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PROGRESS, HISTORICAL EVOLUTION, MYTHS, AND FALLACIES OF OUR TIME
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Utopias have also been imagined by the opposite side of the political spectrum. For example, Robert A. Heinlein ‘s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress portrays an individualistic and libertarian utopia . Capitalist utopias of this sort are generally based on free market economies, in which the presupposition is that private enterprise and personal initiative without an institution of coercion, government , provides the greatest opportunity for achievement and progress of both the individual and society as a whole.
Yes Utopias come in many forms, I am not particularly familiar with Robert A. Heinlein work, however a brief search of his work, he is categorized as a ‘rational anarchist’ and explained as follows: “The desire for anarchy is balanced by the logic that some form of government is needed, despite its flaws.Knowing this fact, a Rational Anarchist “tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world”. When challenged by Wyoh, Professor de la Paz replies “In terms of morals there is no such thing as a ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free, because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything that I do”.
The failure of our government as we speak, it is lack of capacity to exercise justice for all on an equal basis, you can be sent to prison, for stealing a slice of pizza, but those responsible for the 2008 fiasco in Wall Street are not even investigated, but rewarded with our tax money!
Talk about those crooks living their utopia, a government that protect them, and reward them for stealing World wide!
Yesterday I read in the NY Times the reason Iceland despite their bankruptcy is already ahead of us in the recovery, they let their banks fail, protected the money of the people, and are indicting and prosecuting the people responsible. In other words they did what is just, the opposite of what is happening in America, and around the World.
Gabriele D’Annunzio, poet, playwright, and nationalist buccaneer, created a revolutionary utopia in a Dalmatian city stolen in 1919 from Woodrow Wilson and the Versailles Treaty makers. In doing so, he invented the political style and rituals of Fascism, as well as Third World liberation. T.E. Lawrence, archaeologist and spy, guided the Arab revolt against the Turks, becoming both “Uncrowned King of Arabia” and masochist secular saint. Ernst Jünger, artist and scientist, the German army’s most decorated hero of World War I, made heroism a political ideology and became intellectual leader of the National Cause. Hitler was a follower. In World War II Jünger plotted Hitler’s assassination and survived to become a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation. Willi Münzenberg, Lenin’s propaganda genius and an original member of the Comintern, invented the political “front” organization, created the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and seduced a generation of “innocents” to the Communist cause before becoming a dissident himself. He wasstrangled by Soviet agents in a French forest. André Malraux, fantasist “Byron of the 1930s,” world-famous novelist, emulator of T.E. Lawrence, and make-believe leader of the Chinese revolution, discovered “that daydreaming gives rise to action.” He created and led an air squadron for Republican Spain, wrote himself into the script of the French Resistance as a hero — and became one. Arthur Koestler, the most famous scientific journalist in Europe, was a Comintern spy in Spain; condemned to death there, he abandoned the cause and wrote Darkness at Noon, the most influential anti-Communist work of its time, before committing suicide in 1976.
Yes, life is made up of opposites, contradictions, and has many turns, rarely you find what you expect at the final end of the road…
Pfaff’s introduction suggests that technology will loom large in his analysis. He avows that for many Europeans, including those he studies in this book, “modern industrial technology” is implicated in the failures of the twentieth century because it caused “immense human suffering, social and material destruction, and moral disorder” (p. 5). He considers the “‘science’ of progress” to be one formulation by which premodern romantics sought to reconcile themselves with modernity (p. 23). He describes his book as “an essay on history and morals” (p. 337), a combination reminiscent of Lewis Mumford and others who have tried to understand the implications of modern technology for the meaning of life. And at the heart of Pfaff’s story is the bullet, a technological artifact in the service of ideology and politics.
Not kosovo, Kosovo had nothing to begin with…very poor…like Albania-the indegious people, ancestors of Illyrians(old as greek)- the destruction was in Belgrade, now Serbia, to stop the latest Balkan/ethnic Wars.
There is a lot of technology transfer from military/space techology use alover, for instance Internet, what a revolution!, fleece jacket to keep us from freezing, etc.it is just a measure to come up with solutions that u talk about and of course keep economy going, instead of leaving us in dark ages. Europe went this route not invest into development moreso other social mathers, look what is going on now, most of countries broke in EU….