It's a Whiffle World

[cjsmith]

American culture as a cargo cult. I'm saddened by how true it seems.

(I don't, however, believe that every person living in America believes all of these things, nor do I "blame the media".)

Hat tip to dafydd for the link.

Comments

Re: Humbug, I say

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was responding strictly to the bolded statements, not the unbolded quasi-explanatory sentences. Complex explanations ought to be examined judiciously; elegance is a desirable aspect of novel scientific hypotheses, and simplicity is a hallmark of elegance.

most people would agree that getting more than they're willing to put in effort towards is good for them, but I think you'll agree that this will not work for society at large

I wonder why you'd make the assumption that I'd agree to any such thing. I also wonder how you define 'getting more than (someone) is willing to put effort towards'.

In re: III.4 and III.5, I have miscommunicated -- I meant the most on-target criticisms. We appear to be in agreement that the large-scale abdication of personal responsibility is an enormous contributor to the sorry state of public discourse.

In re: IV, the idea that death is natural is the single greatest obstacle facing anti-aging research today -- there's a surprising resistance to the idea that aging is a disease that can be treated and eradicated, just the same as with any other disease.

So, bad things should *never* happen, because *everyone's* special?

I'd hardly have thought 'pain is bad' to be a controversial sentiment.

This also makes it hard for anyone to ever get punished

In a hypothetical situation where no bad things are being willed, there's nobody to punish, no?

Re: Humbug, I say

[hanov3r.livejournal.com]

I also wonder how you define 'getting more than (someone) is willing to put effort towards'.

How about "it would be good for me to be able to not work, to lie in my hammock all day, every day, while (society|the government|everyone else) pays for my food, home, transportation, and entertainment"?

We appear to be in agreement that the large-scale abdication of personal responsibility is an enormous contributor to the sorry state of public discourse.

Ah. Yes, with that edit, I agree with you.

the idea that death is natural is the single greatest obstacle facing anti-aging research today -- there's a surprising resistance to the idea that aging is a disease that can be treated and eradicated, just the same as with any other disease.

Diseases are natural.

I'm sure that the symptoms of aging can be treated. Eventually, genetic treatments will slow the aging process, allowing people to live significantly (perhaps orders of magnitude) longer lives. But, entropy *always* wins. It *has* to. Parts break down and cannot be repaired.

I'd hardly have thought 'pain is bad' to be a controversial sentiment.

I'd like to introduce you to my ex-giflfriend, for whom pain of any form was nothing more than an immense turn-on.

Actually, though, that was meant as a response to You're special - Bad things shouldn't happen to you. It's a random universe - bad things happen to people of all types, good and bad.

In a hypothetical situation where no bad things are being willed, there's nobody to punish, no?

That's a direct contradiction of III.4, which appears to postulate that bad things *do* happen, they're just never your fault.