[TAG] Hydrogen fuel (non-Linux)

[Thomas Adam]

On Thu, 27 May 2004 15:21:41 -0600
Jason Creighton <androflux at softhome.net> wrote:

> What I meant by "there's no good choices in governement" (I could have
> made this much clearer, BTW; sorry.) is that no choices made by a
> governement will result in a utopia. No possible choices will result
> in a society full of happy, hard-working people with a crime rate of
> zero. Not gonna happen.

It's not the direct job of a government to bring about utopia. If
anything it would be a useful by-product from them trying to "manage"
their own country; ideally, anyway.

We as a nation of people must try and do this, preferrably en masse.
Isolated "utopia" is never going to work. There will be conflicts
always, since that is just a fact of life. It is an ironic fact that
usually, post-conflict usually does bring about some sort of rest.

> And before I realized this, I had believed that a utopian society was
> possible. If you had asked me point-blank "Do you believe that a
> utopian society is possible?" I would have said no. At one level, I
> knew that was impossible. But in my heart of hearts, I thought "If
> only this country was put under proper management...".

Sorry, Jason -- it is not going to happen. I watch America from the
outside, and all I see is a front-spokesman, and a "leader" who is
ridiculed at every turn. Some of the idioms in speech as well as his
actions (such as falling off a bike) really do amuse me. But it is worth
remembering that at the end of the day, the real power does not lie with
Bush per se, but rather his advisors, since it is they that really run
the country. Let's face it, Bush has enough trouble [1] trying to wipe
his own arse.

But your linkage of utopia with governments is going to be a tenuous one
always; since even _if_ such a utopia were possible with nations it
would only ever be at a political level. You cannot expect people to
just turn the other cheek within a reasonable amount of time and say
"there, there, I forgive you". There is prejudice within our blood --
it is what we are.

> But even under the best of management, there would still be injustice.
> People would still exploit others for personal gain. People would
> still kill each other, still steal. No amount of government programs
> can change that. No amount of money thrown at the problem can change
> the basic nature of people.

Precisely which is why our actions will change us -- but it is society
as a whole that will change who we are, and the values we believe in.
You have to remember that religion plays a _very_ important part for a
lot of people.. [skip massive text here about that, but it is worthy of
a mention], and consequently people use this both as a comforter and as
an excuse.

> Some things can only be justified by the fact that anything else would
> be worse. War is probably the most notable example. It's not good; It
> is, in fact, a great evil. It's just that sometimes (very rarely)
> everything else is worse.

Evil is just...evil. There is no point trying to turn it into a
hierarchy. But you are right, war is by no means the correct way to go
about solving issues.

I could have said lots more, but I have skipped a lot of it..... It's
not really on-topic, any of this....

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
"Annie Hall leaves New York in the end. Press rewind, and Woody gets her
back again." -- "Look Inside America", Blur.