This is exactly why I never post in these political threads, because once you do, you have to keep posting on-and-on, and I don't have the time all you continuous political posters do. No more for me (I hope).
living sounds said:
Well, these are just personal value judgements, not objective facts. Completely in line with the purity / morality personality measures I posted in this thread or somewhere else, BTW. One may like uniformity or adherance to authority, but it is not an a priory virtue.
Sure, they're opinions, about the future, which there aren't any facts on yet. I knew from Matt's reply that he was probably thinking I thought women should wear burkas. I lean libertarian so I would never support legislation to dictate dress/etc. But a free society always needs to stay sensible enough to recognize the threat of cultural rot, and I think we're mostly blind to that today.
[quote author=living sounds]
Statistics overall show a trend towards a more civilized society in the west by most relevant objective measures. In the US, crime rates are back at 1950s/1960s level for example, despite tatoos and piercings.
[/quote]
IMO, it just hasn't had time to catch up, we're just showing symptoms of the coming disease. Another
opinion.
[quote author=living sounds]
Civilization is actually under thread by inequality of wealth and income distribution giving rise to the political extremists whose rise we are currently witnessing. And people's instincts for purity, ingroup loyalty etc. when threatened.
[/quote]
Please explain wealth inequality as in a person who works and saves his money for school (college, tech school, whatever) and works hard to get an accounting degree and goes on to a stable career as an accountant making 6 figures, vs another person that tries to become a professional skateboarder who spends all that same time and effort practicing only to never make it in that field and ending up having to work at the car wash for minimum wage? (excuse the run-on) Are there no outcomes based on personal choices?
[quote author=living sounds]
Evolution is not a linear path to a "higher" existance. There is no plan and no path of progress. It is simply selection of those organisms best adapted to the respective current selection mechanism.
[/quote]
I agree -- see "blindness" above.
[quote author=living sounds]
In many ways civilization puts less selective pressure on the population. A lot of people are alive today that would have died in more primitive environments. In a small tribe self-absorbed exploitative narcissists like Trump would have been quickly been discarded of. We still need to find answers how to deal with problems like these. Evolution itself won't help much, since it has been bypassed.
[/quote]
I think the sadness is that any Trump/Obama/Bush/Clinton charismatic orator would end up running the tribe. The small ones would probably have a better chance, but you can forget that in today's overpopulated world, which I consider to be the root of all problems by far.