Pessimistic? Well, I certainly don't see it that way. I've come to describe my worldview as being cynical optimism. I'm very excited about MY future. It's just the rest of you that are fucked.

As for a new calendar, I propose stardates.

This video has a little more-than-obvious Marxist tinge to it, but I think it explains a lot about humanity and our relationship to our technology (the key to the future).

Haha Well I think that your second question is answered by your first question.

I.e I do indeed think that that the kind of (mass) media we have today is under state and corporate control. Which is why I am quite selective in those potions in which I choose to partake in.

My reasoning is thus;

Aside from state and corporate controlled media, there is the option of independent publishing (if there is another option please enlighten me) the very thing you seemed to be railing against in your initial reply to my topic...

With independent publishing comes varying degrees of quality wouldn't you agree?

If you want to regulate the quality of media being published it would require some kind regulatory body such as State control or Industry (read corporate) self regulation.

So, while I am happy to support any independent publication which I deem to be of decent quality I also know that I may have to observe a lot of crap to find the good stuff.

It’s often occurred to me that that’s how I view things as well (meaning my own future, of course).

I personally disagree with that.

I don’t think for a system to be balanced there has to be some kind of “regulator” supervising it.

I get the same when I talk about “stratification”. The first thing they tell me is “but who is going to be in charge of deciding who belongs in each level”.

My answer is nobody.

In a stratified society the levels form naturally. The ones with leadership potential will take charge and the sheep will follow. There is no need for someone deciding who will be Alfa and who will be Beta.

It’s the way evolution works. The hardest life becomes, the stronger the surviving species are. When life becomes too easy, even the unfit get to reproduce and the species weakens.

I think one of the reasons for the general drop in art quality is there are too many artificial “controls” in place. An example of that are some programs that help artists get exposure and sponsorship based on their ethnic background and sexual orientation instead of the quality of their work.

Another example is the so called "political correctness" rules imposed on the media, which guarantee no form of humor is possible, because practically any joke will be offensive for some particular group somewhere.

Equality produces mediocrity and we are living in the golden age of both.

Of course, waters always return to their proper level. I’m optimistic something will son happen and inject a little revitalizing chaos in the system.

I appreciate and respect what you are saying and I really don't wish to argue just for arguments sake but...

I also feel as though you have kind of side-stepped my rebuttal.


You originally stated;



My point still stands that although there is a lot of crap being published out there, there is also much worthy material out there being published for those who wish to seek it out.

And if you believe that the market will be regulated by the audience then I don't see why you should be so pessimistic because there will always be a market for connoisseurs.

I have got to ask, unfit for what? Hunting lions on the savannah? Designing integrated circuits? Producing quality entertainment?

The unit of natural selection is the gene, which usually changes on time spans which are geologic in scope. Group selection is a 19th century myth.

I for one don't see any difference between now and 10 millenia ago, as far as human behavior is concerned. Most people born today are average, they work for their masters for a little and need to be entertained for the rest of the time.

Most of civilization, any civilization, is geared toward distraction. And oh what myriad ways to distract people there have been, from religion, to warfare, to starvation; but none so cheap as the internet. The internet is to humans like a mirror is to a parrot. It is also a useful tool for stratification.

So many people broadcasting their stupidity for potential employers to see, law enforcement to see, etc., just begging to be negatively selected for. Hopefully the internet will be around for a few hundred thousand years. Then we will see some serious stratification, on a genetic level. Then again maybe not, only time will tell.

People have been saying that for generations. The past eras that you consider to be full of "good" music where also considered the new eras of "bad" music by people older than you. But I'd say there's still good music being made these days. You just have to be more active in searching for it, instead of expecting the radio and television to bring it to you.

What's always happened though, is that music has become increasingly cheaper and easier to make. Musical instruments, musician networking, and especially recording gear are always becoming better and cheaper. The $2000 effects unit that John Lennon used for recording Abbey Road, is something I can find in a $50 pedal today. You can set up a home studio for under $500 and make recordings that rival what the Beatles had to work with.

The catch of course is that virtually anybody now can make an album with little effort. So not surprisingly, there's a sea of mediocre and downright horrible stuff out there. Fortunately technology has also made it easier to seek out the "good" stuff. Some people are already doing the work for you.

No, I don't see the CE standard changing anytime soon. It's much too integrated into computer programs, travel, and businesses.

It's not like this is the only secular standard we've adopted that originated with religion. The days of the week are named after pagan gods (Tuesday=Tyr, Wednesday=Woden, Thursday=Thor, etc.)

Some things we're just stuck with. Take the keyboard in front of you, for example. The only reason why the letters are laid out like that is because the keyboard is what replaced the typewriter, which has the letters arranged like that. And the only reason for that, is because on the first typewriters, the little hammers would often get caught on each other. So to help avoid this, more common letters were spaced apart. Even though computer keyboards don't use mechanical hammers, we're still stuck with the design, because it would have been way to inconvenient and difficult to have typewriter users learn a completely new layout.

A while back somebody invented the Dvorak keyboard for computers, which has the letters laid out differently so that typing common words is much faster. But again, trying to get everybody to switch to that would be too difficult.

Take the keyboard in front of you, for example.

The QWERTY phenomenon.

The iPhone is a double edged sword. So many great practical uses and yet everyone around me spends most of the moments of their day with their head hanging, slack jawed, drooling over their touchscreen ignoring the world around them.

The iPhone, like anything else needs to be kept at a respectable professional distance where its uses are benefitted from, but we discipline ourselves as magicians to actually PUT IT DOWN. Read a book. Write a song, and make our world.

(But if you want to be a self entertained delusional Mugwump being drained of potential...the iPhone's a fun way to do that too!)

Good point! I've never thought of it like that before.

It seems my third-side has a little brushing up to do.

You can read a book on it - Stanza gives you all of Project Gutenberg and more. There's a Kindle app as well.

And you can listen to Radio Free Satan on it :-) as well as The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and a lot of other content from people with both education and a lot of actual accomplishment. I also have at least two H.P. Lovecraft related podcasts I'm catching up on.

But I do agree on the other parts - making your contribution to the world, and especially your own world is important.

I didn't say the market would be regulated by the audience. I haven't said anything about market at all. I was talking about culture in general.

I'm sorry if I side-stepped. I was just elaborating on the subject.

I'm not pessimistic I guess I'm a misanthrope.

In the pure evolutionary sense, unfit for reproduction.

I think that's the main problem with our species today, that the individuals that would never reproduce in natural conditions are artificially protected and they reproduce... and reproduce... and reproduce...

Too many billions of people. I think that's the problem.

If an organism manages to reproduce, from the non-sentient point of view of nature, (which doesn't know or care about artificial protection), it was fit to reproduce, by definition!

It reproduced!



It is all self-correcting; if and when the population exceeds the environments carrying capacity, the population will decrease.

A Satanists job is

A. Simply to stay out of the way when that happens.
and
B. Not allow oneself to get too annoyed until it does!