the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. — Oxford Dictionary
They do say travel broadens the mind. Most Scots I know would be glad to know an altruist such as yourself.
All the military empires of those times with their colourfully dressed toy looking soldiers, whose leaders brought them in army formations, to fight and be slaughtered in muddy fields, all seemed to me to be small variations on a seriously 'f***** up' theme.
'Honour and Glory,' we start the fight at an agreed time and not a second before!
We die and kill to the background music of pipe and drum.
Open with the cannons, flank them! flank them! send in the cavalry with infantry support, ....... and we all fall down! The Prussians, The Russians, The French, The British, The Austrians, The Hungarians, etc etc. Beautiful war to see which gangland culture wins and which bunch of nefarious elite f***wits get to rule Europe!!!!
The only worthwhile lesson from all such historical events has already been put into a song.
'WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin.'
Any culture birthed from or maintained by war or the constant threat of it and preparation for it, will continue to fail. — universeness
I fully believe that the human race can and will create a civilisation that is better than any human civilisation that has ever existed in the past. Civilisations like ancient Greece or USA today will be nothing more than additions to the large list of examples of past attempts that utterly failed and fully deserved to.
The best way for humans to BE is yet to come. On another thread, I listed the top 5 barriers I think we need to terminate completely or reduce to a relatively powerless minimum.
Creating that culture IS INDEED critical imo. We need to make the following benign:
1. Money
2. Capitalism
3. Primal fear.
4. Religion/theism/theosophism
5. Mental aberrations in others, such as narcissism, cult of celebrity, cult of personality, a need to follow others blindly without question. — universeness
I fully advocate, that we need to provide high quality, free, education for all citizens from cradle to grave.
I think we both agree that YOU should have ZERO concerns at this stage in YOUR life, (or indeed at any stage of life) regarding good quality accommodation, free and fully available for as long as you require it. Free and full access to any medical assistance you ever require and that assistance should be the highest quality available within current technology. Free education in any subject you wish to pursue. Access to opportunity to give you as many options as possible for how you wish to direct your life in accordance with, 'from each according to ability and will, to each according to need.' Finding your own cause and purpose in life should be fully supported by your local, regional and national authorities.
You should also be able to take all other basic needs for granted including, food, drink and personal security. That is the human civilisation/culture I think we CAN build, and will eventually build, on a global scale. — universeness
And that - even if it's about a fictional past, an imaginary present, a non-existent reality - turns it into "philosophy"? Plato might go for it. I don't. — Vera Mont
And as we all do, every day, both as individuals and as groups.
They also conquered foreign lands whose gods had to be accommodated, assimilated, or subsumed in their own pantheon, because direct suppression invariably engenders a stiffer resistance. The RCC didn't care, because it was squandering the human and material resources of independent nations on its religious wars. But ancient civilizations had to budget their available resources. Some foreign gods were also imported through commerce and migration; some of these gained popular support. — Vera Mont
Oh my goodness, please, I do not want all you offer. I think it would be absolutely dreadful to have everything without it being because of my own effort. — Athena
agree with you about the importance of facts, but this should never reduce our ability to fantasize about a better life and how we might achieve it. — Athena
I see being overly concerned with facts as fascist. — Athena
This is a serious cultural problem and it is what the US stood against. — Athena
...so I'd go easy on the facile labelling.The thing is, Republican rejection of reality didn’t start in 2020, or even with the Trump era. Climate change denial — including claims that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by an international cabal of scientists — has been a badge of partisan identity for many years. Crazy conspiracy theories about the Clintons were mainstream on the right through much of the 1990s.
No. It would have been entirely different without the wars. You don't get to cherry-pick history and plug in different components for the results you want. If you change even one significant event, the whole thing turns out differently. If you're happy with how human history played out, fine. I accept it because there is no available alternative. Neither of our feelings makes the slightest smidgeon of difference.We have agreement but perhaps how we feel about these facts is different? I think what has happened is wonderful. It makes me happy. It might have been better without the wars. — Athena
As long as we're substituting preferred past events, how about doing birth control research instead of weapons research and promoting women's rights instead of fighting over which version of prohibitive Christianity to impose on the masses?Another good thing about war is it stimulates technological advancement. — Athena
Pessimistic.How do you feel about it all? — Athena
Progress allows us to focus on higher order tasks than before. Would you still rather clothes were washed in the local stream in comparison with using a washing machine? Think of how mush time and effort people could assign to improving their knowledge and pushing the current boundaries of what we know, if everyone could take all basic needs for granted. — universeness
Yes. But if it isn't grounded in factual information about the world, it is fantasy. — Vera Mont
The two aspects of thought can coexist, but should never be confused. You can imagine a "better" life - in relation to something known, charted, qualifiable and quantifiable - else "better" has neither meaning nor goals. — Vera Mont
We're drowning in a plastic-infused ocean of feeeeellliiiings. Could use a solid life-preserver of logical reasoning. But that's just my opinion. — Vera Mont
Because of my relationships with low-IQ people, I know if I were stranded in the wilderness, I would rather be with one of them than someone with a high IQ because the person who is more like an animal intuitively is better at survival. — Athena
So what are you going to do now? — Athena
Nobody knows what anyone else means by "overly." (or fascist) — Vera Mont
I'd choose a smart dog. But that won't repair the damage we've done to the world. — Vera Mont
Fascism is a bureaucratic/social order that is very authoritarian and shifts power from the people to the state, totally crushing individual power and liberty. And this goes very well with Christianity. — Athena
?I see being overly concerned with facts as fascist. — Athena
I don't think wishing for a little more truth in political and social organization makes me fascist. But i wouldn't dream of suppressing your opinion. — Vera Mont
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition — merriam-webster
The only worthwhile lesson from all such historical events has already been put into a song.
'WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin.'
Any culture birthed from or maintained by war or the constant threat of it and preparation for it, will continue to fail. — universeness
You say our bureaucratic organization which includes education for the Military Industrial Complex does not make us fascist and you are in favor of facts. — Athena
So how have wars and technology changed our reality as we entered WWI and existed from WWII? — Athena
What is different about how we organize ourselves? — Athena
Does the following remind you of Trump? Trump is not the problem, but the mass who follow him are the problem. — Athena
I remember a flash of Kirk Douglas playing Spartacus, flashed through my mind, saying the line 'a slave does not fear death, death is the only freedom a slave knows about.' — universeness
Is 'hell' really 'other people?' — universeness
Is it true that we love and need company but we also need solipsism to be true, but not always. — universeness
Can intelligent people make a global human civilisation that works, or is the 'hell is other people,' concept just too strong in humans? — universeness
I simply believe that we can do better than we ever have in the past! — universeness
Can we not focus on how we think we can make a better world? — universeness
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