JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum America's Watershed Election.

I think you summed up a very true point Doug. You can't legislate human nature. And humans are vicious, selfish and greedy by genetic nature. Look at our history. We've never had sustained worldwide peace in any era. And individual countries only have sustained peace because they use artificial means (laws, jails, punishment by a more powerful entity).

There was a time when people could be controlled by the scarcity of knowledge (i.e. how to build fires, hunt animals, what food was safe etc.). That's why those in charge kept everyone else in the dark. Then, as populations started to grow, enough smart people were outside the system so that knowledge alone couldn't control everyone. Then they took the knowledge used it to make weapons powerful enough to defeat anyone who stood in their way. We've never stopped pumping money and technology into weapons design and unless we eliminate ourselves, we won't stop. Next, when enough folks had weapons and the elite didn't have the numbers to quell the masses within their own walls (they still kept killing their enemies) they had to come up with something "new" to control people. And this was a brilliant moment where the church came up front and foremost. By creating a mysterious super-power in the sky who would condemn you beyond death for eternity unless you did what "he" said, they were able to control the masses (and still do to this day). The church was able to take politics underground and call it the church. Churches are very political entities with very specific power control efforts that are always ongoing. Right now in western society, science has reached an undeniable point which at least casts doubt to the masses that the church doctrines are more fable and less fact. So when the church no longer has a tight control on the masses at home, and the military isn't allowed to keep the order over the masses at home (again, they still do it in battle with others outside their own country) they had to have something to replace knowledge, military might and religion. Welcome to the corporation. Now, corporations hold all control over the masses in a country. They control jobs. They control your debt. They control which candidates you're allowed to vote for because only those with the cash can even be put in front of you for consideration to start with. The corporate in the US is more powerful than the military, the church, the scientists or any other entity.

Interestingly enough, we're on the cusp of a new age. The ability for people of all types to communicate across borders and without monitoring by the corporations, the church, the government or anyone else may lead to a whole new model for how people will be controlled in the future. I think one possibility is Medicine. We are very near a stage where it's not science fiction that people may stop dying of natural causes.


So let's enter into a hypothetical scenario: I bet in 200 years, the only death will be accident, murder or suicide. Murder will become the leading cause of death in the form of war. When populations simply can't survive in a place, they will spill over and mass extermination will take place. And if everyone lives forever, there's not much room for babies. We may well see similar controls put in place where lifetimes are rationed out. Want a child? No problem.. have it, but then one of the two parents must forfeit their life to make room. It will be like Logan's Run. And what might happen is that people will simply be cloned to create a second "self" and their knowledge and personality and brain will be captured and implanted into the new body via a brain transfer.

Okay.. that might be a good sci fi novel. It's not the most likely outcome, but a new paradigm will have to be created once knowledge and power is so equal across all peoples and they can interact beyond the control of a few.

In the meantime, the US economy is in big trouble. For some reason the value of our dollar has plummeted and the government doesn't seem at all concerned. Of course that's because it makes our goods much more affordable to outsiders, but it sure is a problem for our own country. And it will catch up to us when we can't afford to compete with other contries because our money has no value outside our borders. We're nearly there already. I don't think Obama OR McCain has an idea or an answer for the economy, and even if they did, the real powers pulling the strings aren't likely to let them shift the balance of power elsewhere.

Happy thoughts for us Yanks eh? = )

Brian