Have you ever stopped to consider, where will technology really ever stop?
I was just reading about a terrible crime which sounds like it was inspired by a video game. I'm not going to rant about video games, because I love playing them. I'd be a complete hypocrite if I sat here and denigrated video games for the detriment they do versus their positive aspects. Apparently, somewhere in middle America, two late adolescents beat a young girl to death demonstrating martial arts from a video game on her.
I've read before that the adolescent brain hasn't fully developed into a fully functional decision making machine yet. So, the question is, where does the fault of the parent end and the fault of the perpetrator in such a crime begin. The establishment has chosen to lay the blame at the foot of the perpetrators, rather the adolescents, who beat the 7-year old to death. But, what blame should be placed upon the guardians of those adolescents? They are not of legal age, they were drinking, and apparently unattended by someone who could check their behavior.
I, much like you, was a teenager once. I know I made my share of terrible descisions. Heck, I made some terrible decisions even into my adult life. Yet, I always had the tools necessary to made good choices where another person's life, personal belongings, close personal ties, and basically where the "Ten Commandments" are concerned. But, in the case above, it makes you wonder who was really responsible for the outcome of this terrible situation.
You have the creator of the video game. But, blaming them is the wrong choice. Video games offer a great diversion to people who need an occasional escape. They're an artistic form created by exceptionally talented people. In some ways, no different than some of the more risque painters of the Renaissance era whose works were contrary to the social mores of the day.
You have the kids. They had very limited decision making skills. Their concepts of the durability of the human body is likely marred by their experiences with video games, movies, television, and their chance exposure to a well-informed health class in the educational system. Kids these days are surrounded by images of indestructibles. Figures who take damage after damage and prevail, characters who die and are immediately reborn, digitized moments of imagined lives with unlimited immortality.
Then, there are the guardians. Who was responsible to see that these adolescents, more so, that the seven-year old girl was being protected. Those guardians, who put that Pandora's Box of technology into the hands of the brains that were still forming, minds whose basic framework for decision-making was still being connected.
At one point in life, you start to see the wisdom behind some of the choices that the establishment makes to protect the population as a whole.
Our freedoms we experience are fleeting, while technology is expanding. If the balance soon does not reveal itself, if we don't take the responsibility for our freedoms, technology will eventually outstrip those freedoms. We shackle ourselves to machines daily, whether it is a television, a computer, a video game system, an mp3 player, or a cell phone, our interconnected, over-stimulated world hasn't got the ability any longer to make the basic choices to exist.
That seems to be a huge problem looming on the horizon for the human race.
Read the story about the Teens here..
Friday, December 21, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Flotsam and jetsam
I've closed yet another chapter in this myriad of experience called life. Yet another move to a new location. It's a much smaller place that required me to look at all of the flotsam that I've accumulated in the last 5 years. It's something that all of us should do at one time or another. I mean, every day you acquire some new possession, whether it's something as simple as a piece of mail, a card, a CD, a stick of deodorant, or an iPod. The constant barrage of capitalism is sometimes overwhelming and you have to consider whether you really need 'more stuff'.
Things I had to get rid of included a dining room table, a telescope, a pile of my kids toys that he's either too big to play with or simply doesn't need anymore, clothes, books, belts, and some old chairs. There's probably a lot of things that I've left out, but I imagine that the things I've neglected to include were likely just meaningless junk that I really had no use for.
"There's going to be a lot of things in this world that you're going to have no use for. But when you get blue, and you've lost all your dreams, there's nothing like a campfire and a can of beans." --Tom Waits "The Black Rider"
It seems we are truly unique among the creatures of this planet. We acquire more pointless baggage than any other organism on the planet. We're the only thing on this rock that actually 'hoards' other animals. It's puzzling when you consider it. It begs the question of 'Why?".
I'm constantly drawn back to a statment from the film "Fight Club" and I know it's from other places as well.
"The things you own, eventually own you."
It's so true, because you acquire so much that you have a hard time letting it go. Soon, it becomes you, your width, your breadth, the encapsulation of your human experience. One day, when you're gone, all that is left is a pile of possessions that those you once loved and love you have to find new homes, new uses, or to ascribe new meanings to.
I know this fear intimately, for I am the child of individuals who are reaching their final days. They have acquired significant material wealth and I, along with my brother, will be responsible for discovering a means for their material that they leave behind when they depart this consciousness.
Do the things that they own, own them? Yes, in a manner of speaking, for they are tied so closely to the items that they have acquired that they can not move easily throughout their home. Is there value, yes, there are many things of value in the great stores of history they have acquired. But, to whom does it provide worth? No one at the moment.
I've encouraged them to dispose of as much of the flotsam that they have acquired so they can enjoy themselves in these latter years, but they are happy owning and being owned by their acquisitions. Yet, I have great trepidation for the future for what is to come when my parents are no longer around to own these things they have acquired. I fear that so much of it will mean too much to me and my brother. Will we have the strength and piece of mind to part with so many items that our parents devoted themselves to acquiring? Will the allure of assuming ownership of all of their material overcome our individual lack of material? It remains to be seen. I hope that it is many years to the resolution of the questions I have about what will become of that, yet it is likely nearer than I wish.
