From: Michael P. Read (mpread@cox.net)
Date: Tue Dec 24 2002 - 15:55:59 MST
Mega-dittos, dude!
Mike Read
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]
On Behalf Of Lee Daniel Crocker
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 2:54 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: nineteen sixties
> >The young people on the list should really study how far we have
come.
> >I haven't looked for the numbers but I suspect the average hand held
> >computer, perhaps even the average cell phone, has more CPU power
than
> >the Apollo command module.
> And yet our culture is, if anything, more filed with emptiness
> and hype than it was then. I doubt that that is lost on the
> young today either.
What utter hogwash. Only the most willfully blind wouldn't
recognize that our culture has advanced remarkably as well.
When I was born, it was still illegal for whites and blacks to
marry; Politicians could be openly segregationist. Women were
openly excluded from colleges and a lot of professions, and were
only beginning to break into politics. Homosexuality wasn't
even discussed in polite company, and the arrests didn't make
the news. Police didn't bother tracking down deadbeat fathers--
that was just part of life, as were drunk driving accidents.
Hotels and condo associations could and did exclude jews.
The strict father, friendly uncle, and local priest were never
suspected of any wrongdoing--a child with bruises or emotional
problems was just accident prone or introverted. Rape was
tolerated against wives and women with reputations. Women had
no reproductive choices--the pill wasn't available yet, and
condoms and abortions were only available in back alleys and
were things only prostitutes knew about.
Now tell me again how today's culture is "empty" compared to that.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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