How to screw up primates.

[Zan]

Content removed.

Zan,
Is nobody's 2d class citizen.

[Bluenose]

I believe I posted a possible antidote to this some time ago.  Now lets see...

*rustle, fumble, feel around in the dark, bang, crash, tinkle, tinkle...*

Oh yes, here it is!

[Zan]

I believe I posted a possible antidote to this some time ago.  Now lets see...

*rustle, fumble, feel around in the dark, bang, crash, tinkle, tinkle...*

Oh yes, here it is!

Nice writing.

But you can't get 301,000,000 people to all go fishing at once.  That many people would scare away the fish.  And that's just Fat City...the whole world is trapped, these days.

[Griffin NoName]

We could try all-female governments (preferably all post menapause with offspring for relevant experience).

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Not everybody can go fishing at the same time, but from time to time a fair number of people could do it (or an equivalent).

OTOH the fact of us living in our society of utilitarianism is in the end our choice. The fact that most of us don't consider the alternative seriously is because we grew accustomed to it (and the fact that hard labor isn't that appealing, really). Go buy a small piece of land far from "the world" and as long as you have money to pay your property taxes every year you can live of the land; perhaps you can spend some time with the Amish to learn a thing or two about it before you commit, though. 

[Zan]

Not everybody can go fishing at the same time, but from time to time a fair number of people could do it (or an equivalent).

OTOH the fact of us living in our society of utilitarianism is in the end our choice. The fact that most of us don't consider the alternative seriously is because we grew accustomed to it (and the fact that hard labor isn't that appealing, really). Go buy a small piece of land far from "the world" and as long as you have money to pay your property taxes every year you can live of the land; perhaps you can spend some time with the Amish to learn a thing or two about it before you commit, though. 

Okay, but I like cities.  Urbanization isn't the problem, I think...I think you hit the nail on the head with the utilitarianism thing.  Let me think about that for a little while, and I'll get back to you.

[Zan]

We could try all-female governments (preferably all post menapause with offspring for relevant experience).

That's an interesting notion, and I can see the merit in it (less useless wars, for example), but I think we'd just be treating a symptom, and not the disease.

[Opsa]

Plus, if you want to screw the primates up even more, tell them to acquiesce to an angry God who speaks through only certain human authorities, and threaten them with eternal torture if they dare show even a flicker of disbelief at any time.

Poor primates. 

[Zan]

Plus, if you want to screw the primates up even more, tell them to acquiesce to an angry God who speaks through only certain human authorities, and threaten them with eternal torture if they dare show even a flicker of disbelief at any time.

Poor primates. 

True, but I had elected to leave religion out of it until I have a better feel for the members here.  Sometimes people take a statement about, say, radical evangelical Christians, and assume it is meant to include ALL Christians.

Some Christians are not very nice people (Westboro Baptist Church, as an extreme example), and some are very nice people (the Nazarenes and the ULC).  Some believe that God is an angry, angry uber-primate who will punish everyone the person in question doesn't like, and some have more...developed beliefs.

Personally, I follow a strict practive of never praying, because frankly I don't know what might happen to be listening.  It MIGHT be Jesus, or it might be something we haven't even had nightmares about yet.

Also, asking divine beings for favors is a folly that can best be demonstrated by reading the story "The Monkey's Paw".

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

You seem to be on the safe side on religion. We want to be respectful but we aren't too tolerant with the intolerant (regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof). In general we aren't terribly religious here and we don't have problems calling out the fundies when they say things or behave in ways inconsistent with their stated beliefs.

[beagle]

We could try all-female governments (preferably all post menapause with offspring for relevant experience).

You've got to move on from this useless nostalgia for the time when we had a female Head of State and Prime Minister.

(Admittedly the Thatcher years didn't strictly have an all female government, just one in which all the males did whatever the female said.  At the double.)

[Zan]

We could try all-female governments (preferably all post menapause with offspring for relevant experience).

You've got to move on from this useless nostalgia for the time when we had a female Head of State and Prime Minister.

(Admittedly the Thatcher years didn't strictly have an all female government, just one in which all the males did whatever the female said.  At the double.)

Didn't she once kill an unruly MP with a rolled-up newspaper?  Horrible, horrible.

[beagle]

When one M.P. was asked what the party would do if she was run over by a bus he replied "It wouldn't dare". I expect one day his body will be found, probably under the Commons Terrace. 

On the whole though many Tory M.P.s enjoyed the strict nanny figure (a similar experience in other parts of London cost considerably more, especially if The News of The World found out about it).

Okay, but I like cities.  Urbanization isn't the problem, I think...I think you hit the nail on the head with the utilitarianism thing.  Let me think about that for a little while, and I'll get back to you.

We're getting into Oliver Goldsmith Deserted Village territory

Jacob Bronowski (Zono-like) in the Ascent of Man pointed out the flaws of rural idyll nostalgia; work from dawn to dusk,  female death in childbirth etc.

[Griffin NoName]

We could try all-female governments (preferably all post menapause with offspring for relevant experience).

You've got to move on from this useless nostalgia for the time when we had a female Head of State and Prime Minister.

I take it you are refering to the Token Man ?

[beagle]

I'm sure she's female.