When I Was Born ........ - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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By jimjam
#14890156
When I was born there were 2,000,000,000 humans on planet earth. There are now 7,600,000,000 humans on planet earth. I posit that this simple statistic is the foundation cause for most of our current issues with cross border wars/illegal immigration. Where is this going?
#14890161
More people at the party does not equal a better party?

I wish I had been born in a different time, a time when music was actually more about melody than drum beat or angry lyrics or weird effects. And the world was a less hostile place.
#14890214
MistyTiger wrote:More people at the party does not equal a better party?

I wish I had been born in a different time, a time when music was actually more about melody than drum beat or angry lyrics or weird effects. And the world was a less hostile place.

You think the world was a less hostile place in the past? You're clearly not a history buff, are you MT? :eh:
By Rich
#14890310
Potemkin wrote:You think the world was a less hostile place in the past? You're clearly not a history buff, are you MT? :eh:

Though arguably it did take quite a while for the Neolithic revolution to really pay off in terms of improved quality of life.
#14890337
Potemkin wrote:You think the world was a less hostile place in the past? You're clearly not a history buff, are you MT? :eh:
Well the weaponry wasn't nearly as advanced or catastrophic. And there were no man made viruses. And school shootings or wrkplace violence weren't so common.
#14890342
Well the weaponry wasn't nearly as advanced or catastrophic.

It didn't need to be. When the Romans destroyed Carthage in 149 BC, they slaughtered 50,000 civilians, demolished every building, then ploughed salt into the soil so that nothing would ever grow there again. Who needs nukes? Lol.

And there were no man made viruses.

There still aren't. And smallpox has been eradicated. In my book, that counts as an improvement.

And school shootings or wrkplace violence weren't so common.

You should go back in time to the 18th or 19th century and ask a slave on a cotton plantation in the Deep South if he thought workplace violence was a problem or not. What do you think his reply would be?
#14890346
Potemkin wrote:It didn't need to be. When the Romans destroyed Carthage in 149 BC, they slaughtered 50,000 civilians, demolished every building, then ploughed salt into the soil so that nothing would ever grow there again. Who needs nukes? Lol.


There still aren't. And smallpox has been eradicated. In my book, that counts as an improvement.


You should go back in time to the 18th or 19th century and ask a slave on a cotton plantation in the Deep South if he thought workplace violence was a problem or not. What do you think his reply would be?


It is kind of scary Potemkin to think that one nuke might knock us out for thousands of years.....and the world goes on without us. Our vain glory and hope of being around forever....dashed in some egomaniac with bankrupt casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey with a bad combover eating KFC greasy drive thru chicken was the catalyst to our demise.....for millenia or a million years....the globe continuing to orbit without us on it.....our hubris our ultimate end.

Meanwhile you will still be handsome. ;)
#14890352
jimjam wrote:Where is this going?
I see three probable outcomes. First, and most likely, is a classic population sink resulting in enclaves of humanity living under various forms of totalitarianism trying to survive while still trying to destroy the other enclaves. The second most probable outcome is a population stabilization with an ever increasing percentage living in abject poverty and owing their very lives to a few increasingly powerful entities. Those entities will fight among themselves for ultimate control of humanity, of course.
The third, and perhaps the best, outcome for humanity is that we prove ourselves ultimately unrulable - large governments collapse, large corporations, all the largest social institutions collapse, and we end up back with city states - the largest sustainable form of government. While this may cause a 'dieback' of one half to 2/3rds the world population, it would provide the survivors with the best possible outcome in terms of liberty and security.
The other two... the more likely two involve the complete death of liberty. I'm talking brain chipping, thought police, prison planet kind of totalitarianism. And the penalty for disloyalty to your dictator is death by abject poverty.

That's how I see humanity going if we can't get off this damned planet.
#14890359
MistyTiger wrote:workplace violence weren't so common.


It was so common that it wasn't even considered a problem.

And school shootings


Because there were neither schools nor fully automatic rifles.

But there was pillaging, frequent local warfare, mass rape and disease.
#14890367
.... McDonald's only had half or maby a third of the Melbourne locations it has today. The year was 1984, Orwell's year... The last year you could say "1984 hasn't passed us yet".

