tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post8931922025628679493..comments2024-02-26T00:23:11.724-08:00Comments on metamorphoses: Is modern civilization viable?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post-17255732466755500412010-11-26T12:10:53.722-08:002010-11-26T12:10:53.722-08:00A caliphate or judeo-christian monarchy does not e...<i>A caliphate or judeo-christian monarchy does not equal a constitutional republic etc.</i><br /><br />No one says it does -- that doesn't mean they're not all states, nor that the notion of a "state" which includes them all is vacuous. <br /><br />But I think Hobbes is probably too advanced for you, as is history -- maybe try <i>Dick and Jane</i>, for starters.Metamorfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16199074976158603981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post-11889341636345423942010-11-26T11:04:03.344-08:002010-11-26T11:04:03.344-08:00When you lump any and all nations together your de...When you lump any and all nations together your definition of State becomes vacuous. A caliphate or judeo-christian monarchy does not equal a constitutional republic etc. (maybe try Leviathan, for starters, instead of just waving your hands at it) <br /><br />As far as the History scorecard goes, western capitalist-imperialism hardly lags behind communism (ie, history didn't start in the 20th century, or with Reagan, as many a fratboy conservative thinks). And the idea that immigration ratios or something of the sort prove the superiority of one political system to another--preposterous, as like Jonah Goldbrick claiming the nazis were liberals. <br /><br />Then, maybe forget Hobbes et al, and go directly to Camus-- Nadaland.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post-60502648643426606222010-11-26T11:02:30.634-08:002010-11-26T11:02:30.634-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post-38309067534212475952010-11-26T10:52:02.833-08:002010-11-26T10:52:02.833-08:00Off topic again, but --
There are reasons to fear...Off topic again, but --<br /><br /><i>There are reasons to fear Statism, but ...the alternative-- rule by unbridled capitalism, corporations, religious fundamentalists, outlaws, etc--may be feared as well.</i><br /><br />That's quite a mix you've got there, J. Actually, capitalism and corporations are fine (so long as they're <i>not</i> "bridled" -- which almost always means protection for the politically-connected few). But religious fundamentalism of whatever kind -- Christian, Marxist, Islamic, environmentalist, etc. -- typically goes hand in hand with an authoritarian state, which then often forces decent people into outlaw status. You have to think through these lists. <br /><br /><i>... Nixon/Kissinger or General Hillary and her fleet of supercarriers are hardly superior to maoists.</i><br /><br />Ah, yes -- that must be why so many people the world over are clamoring to escape from "Consumerland" and trying to emigrate to whatever remaining Maoist wonderlands they can find. Except that they're not. Sadly, even Mao's own homeland is now turning itself into yet another Consumerland as fast as it can. History's a bitch, no?Metamorfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16199074976158603981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2728235187998502824.post-80867192808434765882010-11-26T09:19:23.554-08:002010-11-26T09:19:23.554-08:00Or our culture turns increasingly statist, and the...<i>Or our culture turns increasingly statist, and the whole process of human procreation, including reproduction, gestation, and birth, becomes increasingly woven into bureaucratic state policies, a la Brave New World, e.g., -- this too, I would say, would represent the ultimate failure of the liberation that the modern world once promised. </i><br /><br />O Frabjous Day! Your typical manipulation and alarmism. Given that he wrote a few years after stalinists and nazis, Aldous Huxley's fears of a dystopian state were not completely unwarranted--yet that was fiction. There are reasons to fear Statism, but ...the alternative-- rule by unbridled capitalism, corporations, religious fundamentalists, outlaws, etc--may be feared as well. The modern world looks something like Camus's no-man's land, rather than Huxley's quaint steampunk: i.e. Nixon/Kissinger or General Hillary and her fleet of supercarriers are hardly superior to maoists. Some in Consumerland might root for "our side" but that's more or less how dystopian nationalism operates.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.com