Journal Marxist Hacker 42's Journal: Authoritarianism in necessary 33
80 million dead in the 20th century proves that humanity can't handle liberty.
80 million dead in the 20th century proves that humanity can't handle liberty.
Neutrinos have bad breadth.
Piffle (Score:2)
I'll assume you've corrected for the number who have died from disease, since the 1918 flu is credited with 50 - 100 million deaths.
Most of the rest died by the hand of authoritarians and not those with liberty: Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot
So the two things that absolutely must go in the 21st century are authoritarianism and influenza.
Re: (Score:1)
Well! You certainly made anything I have to say redundant... Maybe he's only counting abortions. Some people give more respect to the unborn and the dead than they do the living and breathing.
Re: (Score:2)
Given that the dead outnumber the living, respect for the dead is only democratic.
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Gilbert_K_Chesterton/Orthodoxy/The_Ethics_of_Elfland_p2.html [pagebypagebooks.com]
Re: (Score:1)
...respect for the dead is only democratic.
Ah, I see you've studied the history of Chicago.
Re: (Score:2)
Or London. Take your pick.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm talking about those who were murdered, aborted, euthanized. Usually under influence of drugs, alcohol, or poverty, but always in liberty.
The genocide of the libertines far outweighs the genocides committed by the authoritarians.
Re: (Score:2)
Changing that requires changing human nature. Authoritarianism won't fix that problem, at best it just sweeps it under the rug and out of sight. At worse it exacerbates the problem.
Re: (Score:1)
There's nothing particularly human about our nature. We just have to have to wait to see how the brain stem evolves.
Re: (Score:2)
Changing that requires education- and that we can change.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed.
Re: (Score:2)
55 million dead fetuses rotting in America's garbage dumps say otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
A problem best addressed by reducing poverty and increasing both reproductive education and the universal availability of contraceptives.
Re: (Score:2)
Reproductive education and contraceptives together is oxymoronic. The existence of one precludes the other.
And it is not worth reducing poverty by reducing the poor, which is what contraception is all about.
Free moral agency (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not proposing we alter reality. I am proposing we alter education.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That would be a huge improvement.
More generally, ... (Score:1)
...100 years of sin proves that humanity can't handle governing itself. Then obviously human authoritarianism can't fix that.
I.e. your implied argument is of the utmost absurdity. You're saying people can't be trusted, so people must stop them. But people can't be trusted!
The EOW may come in our lifetimes. The only workable authoritarianism is divine authoritarianism. (And your popes are not Christ.)
Re: (Score:1)
Natural authoritarianism IS divine authoritarianism. It's other name is 'might makes right' and/or 'survival of the fittest', a most elementary basis of the mechanical universe. And it is perfectly workable for all sub-human species, including man. Human beings would never have any need for such a thing though. For them, the only workable, divine authoritarianism is of the self and extends no further than one's self. Man's desire for exclusive possession and to extend it further only means he is not human,
Re: (Score:2)
The mechanastic universe doesn't exist, for it cannot contain free will.
Re: (Score:1)
Yet here it is, and here we are, even if it only exists in our minds. It is no less divine than its creator.
Re: (Score:2)
But it isn't. The mechanistic model of the universe is no more accurate at describing the infinite reality than any other theology or philosophy.
The human mind just isn't built to handle the universe.
Re: (Score:1)
So we create one that fits. What's the difference? That's how we maintain a small degree of sanity.
Re: (Score:2)
It is impossible to define human sanity in that way, because no model will ever fit. Godel's incompleteness theorem.
Re: (Score:1)
Nothing is impossible... ever, however unlikely, it is never impossible. We go with what works as new discoveries are made. I see no problem with that. I seek and find joy in my life, not purpose. If it comes to me, great. If it doesn't, I'm fine with that too.
Re: (Score:2)
New discoveries are great, as long as you realize that they'll never be total. Far to many people are not skeptical enough about skepticism, and that's where science gets into trouble.
The problem with living only for joy and not for purpose, is that your joy causes other people's sorrow.
Re: (Score:1)
Far to many people are not skeptical enough about skepticism...
Man's authority is worthy of nothing but skepticism..
It causes sorrow only in those who want control and authority, and I don't sympathize with them. Joy is not zero sum. There's plenty for everybody. It is as infinite as anything can be. If there is purpose, it will find me. It is not for man to decide what it is, or whether it exists at all, outside his own self.
Re: (Score:2)
And that includes the authority of skepticism, which is after all, only based on man's authority.
Joy is not zero sum, true, but if the only purpose that ever finds you is joy, then all you actually have is found a way to make the world a worse place for everybody else.
Re: (Score:1)
Skepticism is the antithesis of authority, making it infinitely more valuable in every way.
Who is filling your head with this nonsense?? The ill logic is debilitating.
Re: (Score:2)
Skepticism is the antithesis of authority Says the authority on skepticism. See the problem yet?
Who is filling your head with this nonsense??
Nobody needs to, I can see it lived out in the lives of those who fail to understand the purpose of authority, and everybody around them whose lives they destroy.
Re: (Score:1)
You know, the brain has to invert everything the eyes see, and has to block most of the ambient 'noise' in our ears hear. These are the least of its distortions, and that's before the cultural filters take effect. I think yours is working a little harder at it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Working hard enough to see reality. That's the curse of the autistic- not having any inbuilt cultural filters at all and none of the standard filters of the neurotypical human brain.
That's why I grew up with so much post traumatic stress. Because I could *see* the harm neurotypicals could do with their incessant seeking of "joy".