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Oct. 8th, 2013
Still in the 1960s
Oct. 8th, 2013 03:57 pmOriginally posted by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grail76 at Still in the 1960s
Angel says: We've been arguing about these things ALL my life. Longer than I've been alive and I have two children of legal majority. I want us to grow up.
grail76 at Still in the 1960sFrom J. Michael Straczynski:
If I might be permitted an observation.
You, reading this on your monitor, or your smart phone or your tablet, you who have the latest IOS or Windows or Linux, you who track the latest apps and sites and watch with rapt attention as the Higgs Particle surrenders its secrets...you, who believes you are living in the twenty-first century.
You are wrong. We are not living in the twenty-first century.
We are living in the 1960s. We’ve been living there for the last fifty years. I don’t care what the calendar tells you, you’re wrong.
How do I know this?
Because right now, at this very second, we’re having the very same arguments, over the very same things, that we argued about in the 1960s, and the 70s, and the 80s, and the 90s, and the Oughts. And nothing’s been done, nothing’s been decided.
It’s just the same old arguments, over and over, for FIFTY YEARS.
We’re still arguing about equal pay for women.
Still arguing about environmental issues versus corporate laissez faire.
About whether or not some sexual practices should be allowed.
About excessive government secrecy and spying.
About voting rights and citizenship for minorities.
About bomb blasts and body counts.
About casual cruelty masquerading as policy.
Arguing about the rights of gays.
About a trigger-happy military.
About who is the latest suspected socialist.
About the media as source of all social ills.
About the war on drugs.
About health care.
About social security.
About birth control.
About evolution.
About nuclear power.
About abortion.
About guns.
And I’m tired of it.
I’m not saying these discussions aren’t important. Obviously they are.
But can we get on with it? Can we actually decide some of the things on the list given above and move on to NEW questions?
Can we move out of the 1960s?
Can we have some new arguments?
I would love to see new arguments.
I would love to see Congress wrestling with whether or not to declare our Mars colony the 51st state.
Would love to see filibusters and debates over whether someone who has received 51% of his body mass from artificial sources still constitutes a human being.
Arguments over whether the new mega-high-speed rail that puts the ones in Japan and China to shame should go from LA to New York or Miami.
About voting rights for synthetic people.
About the FDA’s analysis of mindbridge implants that let two people stay mentally joined forever.
About new safety standards for air-cars.
About deployment of the 45th Robotic Division past their warranties.
Those would be wonderful arguments to have. New, fresh, inspiring arguments.
We’ve been arguing about the same things, over and over, for fifty years. The same drumbeat, the same talking points, the same positions and policies and nothing ever gets done because it’s in no one’s INTERESTS to get anything DONE, because for as long as those same arguments continue, those with a visceral stake in the outcome of those arguments will continue to come out to the polls to vote in those whose viscera says the same thing about the same issues.
And so we roll on, decade after slow decade, with neither side resolving anything even when they run the table, with influence over all three branches of government.
Fifty years. Arguing over the same things for fifty years is like eating the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for five decades. Soon the taste buds diminish and fail and you don’t even realize what you’re eating anymore.
If you’d said to me as a kid in the 1960s that we’d still be arguing over these things in 2013 I’d have laughed in your face. Impossible. We’ll resolve at least some of these things by then. Has to happen. Got to. The alternative is ludicrous.
Do you...you the person who has read this far without going off to tweet or instagram or download, you the person who actually believes you are living in the twenty-first century...want to be having these same arguments fifty years from now? Do you want to still be living in the 1960s in 2063?
Do you want a hundred years of arguing without resolution?
Do you think we can do better?
We have to do better. This can’t be it. This can’t be the end of the American experiment, sucked down into a century of social quicksand.
We have to be better than that.
We have to be.
New arguments.
New arguments.
God of microscope and test tube, god of provender and starlight, stern god who maketh quantum quandaries as much as the architecture of butterfly wings, let us have some new arguments.
I realize it is much to ask.
But it is long past time to ask.
If I might be permitted an observation.
You, reading this on your monitor, or your smart phone or your tablet, you who have the latest IOS or Windows or Linux, you who track the latest apps and sites and watch with rapt attention as the Higgs Particle surrenders its secrets...you, who believes you are living in the twenty-first century.
You are wrong. We are not living in the twenty-first century.
