Name: SquareFool IP: 131.94.145.150 Subject: Dreaming of a better today. Email: SquareFool@hotmail.com Website: http:// Article: Well, it seems that a lot of people like to dream of a better tomorrow. Just about as many as idealize the past, at that! I'd just like to say that, looking back at however many years of history we have reliably or unreliably documented, I think it's pretty clear that we are who we are and we're never going to have any fundamental changes on a societal level. Here's the thing though: That does not make me sad at all... save your pity for people who look at some tomorrow and think today isn't worth living because it's not 24 hours later. I look at what we have and who we are, and despite whatever is good or bad about it, I would no change it out for some united federation of perfects. Not to single out star trek or even say that the people living in the federation are perfect, but ... ... eh. Nevermind. My words to keenon: The US isn't as bad as you make it out, nor is having all the toys before you die what I consider the principle behind capitalism. My only question is this: Is the great thing we have and enjoy here what it is because we feed off of the rest of the world, or is/could it be done independently, thus saying that the world doesn't (necessarily) have to have slums? I don't know... but either way, I'm still happy with what we as a world overall have... not meaning I wouldn't struggle to improve it, but I mean that even if this were the pinnacle of our achievement, I would be happy with it. That we will go further in the direction we are is only an added bonus.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Replying to Original Article:Article: you know keenon, if you really think that humanity has no hope of ever becoming unified, and peaceful, then I pity you. Yes I realize that Star Trek is only a commentary on society set to a space opera, but that is what makes it so popular. People like to dream of a better future, because dreaming makes it so. I'm not sure what that is a quote of, and John, I apologize in advance, because I'm pretty sure I botched it somehow. anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if we don't dream of a better tomorrow, then there will be no tomorrow, period. We might as well just lay down and die right now, because there is nothing to live for. oh, and I'm pretty sure that if the United States goes down, so will the rest of the world. Without the United states "Sending out the midwesterners", or whatever it is you were saying, to police, then the third world countries are gonna nuke the hell out of the world, and nobody will survive. and on that happy note, I bid thee farewell.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Replying to Original Article:Article: ok I am WILL-ING to actually DIEEEEEE the only real way to win. there is no game! you are convinced that there is but I don't think so! I'm saying a world class enema is necessary. the little guy finds a lot of other little guys and kicks the shit out of the big bad bully. then they do their pygmy dance on the smoldering corpse. ok? I am explicitly saying that I think the only real genuine solution that doesn't play lip service to the idea of global unity is the scenario in which the united states is dropped on its head. I am still being two-sided me. I like people a lot but then I don't. they still get on my fucking nerves. and star trek is no more feasible than any other utopian society. people have greed, greed leads to acquisition, that leads to a glut, and then you go back to square one. star trek is some form of social commentary set to a space opera. don't kid yourself - there is no "win" in this scenario. it's "lose by letting unca sam fuck you in the ass some more" or "lose by nuking the shit out of america, kill the hydra, die whether you succeed or not" yes I am irate. I'm a product of my own environment. maybe I just need sex. does anyone have a sister? I ask again because those russian women don't fucking shave and that's NOT a good thing. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Replying to Original Article:Article: It would seem, my irate friend, that you "career bums" would be the first to perish under your proposed nuclear winter. The only people to survive would be those corrupt government officials, a few scientists, and all the rich people that can afford to bribe their way into safety. So you see, a nuclear winter wouldn't be a very good solution at all. The only real way to win is if the world grows as a species to the level that we can make communism work. Look at Star Trek, it worked there.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Replying to Original Article:ok ok ok ok ok ok ok SO kenny, do you remember all those times when you used to kick my ass at chess? and then you always told me about how you needed to work on your endgame? well this thing with the bums - I'm working on my endgame. I know I lost that one. the capitalist desires... does GREED ring a bell? we live in a country that tells business people to be the best, to be entrepeneurs and come up with a product they can use to make money along with benefit some yahoo consumer. and then when they do, and when they take an iron grasp on the market, uncle sam files an anti-trust suit on the same person/company (see: Gates, Bill) I don't think billybobdork gates is a saint, but how fucking committed is the government to the capitalist ideal? there is an endgame there, it's called a monopoly, and if you need a sterling example of a monopoly, go look at a map and find the country in between canada and mexico. we live in a country that sells weapons to countries and then blows the fuck out of them as soon as the check clears. we embargo a poor-ass country full of people who are no better off than when their parents and grandparents lived under a "democracy", the only difference between the two being we used to let our rich people go there on vacations back in the good old Batista days. we live in a nation that other countries disdain for various reasons, many being that the majority of our fellow citizens are thick-skulled, self-centered assholes. I've worked in fast food. despite any ideal of a nice american, you get to see the real shithead when it's 3am and they want a milkshake after you've taken the machine off to clean it. and so, by saying someone overcomes capitalist desire, I say that maybe they forget about being the asshole with the most toys when they die. I say that maybe, maybe, they stop thinking of themselves or their country or their whatever as the best on the planet and realize that the rest of the world fucking matters too. and that won't happen, so there's my capitulation. call me wrong, call me whatever. my only hope is that some day, soon, the rest of the world realizes that america is a bully with amnesia and then they all get together and kick the shit out of us. we've written ourselves into history as the good guy because we have the biggest fucking guns and the masses of corn-fed midwesterners to send off to kill whatever nation of brown people the dart hits when the joint chiefs have a meeting. so my solution isn't proactive from a US perspective..... sometimes you need to flush away the shit that's here and replace it with new shit. what would I replace it with? fuck if I know, I just think that a good old fashioned nuclear winter is the best thing for this country. so I'm not being positive..... so sue me...