bradleym

You're absolutely right, there are historical currents, and more people and more ideas than can be identified solely with those three. Why not use broad brush strokes to depict the Revolution? If you had to sum it up then say, it was a revolt again the excesses of the power establishment. So, in a sense, it's similar to other events such as Luther's Reformation. And that, is what the video and the movie are all about: to break the social ideological restraints that confine your normal way of thinking. Dr. Leary was right. The Internet, as it is, permits someone to go beyond the restrictions of the conditioning imposed by prior education, allowing access to enormous amounts of information and ideas. Sometimes it's the novelty of ideas, other times it's another vector or method that allows ideas to get past your mental censors. And McKenna was right too about our culture being our operating system. But I know, we're not talking about the same thing. i have always been uncomfortable with the simultaneous need to generalize coupled with the dangers of generalization, and my reaction to the video stems from its implicit claim: 'The history of the world in one easy step'. and i agree that education ought to be a pathway to critical self-evaluation, but that too often it is a mental strait-jacket or a crutch used to support one's prejudices. to survey the simplistic propaganda that sometimes passes for historical texts, is to despair of ever demonstrating what history really is or could be. i don't think the answer, however, is to replace one form of mental essentialism with another. let me amend my original critique. the video contains an interesting, and perhaps useful, assertion about how things came to be the way they are, but causation is complicated and slippery, so be thoughtful concerning its claims about the ultimate causes and consequences of societal power relations.

Um...they liked the revolution they saw over here, tried it, and let it go horribly wrong? :head in basket emoticon: um, no, people were hungry in paris because bread was expensive, the government was broke from supporting the revolt of the american aristocracy, and the french aristocracy and intelligentsia proved less able than their american counterparts at containing class tensions and thus the directions the revolt might take. there. happy?

Rousseau? Eh? Is this some dig on the French Revolution and the resulting Reign of Terror? The way I see it, the Revolution signaled the end of the Ancien Regime by breaking the stranglehold of the Clergy and Monarchy over the People, and saw the consequent rise of a new order along the lines of Montesquieu. Anarchy? Voltaire distrusted democracy as the idiocy of the masses and rather supported the idea of an enligtened depotism. As far as the Reign of Terror, this seems more the prevalence of emotion over rationalism. But as the National Socialists showed, rationalism applied incorrrectly can also be destructive. Not at all. I was thinking more of 'state of nature' discussions and the common assumption in the 'aren't we terrible' books and videos that neither cavemen or native americans or any other 'savage' peoples ever imposed their will on the weak, or took something that wasn't theirs. standard old-school hobbes v. locke type of stuff. i do have an interest in the FR, a complex subject that is beyond my powers to sum up in a sentence or two, though I think it had little to do with either Montesquieu, Voltaire or Rousseau. start with this: compare and contrast Lynn Hunt and Francois Furet.

yup, you're a dreamer. not that there is anything wrong with that.

I'm lovin' it. don't worry prole, our new McCrapola Czar will ensure we only have tasteful, healthful and culturally-sound food.

what if humans ceased to be human? then what? are you sure about this? not work for whom?

Spatial, physical boundaries? Geopolitical boundaries? Nations will not exist in the future. Is it not the trajectory presented by history and the evolving technocultural progression that we are bound to? i nominate this video for 'swift boat of the year' award. Rove might not agree, but he would certainly be proud of the clever blend of 'facts', assertions and pop historical causation, bookmarked of course by scenes from one of the stupidest movies ever made. brilliant, really. even rousseau would be impressed.

Hi, I'm the guy who thought building the Hummer would be a fantastic idea. I'm a little embarrassed for cash right now, but its only temporary, I promise, so could I have a few billion?

put up with him and the dear leader until you can find a new job. sounds like you might be in the software business, and if the dear leader is the one setting your dates, then you are in a no-win situation, unless he'll also agree to cut features when things don't add up. bear in mind too, that although the leader might be especially dear to you, chances are he too has some dear leaders who are placing pressure on him.

double dark works for me. take that any way you like.

steve vai clearly has more technical brilliance in the clippings from his left pinkienail than i'll ever have in my entire life, and i agree with you that yes he is very, very good. but i class him with that crowd of 'show-off' players who frankly aren't that musical and ultimately pretty un-interesting, like satriani or johnny a (i know, more heresy). just an opinion, and i'm only funnin' you with all the 'repent' and 'consequences' rubbish. guys like knopfler can put on a 'technically' brilliant show (who knows or cares if he can 'keep up' with vai), and are not above the odd flourish, but ultimately it is about the entire package, the music, and the guitar is contributory, not the main point. someone like steve howe is much better as part of his musical group (though, perhaps, 'yes' should be named on the 'overrated' thread) than on his own, but he remains a technically brilliant player. just my tuppence, don't take it too seriously. i don't. i love listening to andres segovia and even r&g. of course we could take this to the next level, and I could make and post a video recording of me playing. then you would laugh so hard that you'd bust a gut and die a horrible death, making your wife a widow and your children orphans, and I would quite obviously win the argument.