We are living in the 1960s. We’ve been living there for the last fifty years. I don’t care what the calendar tells you, you’re wrong.
How do I know this?
Because right now, at this very second, we’re having the very same arguments, over the very same things, that we argued about in the 1960s, and the 70s, and the 80s, and the 90s, and the Oughts. And nothing’s been done, nothing’s been decided.
It’s just the same old arguments, over and over, for FIFTY YEARS.
We’re still arguing about equal pay for women.
Still arguing about environmental issues versus corporate laissez faire.
About whether or not some sexual practices should be allowed.
About excessive government secrecy and spying.
About voting rights and citizenship for minorities.
About bomb blasts and body counts.
About casual cruelty masquerading as policy.
Arguing about the rights of gays.
About a trigger-happy military.
About who is the latest suspected socialist.
About the media as source of all social ills.
About the war on drugs.
About health care.
About social security.
About birth control.
About evolution.
About nuclear power.
About abortion.
About guns.
And I’m tired of it.
I’m not saying these discussions aren’t important. Obviously they are.
But can we get on with it? Can we actually decide some of the things on the list given above and move on to NEW questions?
Can we move out of the 1960s?
Can we have some new arguments?
I would love to see new arguments.
I would love to see Congress wrestling with whether or not to declare our Mars colony the 51st state.
Would love to see filibusters and debates over whether someone who has received 51% of his body mass from artificial sources still constitutes a human being.
Arguments over whether the new mega-high-speed rail that puts the ones in Japan and China to shame should go from LA to New York or Miami.
About voting rights for synthetic people.
About the FDA’s analysis of mindbridge implants that let two people stay mentally joined forever.
About new safety standards for air-cars.
About deployment of the 45th Robotic Division past their warranties.
Those would be wonderful arguments to have. New, fresh, inspiring arguments.
We’ve been arguing about the same things, over and over, for fifty years. The same drumbeat, the same talking points, the same positions and policies and nothing ever gets done because it’s in no one’s INTERESTS to get anything DONE, because for as long as those same arguments continue, those with a visceral stake in the outcome of those arguments will continue to come out to the polls to vote in those whose viscera says the same thing about the same issues.
And so we roll on, decade after slow decade, with neither side resolving anything even when they run the table, with influence over all three branches of government.
Fifty years. Arguing over the same things for fifty years is like eating the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for five decades. Soon the taste buds diminish and fail and you don’t even realize what you’re eating anymore.
If you’d said to me as a kid in the 1960s that we’d still be arguing over these things in 2013 I’d have laughed in your face. Impossible. We’ll resolve at least some of these things by then. Has to happen. Got to. The alternative is ludicrous.
Do you...you the person who has read this far without going off to tweet or instagram or download, you the person who actually believes you are living in the twenty-first century...want to be having these same arguments fifty years from now? Do you want to still be living in the 1960s in 2063?
Do you want a hundred years of arguing without resolution?
Do you think we can do better?
We have to do better. This can’t be it. This can’t be the end of the American experiment, sucked down into a century of social quicksand.
We have to be better than that.
We have to be.
New arguments.
New arguments.
God of microscope and test tube, god of provender and starlight, stern god who maketh quantum quandaries as much as the architecture of butterfly wings, let us have some new arguments.
I realize it is much to ask.
But it is long past time to ask.
Angel says: We've been arguing about these things ALL my life. Longer than I've been alive and I have two children of legal majority. I want us to grow up.
Tuesday Treats
Oct. 8th, 2013 04:05 pmSounds of the Season.
One of my favorite fanvids. The Army of Darkness version of "Dead Man's Party."
Creepy Pictures, hosted by my undead oldest daughter
( Read more... )
Your Tuesday Tipple
The Alien Brian Hemorrhage
To make an alien brain hemorrhage cocktail, fill a shot glass halfway with peach schnapps. Gently pour Bailey’s Irish Cream on top. After the shot is almost full, carefully add a small amount of blue curacao. After it settles, add a small splash (or a few drops) of grenadine syrup.
One of my favorite fanvids. The Army of Darkness version of "Dead Man's Party."
Creepy Pictures, hosted by my undead oldest daughter
( Read more... )
Your Tuesday Tipple
The Alien Brian Hemorrhage
To make an alien brain hemorrhage cocktail, fill a shot glass halfway with peach schnapps. Gently pour Bailey’s Irish Cream on top. After the shot is almost full, carefully add a small amount of blue curacao. After it settles, add a small splash (or a few drops) of grenadine syrup.