Meanwhile, here I am in a smaller apartment, basically 2 rooms, a closet, and a bathroom, with a meager kitchen. But, it is enough for a single man with few attachments.
Things I had to get rid of included a dining room table, a telescope, a pile of my kids toys that he's either too big to play with or simply doesn't need anymore, clothes, books, belts, and some old chairs. There's probably a lot of things that I've left out, but I imagine that the things I've neglected to include were likely just meaningless junk that I really had no use for.
"There's going to be a lot of things in this world that you're going to have no use for. But when you get blue, and you've lost all your dreams, there's nothing like a campfire and a can of beans." --Tom Waits "The Black Rider"
It seems we are truly unique among the creatures of this planet. We acquire more pointless baggage than any other organism on the planet. We're the only thing on this rock that actually 'hoards' other animals. It's puzzling when you consider it. It begs the question of 'Why?".
I'm constantly drawn back to a statment from the film "Fight Club" and I know it's from other places as well.
"The things you own, eventually own you."
It's so true, because you acquire so much that you have a hard time letting it go. Soon, it becomes you, your width, your breadth, the encapsulation of your human experience. One day, when you're gone, all that is left is a pile of possessions that those you once loved and love you have to find new homes, new uses, or to ascribe new meanings to.
I know this fear intimately, for I am the child of individuals who are reaching their final days. They have acquired significant material wealth and I, along with my brother, will be responsible for discovering a means for their material that they leave behind when they depart this consciousness.
Do the things that they own, own them? Yes, in a manner of speaking, for they are tied so closely to the items that they have acquired that they can not move easily throughout their home. Is there value, yes, there are many things of value in the great stores of history they have acquired. But, to whom does it provide worth? No one at the moment.
I've encouraged them to dispose of as much of the flotsam that they have acquired so they can enjoy themselves in these latter years, but they are happy owning and being owned by their acquisitions. Yet, I have great trepidation for the future for what is to come when my parents are no longer around to own these things they have acquired. I fear that so much of it will mean too much to me and my brother. Will we have the strength and piece of mind to part with so many items that our parents devoted themselves to acquiring? Will the allure of assuming ownership of all of their material overcome our individual lack of material? It remains to be seen. I hope that it is many years to the resolution of the questions I have about what will become of that, yet it is likely nearer than I wish.
Meanwhile, here I am in a smaller apartment, basically 2 rooms, a closet, and a bathroom, with a meager kitchen. But, it is enough for a single man with few attachments.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Living with chaos theory.
I'm just making it up as I go along. Isn't that what most of are doing on this tiny blue planet today? We make those connections which later might be hurtful, helpful, or they simply fade away. It's all about cultivation for longevity with friendships, or any other of the connections we make. Whether those connections are business or personal.
The choices we sometimes make, as we are making things up are the mortar and pestle which grind us up into new creatures. The trials by fire, recombinations, and general discombobulations that don't make sense. The random thoughts like this one about the trout and upstream swimming.
What's the point of all of it? If we're just making this stuff up. Are we handed a script, or do we write our own lines. Even the few of us who do plan out their lives, are usually dismayed when they discover that their plans have been revised.
Maybe life is the embodiment of chaos theory. Those few quiet moments we find to ourselves, the tiny windows of order.
The choices we sometimes make, as we are making things up are the mortar and pestle which grind us up into new creatures. The trials by fire, recombinations, and general discombobulations that don't make sense. The random thoughts like this one about the trout and upstream swimming.
What's the point of all of it? If we're just making this stuff up. Are we handed a script, or do we write our own lines. Even the few of us who do plan out their lives, are usually dismayed when they discover that their plans have been revised.
Maybe life is the embodiment of chaos theory. Those few quiet moments we find to ourselves, the tiny windows of order.
Friday, June 15, 2007
"Do Unto Others."
The golden rule. We should all try to live by it. But, what does it really mean?
"Do unto others, as you'd have them do unto you."
Does the inverse of that rule apply? If someone is crude or rude, do you have the right to be crude to them in exchange? I feel that it does. The scientists and mathematicians have long postulated that all forces have their inverse. If a rock is still and another rock strikes it, then it will move in response. There are billions of correllations in nature which prove the concept of reciprocation. Yet, in our ordinary daily lives, do our actions have their reciprocations in positive and negative consequence. I feel that they do.
What do you think?
Is it escalation to be crude to someone in return who has proven themselves to be crude to you? Or does another of the Christian precepts come into play, that of turning the other cheek? Isn't it a contradiction which sets the devout follower of these rules to be beaten down by life on a constant basis. Shouldn't there be a response for crudity, and rude behavior which is enacted by man upon man?