umm, no. could you explain please what my educational status has to do with your infatuation for people who play scales really, really fast?

one of the very gods! now, as for kevbone, if he cannot overcome his attraction to strange californians or creepy swedes, then I may be forced to post a photograph of my guitar collection. if that doesn't work, then a photo of my amplifier as well...beware.

oh, this is not to be borne! if the situation requires it, knopfler is quite capable of putting many notes into a bar or two, and could keep up even with vai. the difference is that knopfler produces music, not just a lot of notes. now repent, or face the consequences...

all right, enough of you wankers. this song is so simple, even i can play it, but steve vai will never be able to touch this. so get over it. case closed. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGzfgvU5oMw

ok fine, his technical prowess is truly impressive, but frankly i'd rather stab out my eyes with a fork than listen to him for very long.

apologies if i imputed to you views which you do not hold. that was not my intention. there are people who will always argue for smaller government, reductions in taxation, less government involvement in their 'personal' matters, etc. they often bandy examples of government waste, unintended consequences, etc. to bolster their argument. ergo, reagan's 'i'm from the government and i'm here to help'. $300 toilet seats and all that. usually, as well, it is assumed that 'the market', e.g. private interest or the invisible hand, will magically solve all problems, sooner or later, and that if anyone monkeys with the market they will cause much greater harm than if they had left it alone. Who is John Galt? policies based upon such thinking are at the root of our current economic problems, though they are not the only causes. that doesn't mean that 'free' markets are necessarily bad, or that they serve no useful function. that is where i definitely agree with you (i think), and seem to run into trouble with others on this site. ah well...

prescription glacier glasses. contacts and sunscreen don't mix well.

this is a chance for me to learn a bit about ice formation. this stuff was up to an inch or two thick of clear ice. i often couldn't get the point of my ice axe through it. it was very rough and 'knobbly' on top--not smooth at all. almost like millions of little stalagmites poking up. i can post a closeup when i get home. the sun glinting off of it was incredible. does anyone know what it is called? and how it forms? i was thinking it may form like rime ice, but it was clear as crystal. or maybe it started out as a smooth sheet of ice, but melted and refroze a few times, perhaps under high winds. and i suppose that if snow fell on it there would be a good bond due to friction, reducing the avalanche potential, but i don't really know. will anyone edumacate me?

it was softening a bit as i headed down, but i warned everyone i met who was skinning up that above 9500 it would be like skiing down a cheese grater.

I believe JayB's arguments, so far as they go. He states the classic case of allowing a market to decide resource allocation and resource price. The problem comes, of course, when society (the government is us, right?) applies the market model to absolutely everything, or intervenes in ways that are not well-considered, and then unintended consequences lead to strange, counter-productive distortions, such as food shortages in Mexico because of hare-brained ethanol subsidies in the US. The other problem has to do with the fact that starving people cannot be placed in storage until there is food to feed them, nor can the environmental consequences of all those myriad individual decisions (like buying that SUV because I can) be put off until the 'market' prices in and 'solves' environmental degradation. It probably won't until too late. Species extinction, for example, is accelerating, largely because it makes market-sense to destroy habitat. Markets are pretty efficient (in general), but they are monstrously short-sighted, and the humans who participate in them will gladly take advantage of bad policy (or no policy) for immediate gain. This is why we need that part of our better natures to consider questions and responses outside of the market framework. For example, we (the government) should stop subsidizing the consumption of fossil fuels and should make them even more expensive than the market would price them, to encourage ceasing using them.

tried for the hogback, but didn't quite make it. very icy, and loads of junk peeling off of crater rock and elsewhere. above the crevasses at the base of crater rock it was pretty sketchy, so I stopped on a level spot about the same level as the top of the kitchen. it was a beautiful day. the bergschrund and gates. garbled shadow in the ice. a field of diamonds.

All of the above. To add one more. Raiders of the lost Arch! Oh good grief! Matrix? Raiders? Then we might as well add 'Starship Troopers'. The sequel was even better! Actually, we must mention Buckaroo Banzai and Rocky Horror Picture Show since we're getting downright silly.

you _are_ joking, right?

bladerunner