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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16759)	6/14/2001 6:29:32 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 82486

Yaah, So? I don't see where in that whine about me being lazy (which I fully accept responsibility for) that you endorsed the criteria that I mentioned for activating me... I reiterate: "a beginning that coalesces consciousness to purposefully and personally sacrifice in a struggle of principle toward moral and ethical reform."

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16759)	6/15/2001 1:03:20 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Chris you got a "Cool Post of the Day". Tim

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16759)	6/15/2001 7:05:09 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 82486

"That's one of many good reasons for it. Our country IS too comfortable to be truly free. Freedom requires work, effort, initiative, self-sacrifice. Jefferson in his wisdom spoke of the link between growing wealth and the loss of freedom. How many people here value more freedom so highly that they would, as the Afghans did, go and live in caves to fight for it? Bread and circuses is still a great formula for subduing a people and making them happy with their subjugation. The communist party got its foothold in the US during the depression, when people had nothing left to lose, and were therefore willing to risk the nothing they had for a dream of a better life. (Not that I think communism really did offer a better life, but that was the dream.) Today communism has been buried by wealth and money. Wealthy people don't become communists! Another problem we have is our total aversion to risk. Our society is trying to eliminate all risks. Mandatory seat belt laws. Mandatory crash standards for vehicles. Litigation galore for almost any ill that comes to a person. We have lost any concept that life is risky, that death is a natural part of life. We think we deserve to live forever. How many people today who are in their 30s and have a comfortable living wage would be truly willing to pledge "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" to any cause? Nuts. We'll write a check for a good cause, maybe. Attend a fancy fund raiser, sure as long as the food and entertainment are up to standard. Write an email to our congressman if we have time. That's about it. We have become so comfortable with our lack of freedom that we don't notice it's gone. Like an animal in a zoo, we're well fed, well cared for, for what should lwe want to go back to freedom it it means the dangers of the jungle? That is right on. Could people handle a real crisis like the speaker breaking at the drive-thru McDonald's? I wonder.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (16759)	6/16/2001 12:25:08 PM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 82486

Cool post ! thought you might like this from HG Wells from an earlier century : <<<<< But in these plethoric times when there is too much course stuff for everybody and the struggle for life takes the form of competitive advertisement and the effort to fill your neighbor's eye, there is no urgent demand for either personal courage , sound nerves or stark beauty, we find ourselves by accident. Always before these times the bulk of people didn't over eat themselves, because the couldn't whether they wanted to or not, and all but a very few were kept "fit" by unavoidable exercise and personal danger. Now , if he only pitch his standard low enough , and keep free from pride , almost anyone can achieve a sort of excess. You can go thru contemporary life fudging and evading, indulging and slacking , never hungry or frightened, nor passionately stirred, your highest moment a mere sentimental orgasm, and your first real contact with primal and elementary necessities , the sweat of your death bed.>>>> carry on Chris ! ;-)