"Do unto others, as you'd have them do unto you."
Does the inverse of that rule apply? If someone is crude or rude, do you have the right to be crude to them in exchange? I feel that it does. The scientists and mathematicians have long postulated that all forces have their inverse. If a rock is still and another rock strikes it, then it will move in response. There are billions of correllations in nature which prove the concept of reciprocation. Yet, in our ordinary daily lives, do our actions have their reciprocations in positive and negative consequence. I feel that they do.
What do you think?
Is it escalation to be crude to someone in return who has proven themselves to be crude to you? Or does another of the Christian precepts come into play, that of turning the other cheek? Isn't it a contradiction which sets the devout follower of these rules to be beaten down by life on a constant basis. Shouldn't there be a response for crudity, and rude behavior which is enacted by man upon man?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The Peter Principal
Does anyone else think that we are reaching our level of incompetence as stated in the "Peter Principal" as a society? Our media organizations leap to sensational and unproven facts for their reports, creating hysteria in the population by passing along unfounded and shady details without full revelations. The governments of the world are being led by figures no more qualified to flip a hamburger, and still in possession of teenage 'I'm infallible' pride. The commoner on the streets doesn't seem to even really put a stake in the world around them, much like a teenager. Are we as a society at the stage where we should be, or are we beginning to collapse under the enormous wealth of knowledge that we've gained in the last 100 years?
I'm a watcher of world and national events. I try to figure out where I fit into those things, and where me and those I care about are going to be as a result of things happening in the world. I've got to say, I'm really not feeling good about the state of the world at this point in history. There seems to be some major changes on the horizon for humanity on this little blue planet, and they don't seem to be good changes.
Take the US Government for instance, there's a showdown between the three branches of government occurring right now. It's a remarkable thing to see the government in action, but it sheds more light upon the incompetence of the person which was 'allegedly' elected by the masses. Two branches of government want a designated time of withdrawal from a conflict which one branch of government seems to want to continue indefinitely. Our George W. Bush wants to continue pouring money and the blood of soldiers into a conflict which was exacerbated by his cowboy tactics and still chooses not to relent when presented with logic. Should the citizenry of the U.S. sit idly by while he ursurps the delicate balance between the three branches of U.S. Government created by the founding fathers a short 200 years ago? My money is on, yes they will. People in the country are so complacent and unwilling to speak out for fear of reprisals. The patriotism of the ordinary American is impotent, there's undercurrents of disgust, but no real call to action which could accomplish the goals of good governance and regaining the reputation which America had in the world nearly 8 years ago now. This President has done more governing by fear than any other President within my 34 year lifetime, and that is in my mind incompetent. This President has overstepped his station in so many ways throughout his time in office, while it might not seem to be incompetent, it's certainly not following the guidelines of his office. Think about all of the 700+ signing statements which he has attached to bills which he has signed, more than any other president in American history.
Ok, I've ranted enough about the government.
I'm a watcher of world and national events. I try to figure out where I fit into those things, and where me and those I care about are going to be as a result of things happening in the world. I've got to say, I'm really not feeling good about the state of the world at this point in history. There seems to be some major changes on the horizon for humanity on this little blue planet, and they don't seem to be good changes.
Take the US Government for instance, there's a showdown between the three branches of government occurring right now. It's a remarkable thing to see the government in action, but it sheds more light upon the incompetence of the person which was 'allegedly' elected by the masses. Two branches of government want a designated time of withdrawal from a conflict which one branch of government seems to want to continue indefinitely. Our George W. Bush wants to continue pouring money and the blood of soldiers into a conflict which was exacerbated by his cowboy tactics and still chooses not to relent when presented with logic. Should the citizenry of the U.S. sit idly by while he ursurps the delicate balance between the three branches of U.S. Government created by the founding fathers a short 200 years ago? My money is on, yes they will. People in the country are so complacent and unwilling to speak out for fear of reprisals. The patriotism of the ordinary American is impotent, there's undercurrents of disgust, but no real call to action which could accomplish the goals of good governance and regaining the reputation which America had in the world nearly 8 years ago now. This President has done more governing by fear than any other President within my 34 year lifetime, and that is in my mind incompetent. This President has overstepped his station in so many ways throughout his time in office, while it might not seem to be incompetent, it's certainly not following the guidelines of his office. Think about all of the 700+ signing statements which he has attached to bills which he has signed, more than any other president in American history.
Ok, I've ranted enough about the government.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Worry about yourself?
Why is everyone so worried about being 'cool' or accepted by the masses? Who really gives a crap? In the end, it's just you. You've got to wake up everyday, regardless if you wake up with anyone else, there's no one else there in your head. Well, unless you happen to be one of the few with a couple of extras up there between your ears. I guess what I'm really getting at is, why's it so important to each of us to be loved and accepted by either those we know or those we don't know? When it's really only us that we should really be worrying about. It's just you that can stomach you every day, so take care of yourselves and look out for each of you out there.
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