Would you rather live in the ascendency or descedency of a civilization? - Page 2

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie...

 

...and to dust we shall return

I should have expected Head-Fi to bring Bowie into this.

*runs to listen to Ziggy Stardust*

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin 

Crime in the United States, especially of the violent sort, has been in a steep decline since its peak in the late 80's early 90's and has fallen to levels that haven't been seen since the 70's. The reason for the decline is in dispute by criminologists, but there's little doubt that it has been declining.

 

 

Yes this seems to be correct. But I said "murderous, criminal elements". These range from drug cartels south of the border(which are growing) invading some US cities, to reckless financial and govt criminals that have looted and are looting our economy.

Here's an article that seems to show that big city crime is down but rural crime is up and northern crime down but southern crime up.

http://politics.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/06/11/crime-rates-shown-to-be-falling.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 

i think what makes civilisation in decline is we no longer care about the long term.  all we care about is the short term, be it profitability, everything being disposable etc.  take houses, look at Georgian buildings, all great stone built, as solid now as they were 100 years ago.  all new build propertys are all built to a 25 year life expectation and so solid a swift kicking would knock them down.

 

if you stop planning for the future you will have no future.

I agree. Personal integrity, honesty and responsibilty are on the decline, seemingly.

I would like to be the last man on earth so after the descedency of a civilization is my vote!

I am Legend, the Road, 28 days later that is the kind of stuff I want to experience. Preferrably without the zombies though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist 

I would like to be the last man on earth so after the descedency of a civilization is my vote!

 

I am Legend, the Road, 28 days later that is the kind of stuff I want to experience. Preferrably without the zombies though.

Same here but preferably with the zombies :]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist 

I would like to be the last man on earth so after the descedency of a civilization is my vote!

 

I am Legend, the Road, 28 days later that is the kind of stuff I want to experience. Preferrably without the zombies though.

Being a LMOE (World War Z, anyone?) has always appealed to me, but only in the sense that I would be in a grand position, just myself and all the fruits of humanity. I would never desire to be the man in The Road because I am just the last gap in the extinction of humanity, with no pleasures, no possessions. I'm thinking that a disease, a la The Stand, would be the best thing for me.

I was watching a documentary about the fall of the US mafia.  Mafia men were saying how difficult it was to recruit the new generation into a life of disciplined crime, they'd rather become doctors and lawyers.  I then thought to myself that it must be quite difficult to get facebook kids off internet porn and social internet friends.  The internet is the greatest pacifier of the free spirit IMHO.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin 

Crime in the United States, especially of the violent sort, has been in a steep decline since its peak in the late 80's early 90's and has fallen to levels that haven't been seen since the 70's. The reason for the decline is in dispute by criminologists, but there's little doubt that it has been declining.

 

 

You can gather from my posts that I believe we need another post-war era to remove us from our comfort zone.

There is really no place for the Mafia now that organized crime is being conducted by multinational corporations in collusion with national governments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist 

I would like to be the last man on earth so after the descedency of a civilization is my vote!

 

I am Legend, the Road, 28 days later that is the kind of stuff I want to experience. Preferrably without the zombies though.

Pass. I rather like other people. Especially the ones that ensure my food and water supply remain safe and reasonably fresh. The guys that provide electricity and gasoline aren't too bad either. That and the odds of passing through a crisis severe enough to produce LMOEs are rather... low. The combination of mindset, skillset, toolset and social isolation required to even have a chance of surviving as a LMOE is very rare.

And really, there's not much of a need to wait for TEOTWAWKI to live like the world has ended. Just buy up a dozen or so acres in an isolated part of the country and live off the land. Same experience and you can throw in the towel at any time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redcarmoose 

This question was first stated to me in high school. I would have to say that I'm a fan of living in the 1st 1/4 of the decent!

Interesting question Red. There was an interesting book wrote on this a while back by William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning. I never read it but it looks very interesting. Their basic premise is that history runs in 80 to 100 year cycles with four distinct periods, a high an awakening, an unraveling, and a decline.

Then you got the Mayan thing going on, and the cyclical nature of their calendars The long count calendar that's coming to an end soon was just one of many of their calendars and we are definitely on the downside of that deal, whatever that is. Maybe Mckenna knew too who knows.

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you'd see that
We should never be afraid to die...

This "western" culture you speak of - would be more accurately labeled "modernised" culture.  It is this perception that some less devoloped societies hold - that we wish to eradicate their culture and instill a "western" culture - that has contributed to their reluctance to adopt "modern" principles, to the detriment of their living standards.  Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and even China and India is "modernising".  Their culture, identity and customs are in tact.

Modernising has it's problems on the human pyschology - we are fundamentally hunters and warriors via evolution.

KneelJung:

I've read that book. Those cycles are generations and apparently the United States was a perfect test case, because its ruling class was transplanted with an ocean fortress.  Anyway according to them, we're about due for a "fourth turning," ie. a major world crisis.. As the millennials, are a "hero" generation. It was an interesting read with some decent logic. The whole was bit zero sum however.