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George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

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Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#631

Post by fnl »

Arizhel wrote: post #542
zczc wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another classic anti-utopia becoming relevant today is 'Brave New World' by Huxley. See brilliant comparison with '1984' on comic [1] which summarizes Neil Postman's book 'Amusing Ourselves to Death'. [1]: http://highexistence.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death-huxley-v...

This is an interesting comic, but I'd like to point out that becoming a society concerned with triviality is nothing new. Just look at the crap they were watching on TV in the 50s and 60s. And even if you go back in time to before TVs, there was plenty of crap that people occupied themselves with. It's just a lot easier now since so many of us no longer have to struggle just to survive every day. Wishing for the enti…

Which begs the question: Is modern's "occupied with crap" better, equal, or worse than the ancient "struggle to survive"?

While in the measurable numbers game, the world certainly has become a better place (less child deaths, more literacy, longer life expectancy etc.), the actual question to ask oneself is if those numbers indeed are good proxies for a "better" world or life.

Is living longer, assisted by mechanical and pharmaceutical products plus surgical procedures, really that great? In general, we now are working more hours then ever before in history, and hence have less time for being creative, having hobbies, or simply to behold one of "Goethe's moments," because we always are in a hurry. Are we really happier, and even if we were, is that maybe only due to every second adult over 40 or 50 using anti-depressants?

Actually measuring if we are indeed living in a "better world" or a "better life" is very hard to do objectively with the parameters we have, and I honestly doubt it is possible. In the end, I believe the answer probably is: In many cases, it depends more on what you make of the time you were given than in which year you were born.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#632

Post by humanrebar »

bb611 wrote: post #566
humanrebar wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was probably a theological opinion, for what it's worth. People forget MLK was a pastor.

I disagree, he was paraphrasing early 19th century abolitionist Theodore Parker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Parker Another theologian for sure, but pretty squarely in the context of black rights in the US.

Some of King's best work was putting civil rights in a theological context. That's basically what Letters From A Birmingham Jail was about.

Despite the passive voice, I still think God and Christ were on King's mind when coining that. I'm sure if he were still alive, he'd agree.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#633

Post by mattnewton »

flukus wrote: post #622
mattnewton wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unsure what your argument is here. The liberal position here is, in a nutshell, that women's rights are treated poorly and should not be. It's a real stretch to say that means they should be treated as if they were men wearing dick hats because they think men are equal.

So you're argument is that because women are treated differently we should treat them diffently? You aren't advocating equeal treatment but for more unequal treatment. And how exactly are women treated poorly?

Because "women's rights" are treated poorly, we should treat "women marching with pussy hats" differently than "men marching with dick hats".

Specifically women's rights around their reproductive organs, between access to abortion, classifying sanitary napkins or tampons as a necessary expense, or sexual assault of those organs.

If men had women in congress debating over making ejaculation without intent to conceive illegal, if men were payed less for the same work on average, if men had powerful people talking bragging about grabbing them by the dick whenever they wanted, etc, maybe then you would have a point.

But as it stands, you're twisting my words into a false equivalence.

Women's rights are treated poorly. Women should have equal rights and should be treated equally if you believe they are equals to men. Women marching with pussy hats represents a different phenomena than men in dick hats. For that to be equal treatment the context has to be equivalent. And it is not.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#634

Post by iainmerrick »

wallace_f wrote: post #625
iainmerrick wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all those things are actually getting worse! Crime is falling in the long term, not rising, at least in the US. Much of the world now allows same-sex marriage, which I think is an important civil rights advancement. I take your points on war, the crackdown on whistleblowers, income inequality. But on the upside, we have tremendous advances in medicine (is that "just" technology?) It's a mixed picture, not a unive…

> Crime is falling in the long term, not rising, at least in the US. According to this[1] crime rates in the USA are higher than they were in 1960 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States

I'm very happy to let the chart on that page speak for itself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Property_Crime_Rates_in...

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#635

Post by geetee »

3131s wrote: post #158
geetee wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't the leaks reveal that Chelsea's wedding was paid for by the foundation?

Here is the email in question so you all can judge for yourselves: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/52046 For context, Doug Band is a very close Clinton associate and he's discussing an initiative apparently launched by Chelsea Clinton to investigate money within the Clinton Foundation (which is also mentioned in some of the other Podesta emails).

That's the one. Thanks for digging it up.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#637

Post by bzbarsky »

Arizhel wrote: post #558
bzbarsky wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About the only people who were having a really bad time were the people in former Yugoslavia. Or the people anywhere in the vicinity of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War (which conveniently didn't appear in the news much). Pretty sure they were having a much worse time than people in former Yugoslavia...

Yeah, that didn't get much exposure in the west. I've never even heard of it. Also, this isn't to say that the rest of the world was doing great either; lots of other 3rd-world places were surely having a hard time too. But the question is, were they having an unusually hard time during the 90s, or was that normal for them? In former Yugoslavia, it was abnormal: before that they had stability behind the Iron Curtain,…

The death toll numbering in the millions was pretty abnormal for the region, yes.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#638

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

hueving wrote: post #514
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In almost all cases, everyone I can think of anyway, the female electrical connector gives and the "male" takes . No wonder we're all so confused about who we are under the kilt!

I'm not sure what you mean by that. The most common case is that the male has the prong that is inserted into the female hole. I.e. This is female: https://mobileimages.lowes.com/product/converted/695706/6957...

I mean stuff (electricity) comes out of the female connector.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#639

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #534
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least he's honest . Any other potential president would have had their hand forced or led the charge too.

>At least he's honest. Saying something true by chance doesn't make the man honest when his words are randomly generated.

Yeah, it's like that thing about giving an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and they'll eventually duplicate Shakespeare.

Now we get to conduct a similar experiment whereby we see first hand if having an actual clown in the oval office is any different to a real politician.

Trump reminds me of William S. Burrows Naked Lunch. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order, and Trump is about as obscene.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#640

Post by dTal »

0x445442 wrote: post #626
Lasher wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Roger Water's album titled 'Amused to Death' is also a perfect predication of where we've ended up, particularly the title track on the album.

While the album is based off the Postman novel I think Waters deserves a lot of credit for expanding on the theme and conveying the idea in a remarkable piece of work. Whenever fellow Pink Floyd fans ask me what my favorite Pink Floyd album is I always tell them Amused to Death. I understand it's not technically Pink Floyd but it is Roger Waters at the height of his Jedi Powers and Jeff Beck's performance is amazing.

As a Pink Floyd fan who finds Roger Waters egotistical annexation of the band name obnoxious, I would be annoyed at this response. Roger Waters was not the heart and soul of Pink Floyd, despite his claims, and his solo work has a fundamentally different character (that I do not especially enjoy). By all means recommend his stuff if you enjoy it, but if someone asks you your favorite Floyd album - name a damn Floyd album. It's like naming a Paul McCartney album as your favorite Beatles work (only worse, since Paul never flew off the handle claiming to BE the Beatles) - you're gonna piss people off.
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