BS: A Man Ahead of His Time

Subject: BS: A Man Ahead of His Time
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 16 May 11 - 09:30 PM

The following was written over a hundred and fifteen years ago (the author died in 1895, I believe), but it could as well have been written about the last forty years or so ago about the U.S. Of course I overstate my conclusion...but not, I think, by much.

Perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson was prescient.

THE FOUR REFORMERS

Four reformers met under a bramble bush. They were all agreed the world must be changed. "We must abolish property," said one.

"We must abolish marriage," said the second.

"We must abolish God," said the third.

"I wish we could abolish work," said the fourth.

"Do not let us get beyond practical politics," said the first. "The first thing is to reduce men to a common level."

"The first thing," said the second, "is to give freedom to the sexes."

"The first thing," said the third, "is to find out how to do it."

"The first step," said the first, "is to abolish the Bible."

"The first thing," said the second, "is to abolish the laws."

"The first thing," said the third, "is to abolish mankind."

Subject: RE: BS: A Man Ahead of His Time
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 May 11 - 09:33 PM

Maybe he just knew human nature.

Subject: RE: BS: A Man Ahead of His Time
From: michaelr
Date: 17 May 11 - 08:38 PM

"People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people."

Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

Subject: RE: BS: A Man Ahead of His Time
From: Amos
Date: 17 May 11 - 09:53 PM

There really is no "People"; there's just you and him and her and me. Every communication in the universe starts from one point of view and arrives at another, no matter how many loops and translations come in between; there;s a source, and a receipt. Losing sight of that is what makes for unwieldy and incomprehensible generalities.



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