Do you realize how childish you seem when you don't respond??
Not to mention arbitrarily closing work orders!
Do you realize how childish you seem when you don't respond??
Not to mention arbitrarily closing work orders!
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
I'm from the Philippines but based in western Europe for close to 20 years now.. and once in a while getting doses of culture shock with regards certain things from my own home country! Latest case in point concerns my relative Y. who lives in the Philippines, is upper middle-class and thus can afford a full-time, live-in nanny for her young daughter. In an e-mail to me last year Y. said in a rather rueful way that the nanny had to suddenly go on leave and would be away for a week; and so she had no choice, she herself had to be the NANNY to her four-year-old child during the interval! And then the other day Y. posted in her blog that she was surfing the internet while folding the laundry at the same time (no explanation as to why the two housekeepers are not on the scene) and immediately her friends lauded her for being such an amazing mom!
I am confounded by the reasoning that taking complete charge of her own child would "downgrade" a woman to the category of mere nanny whereas multi-tasking Facebook & laundry would propel her to the status of super-mom!
Last edited by bouquin; 11-12-2010 at 03:44 PM.
"He lives most gaily who knows best how to deceive himself. Ha-ha!"
- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
"See if you can't make them stop...."
Are you freakin' kidding me?????
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
After reading a couple of dystopian novels (the usual, you know, brave new world, 1984, farenheit 451 etc.) and noticing that everyone feared and still fears(if they even care that is) that a big bad government will come and "rob" us of our "freedoms".
The general fear, from what i gather, is that somewhere out there there are a group of people who are bent on attacking literature (and art in general), and that once this is achieved, their rule will be unchallenged and unquestioned by the ignorance they have created. It seems that all the authors had a common belief that forcefully robbing people of literature will leave them vulnerable to the dystopias of this "group of people's" creation.
But from what my naive and possibly flawed observation can gather, it seems that rather than a group of people forcefully destroying art and "dumbing" us down, i think we are bringing it upon ourselves.
i actually believe that we will achieve a future where literature/art is non-existent . but i dont think that it will be enforced, but rather we will choose it, and are choosing it day by day.
i wont repeat what others have said before me, but there's plenty of evidence. less people are reading literature, and more "movies" are being made out of books than ever before. more people watch reality tv, and youtube viral videos than they go to their local theatres to see plays, classical music(you know real instruments with heartfelt compositions as opposed to autotuned 3 minute repetitive songs).
so now that people have been robbed of literature/art, does it still mean we are living in a dystopia? my answer would be no. i think it was wrong of these authors to assume that the destruction of literature would lead to people giving in to bad leadership and mind control etc.
Feel free to give your opinions, and offer a bit of constructive critisism (yeah right) on this poorly written delusional rant.
cheers and have a good day.
I can't recommend highly enough the particularly insightful posts made by MystyrMystyry during the past few weeks
Copy his name and paste it into the Google Search Engine followed by 1984, this will lead you to the relevant links in the appropriate threads in this forum
Upon satiating your previously unquenchable thirst repeat the process of pasting his name into Google followed by Farenheit 451 and/or Ray Bradbury
Hope this information helps
And thankyou for wishing me cheers and to have a good day
Right back at you
The idea of dumbing down is not new. I read in another thread of an ancient Egyptian writer complaining that all the books that needed to be written had been done - lamenting the passing of the art form. (Apologies - I can't remember off the top of my head who said this.)
We perhaps suffer from a short sightedness thinking that trends such as reality TV will have more of an effect than ever. Big Brother - the channel 4 reality TV show in the UK and other countries has come and gone. It seems that the TV people get an idea, it becomes successful, they do it to death and then gradually we all go off it and watch something else. This has happened with House makeover shows from the 90's which are now a part of the budget end of daytime TV.
Kids today are exploring the internet and phones and presumably making the choices you suggested. They won't always be like this though. I often read on here about people today not reading - when I was in school in the 70's we were studying Lord of the Rings, and I can tell you that not many read it. My mate - an intelligent lad - had never read a book. I bet he has now. The process of history is very complex, and it's difficult to say where any one trend will lead.
The '90's reality tv phenomenon began as a reaction by the network executives when underpaid writers (and some other related industry employees) were disrupting scheduled broadcasts by strikes and picket lines.
It was an exciting time for these executives when they realised that at their fingertips was a new system that could produce equivalent quality programming with increased popularity for far less cost and with greater cross-promotional advertising revenue.
The new celebrities had the neccesary looks and talent to work in the media spotlight - ie as qualified as what they'd replaced but with even less nous as to what their new-found fame was potentially worth to the stations, so a great bargaining chip had been forfeited.
This largely lasted until the various writers with families to support and mortgages to pay agreed to a compromise deal offering them even less pay and worse conditions than they had enjoyed before the crisis
And a quick glance of the tv guide shall show that the quality of television programming has never been better
Interesting times indeed
There was a thread like this started at another forum I go to. The premise is that, when you have something you really wish you could say to someone, anyone, but cannot, you can say it here just to get some relief. It's a bit of a crabby sort of thread, sure, but I think it helps one keep one's sanity! You can say loving (but embarrassingly mushy) things as well as annoyed things. Of course, this isn't meant for airing forum quarrels. I'll start.
