08-17-2017, 05:31 AM
(08-14-2017, 08:29 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(08-14-2017, 02:22 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(08-14-2017, 01:33 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(08-13-2017, 05:51 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: As to PBR's cringe worthy propaganda--I expect that from the likes of him.
Like most conservatives I well know how scummy human behavior can be. I know how liars can use words -- even, as the unseen villains in 1984 do, turning words into lies. "Final solution of the Jewish Question"... "Ten years imprisonment without the right of correspondence"?
With Trump as president, Orwell and Solzhenitsyn become much more relevant.
Quote:Perhaps Boomers are in an industrial age time warp. The left-right axis dominated the industrial age.
As a Boomer I can attest to our own worst tendencies: we want the best of both worlds and end up giving the world the worst of both -- if we are the ones who get the best of both worlds for ourselves alone. I have a conscience, which may have kept me from joining the elite party of unconstrained indulgence.
The left-right axis is alive and well, and stronger than ever, and although Millennials and Xers may complain about it, I don't see them offering any viable alternatives. As long as powerful, wealthy people hog all the benefits of automation and globalization, to the detriment of the people and their environment, the left-right axis continues beyond the industrial age. As long as they are able to rig the political system, and arouse the prejudices of their non-wealthy but regressive followers to their favor, then those who oppose them and stand for greater equality and ecology are "the left" and must be supported. That's what's happening, and those who don't see it are truly blind.
If we accept the idea of ages of civilization, the three recent are agricultural, industrial and possibly information. The agricultural would feature the written word, animal power and muscle powered weapons. The industrial would feature the printed word, steam power, and gunpowder weapons. The hypothetical information age would feature computer networks, renewable energy and nukes. While the information or post scarcity would is hypothetical in many ways, the technology changes are a big deal. The development of new patterns is quite plausible.
Eric suggested things have been popping for about 500 years. By coincidence or design, this suggests Martin Luther’s Ninety Five Theses of 1517 as an off the cuff marker for the agriculture / industrial cusp. While it may be a bit early, I’d throw the Hiroshima bomb out as an early marker for the industrial / information cusp.
I prefer a more realistic marker for the industrial age; i.e. when it actually began, the 1780s. The previous part of the Renaissance/Reformation Age featured trends "popping up" and influencing the rise of the industrial period that would come of age in the future. What historians call the "early-modern period" (from the Renaissance to the Revolution) was still an agricultural/aristocratic age-- most of that portion of it that was dominated by royal dynasties.