I meant physically juvenile, but also, given our production systems which are designed to harvest the juvenile phase of natural systems, and television, mentally. According to the most recent numbers, Americans are now watching TV on average 24 hours a week, on average. "Greatly expanded choices?" Er. I presume you are speaking of The Golf Channel, a symbol I suppose of our emerging maturity, or at least paunches. So it moves over to the Internet. Yawn.

I cannot imagine how anyone could see the bloodbath of the last century, and what is going on now around the world, as a diminution of historic violence. The whole point of the last hundred years was mass murder on a gigantic scale. "When you factor out the advances in leverage of technology" -- What the hell does that mean? I am baffled. For the first time in history we can vaporize practically everyone -- this is progress?

The only place where your technococoon dream is happening is in small enclaves of rich people, presumably where you live, me too, thank god, sucking dry the world's resources to binge on their own complacent dreamy optimism. It is unsustainable, and the forces against it are gathering, or hadn't you noticed? The "leverage of technology" will allow you to kill many of the ones you are worried about, all those unhappy people at the gates, but it won't kill them all. A few will get through the gates of Rome Inc., and they will leverage the technology their own way, those shiny airplanes and those big tall buildings for instance.

yours, Peter T.