Sexy sexy boys
Oct. 8th, 2013 06:41 pmSo, this is me being all self-promotey and stuff.
I have two books coming out next weekend and there is still time to pre-order them.
http://www.stormmoonpress.com/books/Forgotten-Menagerie.aspx
Blurb: A shifter leads two lives: one as a human, and one as an animal. Sometimes these lives are intertwined, and sometimes they are not, but always the shifter has to find a way to reconcile one with the other. Forgotten Menagerie reminds us that not all shifters are werewolves or werecats, despite the preponderance of them in fiction. The stories in this anthology focus on shifters with animal forms other than canine and feline, building their own mythos for these non-traditional species.
Ebook preorder is $4.79
paperback preorder is 7.99
My story: Dobson Healy works his farm and earns a living doing construction. He works constantly, his life an endless stream of chores. Being unobtrusively gay in a small Missouri town is bad enough, but the neighbors don't know his real secret. And when his boss' nephew finds out, there may be trouble on all fronts of his quiet life.
Blurb: Inventors, pilots, tinkers, and soldiers; magical metals to replace an aging heart or a ruined limb; steam-powered fantasy worlds of clockwork nightingales, automatons, dirigibles, and men. The stories in this anthology visit diverse times in the history of modern man, and the men who populate these tales face war and cruelty, masters and autocrats, illness and poverty and greed. Yet the heat of romance outmatches even the steam engines, and time and again, the gears of love rule the day.
Ebook: $6.99
Paperback: $17.99
My story: Jonathan works two jobs trying to make ends meet for himself and his best friend, Declan. Dee invents things and sometimes profits, but usually handles their day to day life. This time, Dee's invention skills may be the key to a fortune, as they prepare for the qualifier for a transcontinental human-powered vehicle race.
I have two books coming out next weekend and there is still time to pre-order them.
http://www.stormmoonpress.com/books/Forgotten-Menagerie.aspx
Blurb: A shifter leads two lives: one as a human, and one as an animal. Sometimes these lives are intertwined, and sometimes they are not, but always the shifter has to find a way to reconcile one with the other. Forgotten Menagerie reminds us that not all shifters are werewolves or werecats, despite the preponderance of them in fiction. The stories in this anthology focus on shifters with animal forms other than canine and feline, building their own mythos for these non-traditional species.
Ebook preorder is $4.79
paperback preorder is 7.99
My story: Dobson Healy works his farm and earns a living doing construction. He works constantly, his life an endless stream of chores. Being unobtrusively gay in a small Missouri town is bad enough, but the neighbors don't know his real secret. And when his boss' nephew finds out, there may be trouble on all fronts of his quiet life.
Blurb: Inventors, pilots, tinkers, and soldiers; magical metals to replace an aging heart or a ruined limb; steam-powered fantasy worlds of clockwork nightingales, automatons, dirigibles, and men. The stories in this anthology visit diverse times in the history of modern man, and the men who populate these tales face war and cruelty, masters and autocrats, illness and poverty and greed. Yet the heat of romance outmatches even the steam engines, and time and again, the gears of love rule the day.
Ebook: $6.99
Paperback: $17.99
My story: Jonathan works two jobs trying to make ends meet for himself and his best friend, Declan. Dee invents things and sometimes profits, but usually handles their day to day life. This time, Dee's invention skills may be the key to a fortune, as they prepare for the qualifier for a transcontinental human-powered vehicle race.
State of the Sookie
Oct. 8th, 2013 09:06 pmUp at 12:45 AM, worked from 2 AM until 10 AM. Came home and had a nap. Shower, laundry and Mudd took me for dinner.
No writing. Accomplished a lot of promotional work.
Edited 35 pages out of 450.
Did a load of laundry and made my bed.
Finished one book. Started reading The Three Musketeers, unabridged for the first time ever.
No crafting
Walked all over the airport for work, does that count as exercise?
No writing. Accomplished a lot of promotional work.
Edited 35 pages out of 450.
Did a load of laundry and made my bed.
Finished one book. Started reading The Three Musketeers, unabridged for the first time ever.
No crafting
Walked all over the airport for work, does that count as exercise?