In other, somewhat less distressing news
Jan. 27th, 2018 01:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyAdBlock has updated so it's no longer usable the way I want to use it. Ugh.
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The Usenet Deep Space Nine recapper who helped inspire modern TV criticism
Dark is divine: What colour are Indian gods and goddesses?
People Are Screaming After This Guy Mistakenly Thought The Women's March Was Cheering Him
A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office
Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs
The Brazilian man who lives in a sandcastle (Video)
Passing: I have to fight the battle on two fronts: gender and disability.
Too Much Music: A Failed Experiment In Dedicated Listening
The fabulous story of North Korea’s fabric made of stone
Mike Pence visits Middle East but US role as peace broker may be over
Before 'Roe v. Wade,' The Women of 'Jane' Provided Abortions For The Women Of Chicago
In The Midst Of #MeToo, What Type Of Man Do You Want To Be?
Cardinal rebukes pope over Chile 'slander' comments on abuse
How Do You Rebuild Your Life After Leaving A Polygamous Sect?
Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
A Child Abuse Prediction Model Fails Poor Families
Striking Florida Prisoners Thrown in Solitary Confinement, Activists Say
American Democracy Is an Easy Target
Poor minorities left behind in Indian cities boom
Putin cast as national saviour ahead of Russia election
The White House Has A New Voicemail Following The Government Shutdown And It's...Something (This isn't normal either fyi.)
The Good War: How America’s infatuation with World War II has eroded our conscience (That's a must read. I was immediately reminded ofsholio's post about how our culture has more or less forgotten Vietnam. And while I was googling for that I found the next two links, so I guess this is a four-fer?)
Why Don’t Americans Know What Really Happened in Vietnam? Instead of confronting the truth, we scrubbed the record clean—and we’re still paying for it in Afghanistan and Iraq today.
The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors
The Usenet Deep Space Nine recapper who helped inspire modern TV criticism
Dark is divine: What colour are Indian gods and goddesses?
People Are Screaming After This Guy Mistakenly Thought The Women's March Was Cheering Him
A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office
Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs
The Brazilian man who lives in a sandcastle (Video)
Passing: I have to fight the battle on two fronts: gender and disability.
Too Much Music: A Failed Experiment In Dedicated Listening
The fabulous story of North Korea’s fabric made of stone
Mike Pence visits Middle East but US role as peace broker may be over
Before 'Roe v. Wade,' The Women of 'Jane' Provided Abortions For The Women Of Chicago
In The Midst Of #MeToo, What Type Of Man Do You Want To Be?
Cardinal rebukes pope over Chile 'slander' comments on abuse
How Do You Rebuild Your Life After Leaving A Polygamous Sect?
Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
A Child Abuse Prediction Model Fails Poor Families
Striking Florida Prisoners Thrown in Solitary Confinement, Activists Say
American Democracy Is an Easy Target
Poor minorities left behind in Indian cities boom
Putin cast as national saviour ahead of Russia election
The White House Has A New Voicemail Following The Government Shutdown And It's...Something (This isn't normal either fyi.)
The Good War: How America’s infatuation with World War II has eroded our conscience (That's a must read. I was immediately reminded of
sholio's post about how our culture has more or less forgotten Vietnam. And while I was googling for that I found the next two links, so I guess this is a four-fer?)Why Don’t Americans Know What Really Happened in Vietnam? Instead of confronting the truth, we scrubbed the record clean—and we’re still paying for it in Afghanistan and Iraq today.
The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors
no subject
Date: 2018-02-02 10:59 am (UTC)This is just one of the many, many things that have been taken for granted for so long that very few people even think there's anything wrong with them. All such things - malignant monotheism, racism, casual sexual abuse, the two-party system, even capitalism itself, just to name a few - need to be changed... but how in the name of humanity are we going to accomplish that?
“The Discovery of Freedom”
Date: 2018-02-02 11:41 am (UTC)… And why is the attempted “cure” for these ills always, always horribly worse than the disease?
“A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.” - Daniel Webster
How's your learning curve?
Why did men die of hunger, for six thousand years?
Why did they walk, and carry goods and other men on their backs, for six thousand years, and suddenly,
in one century, only on a sixth of this earth's surface, they make steamships, railroads, motors,
airplanes, and now are flying around the earth in its utmost heights of air?
Why did families live six thousand years in floorless hovels, without windows or chimneys, then, in
eighty years and only in these United States, they are taking floors, chimneys, glass windows for
granted, and regarding electric lights, porcelain toilets, and window screens as minimum necessities?
Why did workers walk barefoot, in rags, with lousy hair and unwashed teeth, and workingmen wear no
pants, for six thousand years, and here--in less than a century--silk stockings, lip sticks, permanent
waves, sweaters, overcoats, shaving cream, safety razors. It's incredible.
For thousands of years, human beings use their energies in unsuccessful efforts to get wretched
shelter and meager food. Then on one small part of the earth, a few men use their energies so
effectively that three generations create a completely new world.
What explains this?
In 1943, Rose Wilder Lane sought to highlight the difference it made in America that the individual
was permitted freedom from government authority. The Americans broke from the idea that dominated all
over human history that they must depend on some overarching authority in government to grant them
well being, and thus when good happens, we owe ever more to the powers that be.
The one idea that this is not the case, that human beings have within themselves the capacity to make
their own way, she wrote, created the most glorious civilization in world history. Her passion was to
help others see the cause: not authority but individual initiative and action.
She traced out this idea to provide sketches of history from the ancient world to the mid-20th
century, believing that she had discovered the answer to what transformed the world from a dark,
miserable, sickly, and dangerous place to one where humans thrive and create. She further condemned
all political trends of her time from Fascism, to Communism, to the New Deal…
Her prose is stark and strong, the product of decades of experience in attempting to get readers to
listen, and succeeding…
Her love of America has nothing to do with the jingoism we know all too well. It is a love of
individualism, experimentation, risk, entrepreneurship, creativity, reward, and the inspiration that
comes with building a new civilization itself. What a hymn to our history she writes!
And note the date. This was written in wartime. There were censorship rules at the time, things you
could and couldn’t say. What might she have written about war authoritarianism that she did not dare
to write? I think we can imagine. In fact, you can read between the lines. She saw America betraying
its history, principles, and destiny. And what would she write today?
http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/discovery.pdf
Most people who say, “This will change your mind,” really mean, “Give me your mind.” If you read this - or even skim it! - you'll see the difference: It's your mind, even if you've been told otherwise.
Re: “The Discovery of Freedom”
Date: 2018-02-02 05:41 pm (UTC)Re: “The Discovery of Freedom”
Date: 2018-02-02 06:44 pm (UTC)Ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"[1]), short for argumentum ad
hominem, is a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby an argument is rebutted by attacking the
character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with
the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself[2]…
- Wikipedia
Was that your best shot?
Re: “The Discovery of Freedom”
Date: 2018-02-03 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-02 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-03 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-03 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-04 09:59 am (UTC)