We considered ourselves lucky as kids we had a McDonald's less than 20 minutes drive away... The McDonald's opposite the road from Chadstone Shopping Centre(biggest "Mall" in the southern hemisphere, then and now) on the Princess Highway..... It was our childhood McDonald's where we had all our McDonald's kids birthday parties and whatnot. It was one of Melbourne's largest McDonald's restaurants and had a large playground.

Now there is a second McDonald's 5 mins walk from my old home, it opened there in 1995(so I guess it was my "Teenage Years McDonald's"..... It was much smaller and not as classic in it's design.
Last edited by colliric on 20 Feb 2018 02:01, edited 1 time in total.
#14890369
Saeko wrote:It was so common that it wasn't even considered a problem.



Because there were neither schools nor fully automatic rifles.

But there was pillaging, frequent local warfare, mass rape and disease.


Occasionally you get Saeko mass uprisings. Nat Turner in the South. Toussant and company in Haiti with the Citadel. Amistad ship type of murders and takeovers.

People do occasionally get fed up with the status quo. Go on killing sprees. But that is the breaks. Humans get fed up and have little to lose and decide to go on violent paths. You see it in human history. You even see it in chimp groups. You see it all the time with primates. Living things are pushed enough? They all do some crazy stuff.

It is part of our emotional selves.
#14890629
Citizen J wrote:First, and most likely, is a classic population sink resulting in enclaves of humanity living under various forms of totalitarianism trying to survive while still trying to destroy the other enclaves.

Well, nation-states could be thought of as enclaves. The problem is that they are being ruled against the interests of their citizens now. For all the treachery of politicians of the past, they seemed to have much more of a sense of pride. I cannot imagine Charles De Gaulle being okay with the Africamps of Calais. I imagine if he and Hitler were around, De Gaulle would probably apologize to Hitler, sue for peace and round up every Arab and African that wasn't serving a state purpose and throw them out of France, helping Hitler do the same in Germany. De Gaulle opposed a supra-national Europe and it is interesting to see that, right now, only the UK is fighting its way out of the EU.

I think the EU's importation of Africans and Muslims is going to sow the seeds of the next great disaster that will make WWII look like a picnic.

Citizen J wrote:The second most probable outcome is a population stabilization with an ever increasing percentage living in abject poverty and owing their very lives to a few increasingly powerful entities.

Population decline among the affluent is the trajectory, with increasing birth rates among the poor, low IQ and illiterate populations of the world. If the bible is right, the meek are set to inherit the Earth and the intellectually sophisticated are going to be wiped off the planet.

Citizen J wrote:The second most probable outcome is a population stabilization with an ever increasing percentage living in abject poverty and owing their very lives to a few increasingly powerful entities.

I don't think anybody is going to look at the collapse of 2/3rds of the world's population as a good thing. It may well happen, but it will be seen as a calamity of monumental proportions.

Citizen J wrote:The other two... the more likely two involve the complete death of liberty. I'm talking brain chipping, thought police, prison planet kind of totalitarianism.

We're already seeing that in the US. Thankfully, there are many who oppose it. The unsung heroes like Seth Rich have already given their lives so that we can learn the truth.

The interesting things will be what effect technology and AI have on the process.
#14891216
Citizen J wrote:We're most especially seeing this in China.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara/the-police-state-of-the-future-is-already-here?utm_term=.llL40bVJ4#.efD6ZlvW6

From the Chinese perspective I think the approach to Xinjiang is rather carrot and stick. The stick is the stuff in the article, though it is in response to terrorist attacks and terroristic threats from Muslim extremists. The carrot is economic development programs, which are significant. I think the hope is probably to achieve greater integration which will lead to a relaxing of the oppressive policies. China doesn't seem to be at all tolerant of threats to China's territorial integrity. In China, the government does have immense power and reserves the ability to exercise extreme measures. Communism demands an all powerful state, and China is a communist country. China has to be understood in this context. Different systems prevail in different places, and that is the way that it is.

I actually think there are two sides. It's unfortunate when innocent people have their lives disrupted by the churning of the machine of the state. But hell, just look at the DACA shit. The government collecting self-reporting data for purposes of fast-tracking citizenship, and then using this information to profile communities and deport people, is tyrannical as hell.

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