4 ms·

romantic glasses on. in today’s honorless world, these historical acts are incredible. reminds me of the terrible fights against Burma, as well as the more rece

by kmlx 7y ago

romantic glasses on. in today’s honorless world, these historical acts are incredible. reminds me of the terrible fights against Burma, as well as the more recent shackleton expedition during ww1, and defence of hong kong during ww2. romantic glasses off. these kind of acts can only happen when life is cheap. ask 10,000 people today to go to mars knowing that at least a few, at most all, will die. i guarantee almost no one will sign up. because we value life now like in no other period in human history. for better or worse.

arethuza 7y ago
As far as I can tell dangerous sports seem more popular than ever so I'm not sure that is true (I've known a few people who had died in motorbike accidents and in the mountains so I may be biased). Also, I'd go to Mars!
- rsynnott 7y ago
  Yeah, I think we're probably if anything more enthusiastic about elective risking of life than ever before. Risking one's life is a leisure activity! (Both in extreme sports, and in activities that we now know to be dangerous in a way that we didn't really understand before; drinking, smoking, excessive eating, etc) However, risking _other peoples'_ lives (or at least conscious risking of other peoples' lives; the afore-mentioned extreme sports do sometimes incidentally risk other peoples' lives but the perpetrator isn't normally conscious of this) is certainly frowned upon more now than at any previous time in history, especially to no particularly good purpose (as in the link).
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
>i guarantee almost no one will sign up. because we value life now like in no other period in human history Plenty of people will sign up. That won't stop whoever floated the idea from being fired and dragged through the mud. The majority doesn't really care about this sort of thing. A subset of society thinks life is still cheap, or at least no so ungodly expensive that it must be protected at all costs. However, the people who think life is infinity expensive are loud, vocal and their viewpoint is a simple absolute that is easy to defend so the rest of society caters to them. Edit: And before anyone implies otherwise, I am specifically not passing a value judgement on either side.
aruggirello 7y ago
TIL: Queen Victoria truly was a Lady (not unlike the obviously idealized character of the BBC movie - IIRC it's called hagiography), and what could've otherwise been a massacre actually turned into a remarkable war expedition against the Emperor of Ethiopia Tewodros, who apparently was a dick. As a side note, the last of his successors (though fortunately not his descendant) claiming to be nothing less than King Solomon's heirs, was the man Bob Marley sang about, Ras Tafari! Incredible.
- tamizhar 7y ago
  > TIL: Queen Victoria truly was a Lady Victors get to write history and portray themselves as they desired. Everybody else gets to be the bad guy.
  - DannPuglo 7y ago
    Yes, that gentlemen certainly fits the "bad guy" moniker.
andy_bandy 7y ago
536 people have gone to space and 18 have died during space flight and others during training.

by kmlx 7y ago

arethuza 7y ago

As far as I can tell dangerous sports seem more popular than ever so I'm not sure that is true (I've known a few people who had died in motorbike accidents and in the mountains so I may be biased). Also, I'd go to Mars!

rsynnott 7y ago
Yeah, I think we're probably if anything more enthusiastic about elective risking of life than ever before. Risking one's life is a leisure activity! (Both in extreme sports, and in activities that we now know to be dangerous in a way that we didn't really understand before; drinking, smoking, excessive eating, etc) However, risking _other peoples'_ lives (or at least conscious risking of other peoples' lives; the afore-mentioned extreme sports do sometimes incidentally risk other peoples' lives but the perpetrator isn't normally conscious of this) is certainly frowned upon more now than at any previous time in history, especially to no particularly good purpose (as in the link).

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

>i guarantee almost no one will sign up. because we value life now like in no other period in human history Plenty of people will sign up. That won't stop whoever floated the idea from being fired and dragged through the mud. The majority doesn't really care about this sort of thing. A subset of society thinks life is still cheap, or at least no so ungodly expensive that it must be protected at all costs. However, the people who think life is infinity expensive are loud, vocal and their viewpoint is a simple absolute that is easy to defend so the rest of society caters to them. Edit: And before anyone implies otherwise, I am specifically not passing a value judgement on either side.

aruggirello 7y ago

TIL: Queen Victoria truly was a Lady (not unlike the obviously idealized character of the BBC movie - IIRC it's called hagiography), and what could've otherwise been a massacre actually turned into a remarkable war expedition against the Emperor of Ethiopia Tewodros, who apparently was a dick. As a side note, the last of his successors (though fortunately not his descendant) claiming to be nothing less than King Solomon's heirs, was the man Bob Marley sang about, Ras Tafari! Incredible.

tamizhar 7y ago
> TIL: Queen Victoria truly was a Lady Victors get to write history and portray themselves as they desired. Everybody else gets to be the bad guy.
- DannPuglo 7y ago
  Yes, that gentlemen certainly fits the "bad guy" moniker.

andy_bandy 7y ago

536 people have gone to space and 18 have died during space flight and others during training.