5 ms·

Do we have fewer principles now than in the past?

by Evbn 14y ago

harryh 14y ago
Of course we do! The past was a perfect glorios place! Men were big strong men who supported a family all on their own. Women were perfect housewives that raised 2 beautiful children. Everyone had a big house a nice green lawn and 2 of those oversized 50s cars. It's been downhill ever since!
- msandford 14y ago
  Well, uh, the country was founded on the principle that a government should be accountable to the people. A lot of men died toward that end. So I'd say that yes, at some point, we did have principles. And it was in the past, oddly enough.
  - harryh 14y ago
    Which dying men are we talking about? The ones that owned slaves or just the ones that made sure the black guys could only leave through the door to the alley? Look, I'm not saying that there's not a lock of fucked up in the world. There surely is, and some of the bank stuff is probably a part of it. But if you step back a bit and consider the big picture things really do appear to be moving in the right direction overall.
    - msandford 14y ago
      I would disagree with the idea that things are moving in the right direction overall, but I get that you think so. I don't even think you're totally wrong or crazy, I just disagree. Agreed slavery was non-ideal but there were a lot of white guys that died during the Revolutionary war.
      - harryh 14y ago
        Look at some of the big picture statistics for worldwide poverty, health, lifespans, violence, freedom, corruption, etc. Nearly all of them are moving in a positive direction, in some cases dramatically so. To me the only really worrying long term trend is environmental impact. We might be consuming our planets resources at an unsustainable rate.
        genwin 14y ago
        Might be? How much more evidence would be needed? The planet can probably sustain less than a billion people long term at a first-world standard of living.
        harryh 14y ago
        'eh, maybe. Though who knows what future technologies will bring? Maybe in a 100 years will have a 20 billion people but most of them will be uploaded to the singularity. Maybe nuclear & solar will save us all. Maybe we learn to mitigate the effects of global warming by some sort of large scale teraforming projects. Predictions are hard, especially about the future. There's a big part of me that thinks that the "we're all doomed because of how we're ruining the environment" comes from the same place as "Americans used to have principles, but now we're just a bunch of self centered assholes" which comes from the same place as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_the_knowledge_of_good_and_evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_the_knowledge_of_good_a.... Everyone has their own way of thinking that things used to be perfect but then we turned to sinners and fucked it all up.

Do we have fewer principles now than in the past?

by Evbn 14y ago

Do we have fewer principles now than in the past?

Of course we do! The past was a perfect glorios place! Men were big strong men who supported a family all on their own. Women were perfect housewives that raised 2 beautiful children. Everyone had a big house a nice green lawn and 2 of those oversized 50s cars. It's been downhill ever since!

msandford 14y ago
Well, uh, the country was founded on the principle that a government should be accountable to the people. A lot of men died toward that end. So I'd say that yes, at some point, we did have principles. And it was in the past, oddly enough.
- harryh 14y ago
  Which dying men are we talking about? The ones that owned slaves or just the ones that made sure the black guys could only leave through the door to the alley? Look, I'm not saying that there's not a lock of fucked up in the world. There surely is, and some of the bank stuff is probably a part of it. But if you step back a bit and consider the big picture things really do appear to be moving in the right direction overall.
  - msandford 14y ago
    I would disagree with the idea that things are moving in the right direction overall, but I get that you think so. I don't even think you're totally wrong or crazy, I just disagree. Agreed slavery was non-ideal but there were a lot of white guys that died during the Revolutionary war.
    - harryh 14y ago
      Look at some of the big picture statistics for worldwide poverty, health, lifespans, violence, freedom, corruption, etc. Nearly all of them are moving in a positive direction, in some cases dramatically so. To me the only really worrying long term trend is environmental impact. We might be consuming our planets resources at an unsustainable rate.
      - genwin 14y ago
        Might be? How much more evidence would be needed? The planet can probably sustain less than a billion people long term at a first-world standard of living.
        harryh 14y ago
        'eh, maybe. Though who knows what future technologies will bring? Maybe in a 100 years will have a 20 billion people but most of them will be uploaded to the singularity. Maybe nuclear & solar will save us all. Maybe we learn to mitigate the effects of global warming by some sort of large scale teraforming projects. Predictions are hard, especially about the future. There's a big part of me that thinks that the "we're all doomed because of how we're ruining the environment" comes from the same place as "Americans used to have principles, but now we're just a bunch of self centered assholes" which comes from the same place as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_the_knowledge_of_good_and_evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_the_knowledge_of_good_a.... Everyone has their own way of thinking that things used to be perfect but then we turned to sinners and fucked it all up.