breaking montana news

finally we have some real breaking important news in montana. they have found one of the latrine sites used by lewis and clark. they will proceed to excavate and study it. the front page headline on the misssoulian. sad but true. life in the fast lane.

It happens. Once here in Cleveland one of the top stories on the evening news was that Big Dawg, a 550 lb. Browns fan, was in the hospital because he was too fat. And this is supposed to be a city.

I happened upon the Unabomber Manifesto online (link below) and decided to give it a read. He makes a lot of great points and is obviously a genious with the likes of Walden and Thoreau.


Too bad he had to blow people up.

genius?


He is a homicidal lunatic. Yes he might have been an intelligent one, but that only makes him more culpable. If he is such a genius, how come he wasn't smart enough to know he was a LOSER?

Wow, I agree with you. He is psychologically challenged, to put it mildly. However, I was surprised at the coherence of his manifesto. He makes many good points and seems rational in his argument, even providing a disclaimer at the end which admits that the manifesto isn't perfect. How often do you see such an admission? And who can argue with the fact that as technology advances, people are becoming more and more disillusioned, detached and disenfranchised. Don't we all long for the days when life wasn't quite so complex?

"And who can argue with the fact that as technology advances, people are becoming more and more disillusioned, detached and disenfranchised. Don't we all long for the days when life wasn't quite so complex?"


Why would you say this? It's just the opposite.

Don't we all long for the days when life wasn't quite so complex?


Absolutely not. Life sucked in low-tech cultures. So nobody could bother you on your cell phone in 568 while you mucked about trying to scrape a living out of the grime and 17 of your 24 kids died? And traffic wasn't so bad when people were dropping from the plague. I am happy to live now even if people send me unwanted e-mails and health insurance costs me some money. It is crazy to think the good old days were anything than the "worse than now days." Anytime people tell you things were better in the past, you need to question it closely. The only people who really want to go back to pre-tech days after giving it some thought are the people who can't handle life and the Taliban or Catholic Church or other religious groups who cannot control wealth educated people. Even in modern America, who wants to go back even a few years?

When you could breath the air and drink the water without fear of contracting cancer. When families actually spent quality time together, sans TV, and the divorce rate wasn't over 50%. When doctors made house calls. Etc., etc., etc. As for your plague comment, ever hear of AIDS? So now we have a plague AND traffic. And if you don't think AIDS is an epidemic, you are sadly misinformed.


Just some thoughts. To each his/her own.

People live so much longer now its not even close. The air may have had less of certain pollutants, but people died from diseases caused by unsanitary conditions. That's pollution too. And AIDS is preventable or avoidable to a greater degree than diseases of yesteryear. Divorce is better than people staying together when they hate each other. Families didn't spend all that much quality time together. No, things are better now. Some particulars may not be to your taste, but things are so much better. You forget the bad too easily with hindsight.

Life expectancy certainly has increased dramatically over the past century in industrialized nations. But what does this have to do with our discussion? You are confusing quantity with quality.


In a nutshell, my point is that a simpler life equates to a happier, more fulfilled life. Life in modern-day Western society is anything but simple and will continue to increase in complexity until something finally gives. Exactly what will happen is hard to predict, but, unless some fundamental changes are made before it gets to that point, it ain't gonna be pretty.

The common theme that appears in your dissertation New Guy is fear.


Fear of the future, its uncertainty and its dynamism is at the root of all Luddite philosophy.

With over 6 billion people with unique goals, talents and desires the world will always be evolving at a rapid pace and nothing can be done to stop it.


You can attempt to deny this reality but that would be delusional.

Don't we all long for the days when life wasn't quite so complex?


Yes, we miss out on so many of the pleasures of simpler times.


Burying half our children before their second birthday.


Using a washboard.


Walking behind a team of oxen for 12 hours to plow the field.


Spending half the day hauling water, hauling wood and cutting wood so we can take our monthly bath.


Typhoid fever.


Cholera.


Using the outhouse when it's 20 below.


Using the outhouse when it'd 90, with the pleasant aroma and the flies biting our ass.


Does technology suck, or what?