|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#41
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
|
#42
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Saturday, 25 February 2017 15:35:31 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote:
Regrettably so. The inclination to patriotism is one of the things that may lead to our demise. Patriotism is one of the most absurd notions ever to be invented by man. Where one is born is a condition over which no person in history has ever had the slightest control. How can the unborn child choose anything [at all]? Do they choose their sex, their religion, their class, eye or hair colour? If the mother wanders across a nation's border for an hour and gives birth is the child then expected to be a patriot of that borrowed land? Should they support the local tin-pot dictator and the national football team? The border to many lands is completely invisible on the ground. Should the second generation immigrant feel patriotism for his host's land or his mother or father's original place of upbringing? Who does every Irish-American still speak with an Irish accent over a century after their great grandparents left "home?" To which country do _they_ feel the greatest patriotism? To which country should the refugee feel patriotism? They move into a ghetto and dress their family only in their traditional costume. They speak only their traditional language, watch TV from home on a satellite dish and worship in a "traditional" way. Are they "unpatriotic" to their host's land and traditions? Should they become soldiers and fight against their "homeland?" Or become mercenaries for a terrorist organization? Fighting in their "homeland" against the soldiers of their family's "host" nation? Is that patriotic or unpatriotic? And to whom or to what? ;-) |
#43
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Sat, 25 Feb 2017 09:50:38 -0800 (PST), "Chris.B"
wrote: On Saturday, 25 February 2017 15:35:31 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote: Regrettably so. The inclination to patriotism is one of the things that may lead to our demise. Patriotism is one of the most absurd notions ever to be invented by man. I think it is less invented than it is innate. We evolved tribalism, and patriotism is just tribalism taken to an extreme. Like other evolved innate traits (racism, xenophobia, various cognitive biases) we are capable of largely overcoming them intellectually. Far too few people make that effort or have the necessary education, however. A weak sort of patriotism, where we support (and criticize) our own country because it's in our own best interest to do so makes sense. The sort of rabid patriotism, even nationalism, that spawns crap like the Pledge of Allegiance, or the attitude that one's own country is the best in the world, or that we have any obligation to take up arms, is very dangerous these days. We aren't little tribes competing for who gets the waterhole anymore. |
#44
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Saturday, 25 February 2017 19:29:56 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote:
We aren't little tribes competing for who gets the waterhole anymore. I can never decide whether sports team allegiance is a good or bad thing. Does it release potential aggression towards the "enemy" tribe? Or reinforce it? As it does in soccer around the globe. There are very distinct similarities here to self-harming, Republican voters. The followers are of average low intelligence and are easily fleeced. Paying a week's wages to watch millionaires play a children's game, while wearing rip-off merchandise, is certainly highly profitable for the team owners. Ironically some of the soccer team owners are foreign billionaires. A nice little extra income when the banks aren't paying any interest on their ill-gotten gains. |
#45
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 11:38:28 PM UTC-7, Chris.B wrote:
On Saturday, 25 February 2017 19:29:56 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote: We aren't little tribes competing for who gets the waterhole anymore. I can never decide whether sports team allegiance is a good or bad thing. Does it release potential aggression towards the "enemy" tribe? Or reinforce it? As it does in soccer around the globe. There are very distinct similarities here to self-harming, Republican voters. The followers are of average low intelligence and are easily fleeced. Paying a week's wages to watch millionaires play a children's game, while wearing rip-off merchandise, is certainly highly profitable for the team owners. Ironically some of the soccer team owners are foreign billionaires. A nice little extra income when the banks aren't paying any interest on their ill-gotten gains. You two rabid fellows are the ones who are menaces to society. |
#46
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Sunday, 26 February 2017 14:38:52 UTC+1, wrote:
You two rabid fellows are the ones who are menaces to society. Troll alert. |
#47
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 11:38:28 PM UTC-7, Chris.B wrote:
I can never decide whether sports team allegiance is a good or bad thing. I would not wish to take away from the common man one of the few amusements he is capable of enjoying. John Savard |
#48
|
|||
|
|||
Planet near Proxima Centauri (Travel time)
On Sunday, 26 February 2017 18:46:23 UTC+1, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 11:38:28 PM UTC-7, Chris.B wrote: I can never decide whether sports team allegiance is a good or bad thing. I would not wish to take away from the common man one of the few amusements he is capable of enjoying. John Savard Damned by faint praise? ;-) |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Proxima b is a science fiction planet | Double-A[_4_] | Misc | 0 | September 10th 16 07:24 PM |
Planet of Proxima Centauri? | Mike Collins[_4_] | Amateur Astronomy | 99 | September 2nd 16 04:05 PM |
Alpha Centauri has a planet | granite stone | Astronomy Misc | 32 | December 3rd 09 03:50 AM |
proxima centauri flares dangerous | Bernhard Kuemel | Misc | 4 | August 23rd 09 09:58 PM |
If one of our neighboring stars like Proxima Centauri went nova... | Jason Macadamia | Amateur Astronomy | 21 | January 31st 05 12:53 AM |