it as a favorite new toy. There will be lots of apps and utilities; new social sites designed for Glass such as FacePalm (tm) that the kids will flock to (until their parents learn how to use it); and they will create their own games and memes.

sr

Hey you kids, quit looking at my lawn!

I like this analogy. I think it sums it up nicely.

"Pop music is like the Jungle Boat Ride at Disney. The animals always show up, there's a nice little narrative, it's over in a few minutes. Most "serious" music is like observing animals in the wild. You have to really look and listen..."

Ok, troll, wtf, I have a few minutes:

1) "Why do these stupid Christians keep challenging established FACT"

Religion is based on faith. Facts are more or less irrelevant.

2) "We all know how planets form"

No, we don't. We've got some good theories, and they will be fine-tuned as more and better observations (facts) are made.

3) "Science Works!"

Well, one out of three is better than nothing, I guess.

"Computers are like Old Testament gods: lots of rules and no mercy" - Joseph Campbell
 

The fact that you posted anon made me wonder if you were the OP (Taco Cowboy). As did the use of the colloquialism for someone who asked forgiveness for English being a second language for him.

I'm not trying to be pedantic here. The point (continues) to be, on a broader level, that it's harder to convey anything, especially emotions, via the written word. It's easy to misinterpret the written word (note the unintentional information that your post conveyed to me).

Enough of the discussion about the discussion. Back to the important subject, I was thinking about your statement "I was sad that people having to rely on an old fiction to understand the true nature of the human society."

In a way, it's sort of a good thing. It means times have been good. We should aspire to longer and longer periods of "good times". And the memories of the bad times will only be available via the written word (and other media, of course, which may change the equation some).

Of course, a problem is that once we lose that emotional, visceral feeling, we go back to doing the things that lead to the bad times.

Yah, I can see why that coward posted anonymously. I'm sure he would be a well-recognized dick if he had posted under his username.

+1 for SNL reference.

Excellent point. The Romans did this kind of thing, too. For example, Sulla did this with Gaius Marius.

My original thought was that any despotic system with one person having absolute power tends to produce these types of results. Then I remembered that Marius was during the Roman Republic.

So I revised my thought to: This is what humans do on occasion.

After WWII, taxes were very high for decades to pay it off. So I guess we didn't get free again 'til, what, the 80's? Ah, yes, Reagan's tax-busting. My taxes and my friends taxes went up, but we were young and just starting out, so we didn't count. Millionaires did well, and that's what counts.

He forgot the "stay off my lawn" part.

Well sure. Once, for a report, I thought I'd get away with something by using an old, unpopular encyclopedia. I got a C for it, which meant I did adequately well on copying from an encyclopedia as most of the other students did. I learned a good lesson from that. Anyways, nothing too much different, except "on the internet".