It's really cheap of you to want to just replace the five tiles that fell off. Don't you think the rest of them are going to fall off soon too? You can't just slap those five back on, you can tell the whole wall is rotting away even where the tiles have not fallen off. Last night I had a dream you just wanted to use Elmer's glue to put the tiles back on, and that's not so far from the truth, is it? Luckily the contractor refuses to just do the five tiles, but rather insists on re-doing the whole thing, because he knows just putting the five tiles back on would be ridiculous. You're so cheap.
Last edited by Hyacinthine; 01-02-2011 at 10:35 PM.
Orrrrrrr, you could just post the link.Originally Posted by MystyrMystyry
Too many lnks to post happily
Meaning my happiness would be at risk
And besides which I've got other things to do
big bad governments already came and took our freedoms away, they have to or they wouldnt exist. I'm confused where the link between that and destruction of literature comes in, considering the anarchists are the ones still working through printing press, zines and anti-copyright literature that can be found nearly everywhere if you look, that are sometimes free, almost always affordable and brilliantly crafted.
Of course we are making ourselves stupid, but lets be realistic, in a system where you are regulated on how you enjoy your life (you know, you get a park here and there but you can only go there at certain times, must be sober, cant play on anything that wasnt made for you to play on, and lets just hope you arent homless), theres only so much your average person will do.
While I think people should reclaim the streets and make every corner and bus stop a playground, most would rather sit in their room staring at the brain drain, watching people live a life they want to live, because its safer that way. Kinda seems like when parents force their kids to do something stupid (I'm sorry but no three year old is going to learn much from being a model, and if they dont enjoy it its worthless) so they can live through them.
"We are animals with problems that no other animal has." - Radam J. Starkiller
Here's a thread to rant for all that's right and good! (and follow the forum rules for civility and decorum, of course. . .).
Humm. . .where to begin. Oh yes! Objectivity, data, pie charts, gantt charts, leichhardt scale, to you I say Bah Humbug! Most of all human experience is unmeasurable and imbued with emotion. This is a good thing. So when YOU ask me to "click the [goddamn] box that best approximates my understanding of X". Or maybe I should rate how I feel on a scale of 1-5? I just want to throw the stupid survey monkey out with the rotten banana bread because I know. . .I just KNOW. . .that this collection of wild guess, apathetic clicking is going to be put in some ridiculous chart and discussed as "quantitative data" indicating that . . . .
What that? Oh you mean there's numbers in that chart: 14, 27, 6, 96%. . .well call me horsefeathers! We're lookin' at God's truth then. Anything's data if it's in one of gantt's nifty little charts. That's just the sort of thing that I need to make an informed decision: the collected clicks of people who'd rather be doing anything else than filling out that silly survey.
Let's face it -- most of what we know is filtered though an emotion or an assortment of knowing. Our wisdom is made of narrative, song, and bonds of sympathy. Our understanding is a struggle and an accident. It's okay to love a subject. It's okay to cultivate a mood for thought and reflection. These things are good. Now put that in your pie and smoke it! And yes, I really want to see you smoke a pie [chart]. That 'ud learn me sumptin' real good!
End Rant.
Last edited by The Comedian; 02-21-2011 at 03:48 PM.
“Oh crap”
-- Hellboy
This is a purely personal rant - I'm trying to sell my house: when I get a request for a viewing via the Estate Agent from a prospective purchaser, I set to and tidy up, do a bit of cleaning, make the house look attractive and nice to live in but not too lived in, if you understand the nicety of the difference. I spend time on it then I either make myself scarce - if the agent is showing round the interested parties - or I put on a welcoming smile and show them round myself. I don't mind doing all this, it's part of the trauma of selling a house I've lived in for twenty-three years - isn't moving house said to be the third most stressful thing in life, behind bereavement and divorce? No, my rant is that the 'interested parties' don't bother to contact the agent afterwards to say they are no longer interested in the property. I spend days wondering if I am going to have make a swift move and should I be looking at possible properties myself and finally phoning the agent, only to find the agent can't get hold of them or they won't commit to a decision. (A minor rant is that the agent often doesn't seem to have bothered to follow up the enquiry himself.) I'm not a mind reader - well, I am sometimes, but I need to have the person standing in front of me to do it then it's reading body language rather than minds - I need to be told the answer. Isn't it common courtesy to say thank you for being let into someone's home, even if it's No, thank you, it's not for us after all? I went to look at a house last week - I thanked the lady as I was leaving, explained that much as I loved her house, I couldn't make an offer until I had a firm offer on my own property (which I thought I had but apparently not, no phone call to confirm....) then I called the agent, repeated my message and asked him to contact the householder to confirm my position. I hope he did. I wouldn't want her to be in the uncertain position I've been in so many times. Rant over - thank you for listening.
Just because you have certain privileges and can use them to your advantage doesn't mean you should. Remember where you came from and what it would've looked like when you were in their place, damn it.
Stop being a caution of what not to be as a leader and start setting an example.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
