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Kaden
Heretic
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Posted: Tue Mar 1st, 2011 08:57 pm |
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I'm reminded of a quote by Ben Franklin:
"Those who trade liberty for security deserve neither and will lose both."
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Wed Mar 2nd, 2011 12:58 am |
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Kaden wrote:
I'm reminded of a quote by Ben Franklin:
"Those who trade liberty for security deserve neither and will lose both."
Ben had a lot of wisdom, what's sad is that if you ask a kid today who Ben franklin was they'll probably respond with the "The president on the $100 bill."
Yes I know Ben was never president but his face is on the money and that makes him a 'dead president'.
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Kaden
Heretic
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Posted: Wed Mar 2nd, 2011 04:39 am |
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I think sci-fi, maybe more than any other genre, reflects the current state of society. When you look back through history, themes in sci-fi often directly parallel what's going on in politics, in health scares, etc. I read a strange factoid a while ago that monster movies rise in popularity during war times.
This is just my own theory, but I think that however the world is when you are at your prime is how you believe the world should be forever. The music, the films, the politics, the morality, etc. I often hear people waxing philosophic about the 'good old days,' a time when we were innocent and pure. I think people are remembering a fictional history because I don't know when that time was. Corruption, sex, drugs, and violence are not new concepts. These things have always existed. It's strange, but I've seen footage of political rallies from the sixties and seventies and the things people are saying is almost the same as what they still say today.
Of course, even though that stuff was always there, it is much more visible now. With 24 hour news channels and the internet you hear about every bad thing that happens all over the world. You do get desensitized. And sci-fi reflects that for good or ill.
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Wed Mar 2nd, 2011 05:18 am |
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The difference is that the things that we called science fiction just a few decades ago are now becoming reality. It's one thing to protest a concept and quite another when you realize you are living the concept.
No we aren't eating soylent green, but we are eating genetically altered foods and we consider it normal.
No we don't report to the carousel to be put to death at the age of 30, but we have people trying to create healthcare legislation that would base medical care on age in effect killing the elderly by withholding treatment.
The list goes on and on. The very concepts that science fiction has put out there are becoming the reality that we live with. I can't see desensitization by itself bringing us to the point that we accept and conform to what is happening around us because it is happening to us. Or are we just too busy being entertained by 'fluff' to take the time to look at the deeper stuff, the stuff that makes us think?
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Kaden
Heretic
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Posted: Wed Mar 2nd, 2011 05:27 am |
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| Humanity almost always accepts and conforms to what is happening at the moment, whatever moment that might be, because when it's happening it's normal. It's just life. It's only in hindsight that it's seen for what it is. I think it's because sci-fi is usually so in tune with society that we are living it now. Sci-fi writers see the track we're on and project it forward.
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CheshireKat
Divine Assassin
| Joined: | Tue Oct 24th, 2006 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 2920 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 3rd, 2011 03:37 pm |
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| I always liked the 5 part Dr Who stories better than the 3 part stories. When there was more going on, a deeper story line for me was best. The best scifi IMHO is a situation where it's just a little off from reality, but not so far off that it couldn't happen. (Outer Limits) BTW that's what makes Stephen King sotries so creepy/scary. It's a situation that anyone could find themselves in, but there's something wrong with the picture.
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Thu Mar 3rd, 2011 06:17 pm |
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Kaden wrote:
I think it's because sci-fi is usually so in tune with society that we are living it now. Sci-fi writers see the track we're on and project it forward.
I think that is what I'm getting at. Sci-fi has become a modern day 'Oracle at Delphi'. When we see the deeper stuff, we are looking at our possible future and yet today we are living in the future that was written about decades ago. Some good, some bad.
Yes we do look back in hindsight and we see that we should have known. We ignored what we already knew, I'm not sure that is hindsight, but more blind-sight.
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Bilbo67
Heretic
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Posted: Mon Jul 18th, 2011 02:14 am |
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| Brings to mind H.G. Wells, who supposedly proposed that his epigraph should be, "Goddamn you all, I told you so."
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If you're normal, the crowd will accept you. But if you're deranged, the crowd will make you their leader.
— Christopher Titus
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cat1946
Heretic
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Posted: Mon Oct 7th, 2013 01:06 am |
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If you can dream it. You can be it.
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
If you go back further, the Bible alludes to the same.
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Mon Oct 7th, 2013 11:18 am |
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While the bible does allude to a lot of things, understanding it can be difficult. The language is Archaic to say the least. Not to mention most people have never read the book. They read scriptures or passages here and there and depend on someone else (Clergy) to explain what it all means. That's how you end up with cults like westboro Baptist or millions of People blindly following along behind Some charismatic leader like Jerry Falwell.
What people need to take from the bible is the last thing these leaders will focus on because it encourages two things that would undermine Church dogma. One, there is a very clear warning to be wary of false prophets, those who use God to further their own agenda and two people need to focus on God and not the structured hogwash that they are being force fed from the pulpit every week.
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Ketana
Divine Assassin
| Joined: | Wed Oct 25th, 2006 |
| Location: | Lioness' Lair, USA |
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Posted: Mon Oct 7th, 2013 10:19 pm |
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| well said Abby1964 and when reading the Bible one must remember it was written hundreds of years after Christ and also by men who wanted to be remembered.
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Don't sprinkle sugar on your bullshit and then tell me it's candy!
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Tue Oct 8th, 2013 02:03 am |
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Ketana wrote: well said Abby1964 and when reading the Bible one must remember it was written hundreds of years after Christ and also by men who wanted to be remembered. True and when you add in the Council of Nicea and the referendum to create a religion in line with the political agenda of Emperor Constantine and the appointing of a single man to decide out of over 400 gospels and OT Documents what was to be considered 'acceptable' bible canon, You end up having to face the fact that the whole religion thing is based on manipulation and withholding complete information from the masses. To the point that documents that are historical contemporaries of the Gospels of John and Luke are labeled heretical by the established church even though historically speaking they are just as 'authentic' as the books included in the accepted bible.
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Ketana
Divine Assassin
| Joined: | Wed Oct 25th, 2006 |
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Posted: Wed Oct 9th, 2013 09:17 pm |
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Abby1964 wrote:
Ketana wrote: well said Abby1964 and when reading the Bible one must remember it was written hundreds of years after Christ and also by men who wanted to be remembered. True and when you add in the Council of Nicea and the referendum to create a religion in line with the political agenda of Emperor Constantine and the appointing of a single man to decide out of over 400 gospels and OT Documents what was to be considered 'acceptable' bible canon, You end up having to face the fact that the whole religion thing is based on manipulation and withholding complete information from the masses. To the point that documents that are historical contemporaries of the Gospels of John and Luke are labeled heretical by the established church even though historically speaking they are just as 'authentic' as the books included in the accepted bible.
I stand in awe of you..well said..beautifully put.. it's all about the wealth of a church..how magnifically appointed it is..dripping in gold..I left the church for that reason..it's people are starving, emotionally and spiritually, yet the church wants it's cut right off the top, pisses me off..don't get me started!
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Don't sprinkle sugar on your bullshit and then tell me it's candy!
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Abby1964
Heretic
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Posted: Thu Oct 10th, 2013 12:11 am |
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I can't tell you how many people accuse me of blasphemy and heresy when I start in on the church. They can't understand that GOD is a separate entity from the church who co-opted his name for their own purposes.
That's why I really don't call myself christian anymore. I just say I have a personal relationship with GOD and kicked the inept middleman to the curb.
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cat1946
Heretic
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Posted: Thu Oct 10th, 2013 08:42 pm |
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| The saying, Christians are what gives Christianity a bad name, rings true.
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