tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post8358542222451222053..comments2024-03-27T23:12:08.917-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Best way to help Ukraine and peace and justice? Shine searing light on those wrecking the world!David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59360824563947285792022-03-03T11:37:17.773-08:002022-03-03T11:37:17.773-08:00onward
onward
onward<br /><br />onward<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38865133705989626102022-03-03T11:31:22.125-08:002022-03-03T11:31:22.125-08:00Paradoctor:
I don't care if Superman says he...Paradoctor:<br /><i><br /> I don't care if Superman says he's good; I insist that the government stockpile kryptonite, just in case.<br /></i><br /><br />There's a difference between stockpiling a countermeasure "just in case" and preventing the hero from helping people. The laws which forced heroes like Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl to hide their powers from their neighbors wouldn't have done anything to stop them had they in fact gone bad. They merely prevented the heroes from doing good. <br /><br />I've used such an argument in the real world about billionaires. When a fellow Illinoisan complains about why our billionaire governor (J B Pritzker) is any better than the former Republican billionaire governor (Bruce Rauner), I like to come back by asserting that it's not the money (and subsequent power) itself that distinguishes a good guy from a villain. It matters whether one uses one's powers for good or for evil.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20632630917599669982022-03-03T11:22:53.427-08:002022-03-03T11:22:53.427-08:00gerold:
you're right, I gave the Nazis too mu...gerold:<br /><i><br />you're right, I gave the Nazis too much credit in giving eugenics a bad name. As you point out the same noxious ideas applied by the Nazis to "improve" the gene stock were in use elsewhere, particularly in the US. <br /></i><br /><br />No, I think your original point stands. The fact that eugenics was popular in the US and Canada doesn't diminish the argument, in fact it enhances it. For all we know, the idea might still be popular in polite society today but for Hitler ripping off the mask and making clear just what was being promoted.<br /><br />I often mention that Hitler made anti-Semitism unpopular. That's not to say there was no anti-Semitism in civilized countries before. On the contrary, it was perfectly acceptable in polite white Christian society. What Hitler did was show it in such a way as to make it impossible to promote and still be a good person. After WWII, being anti-Semitic meant "being like Hitler", which at least used to be an unqualified bad thing. <br /><br />A similar dynamic is at work with forced eugenics.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22510402212391322322022-03-03T10:06:55.958-08:002022-03-03T10:06:55.958-08:00@Jon S: good point - the ill-advised oath of the s...@Jon S: good point - the ill-advised oath of the sons of Feanor had disastrous - one might even say evil - consequences. Not because they themselves were evil however; prideful and rash for sure, but their oath was prompted (if I recall correctly) by Morgoth's jewel heist. They swore to retrieve the silmarils and it originated as a noble quest but good intentions had terrible consequences.<br /><br />We see a similar plot device in Old Celtic myth and legend, where the degrees of freedom are limited for heroes by a _geis_, a vow leading to tragedy. geroldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05140093281920523064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44842735023029049312022-03-03T09:55:30.732-08:002022-03-03T09:55:30.732-08:00@Robert re: eugenics - you're right, I gave th...@Robert re: eugenics - you're right, I gave the Nazis too much credit in giving eugenics a bad name. As you point out the same noxious ideas applied by the Nazis to "improve" the gene stock were in use elsewhere, particularly in the US. In the 30's it's probably true that Nazi ideas were more prevalent in the US than they were in Germany, particularly in the former confederacy where racism and white supremacy were king. <br /><br />The goal of improving the human gene pool is still a good one but those efforts were applied with a terrible mixture of ignorance and evil. That kind of evil has been repudiated as we learn from our mistakes but we're far from having sufficient knowledge for gene editing. <br /><br />If we ever do decode our dna then eugenics can be done in an ethical way. Being able to understand the genotype/phenotype causal linkage is immensely complex and I doubt if merely human intelligence could ever be up to the task. But if our AI partners get smart enough to read dna they can help us get a lot smarter too; we certainly need it. geroldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05140093281920523064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19539268016503498282022-03-03T09:50:08.561-08:002022-03-03T09:50:08.561-08:00After too long a time, a new Stonekettle post...
...After too long a time, a new Stonekettle post...<br /><br />https://www.stonekettle.com/2022/03/recap-mar-1-2022.html<br /><i><br />...<br />History shows again and again and yet again, that a political party and an ideology that accommodates and encourages this yammering ignorant hate cannot build anything.<br /><br />It can not build anything. <br /><br />It can only destroy. <br />...<br />This horrible worldview is precisely the vile bilious hatred condemned over and over by the very religion these people claim to believe in. They are selfsame antichrist they claim to fear. <br /><br />If Republicans do not remove this vile cancer from their midst, then they have become a disease upon the body politic.<br /><br />And sooner or later, like any other malignant tumor, we're going to have to cut them out. <br /><br />Before they kill us all. <br /></i><br /><br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65020702367849486342022-03-03T09:32:47.659-08:002022-03-03T09:32:47.659-08:00An interview with Jon Stewart, saying what we alre...An interview with Jon Stewart, saying what we already know...<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-jon-stewart.html?showTranscript=1<br /><i><br />...<br />[mimicking Tucker Carlson's support for Putin]<br />Well, but isn’t that the way we judge dictators and atrocities — are they nice to me? This Hitler guy, yes, has he done some things? But I got to tell you something— always holds the door. Very polite.<br /><br />In some ways, I think then you have to ask the question, why is Rupert Murdoch trying to destroy the fabric of this country? What’s in it for him?<br /><br />...<br /><br />My wife and I play a game. We live in an area that’s very red. And so we like to play a game when we’re driving somewhere called “Insurrectionist” or “Just Supporter.” And so when we’re driving, we’ll see somebody. And you’ll just be like, OK, that guy’s got — OK, there’s a flag on the truck, but nothing else. And that’s a flannel coat. I’m going to go with supporter. And then you’ll go by and you’ll see somebody with, don’t tread on me, no more media bullshit, and be like, OK, that’s a guy who would probably take a shit in the rotunda if he had a chance to. But it’s an important distinction.<br />...<br /></i>Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74396757707613507932022-03-03T07:47:13.328-08:002022-03-03T07:47:13.328-08:00Larry Hart, A.F.Rey:
The anti-super legislation w...Larry Hart, A.F.Rey:<br /><br />The anti-super legislation wasn't mass pettiness: it was mass survival instinct. A superhero is a supervillain who isn't killing anyone today. I don't care if Superman says he's good; I insist that the government stockpile kryptonite, just in case.<br /><br />Democratizing magic is the _only_ way that supers would be allowed to survive, in the long run. Paradoctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04821968120388981470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35975881987460000662022-03-03T05:50:08.033-08:002022-03-03T05:50:08.033-08:00Robert's linked article above:
The first stat...Robert's linked article above:<br /><i><br />The first state to enact a sterilization law was Indiana in 1907, quickly followed by California ...<br /></i><br /><br />The California of Nancy Pelosi that we perceive today was not always thus. California was conservative during much of the 20th century. Its electoral votes went to Republicans more often than to Democrats in TwenCen, and the state gave us both Nixon and Reagan. And in 1907, there wasn't even the Hollywood side of things yet.<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36813115357312576492022-03-03T05:38:00.427-08:002022-03-03T05:38:00.427-08:00Dr Brin:
Jews of Europe became urban largely beca...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />Jews of Europe became urban largely because they were denied all normal patterns, e.g. their own landed aristocracy. This had a weird side effect that those who married the richest and healthiest girls tended to be scholars and not barons or warriors. Some assert that had selective effects.<br /></i><br /><br />Dave Berg of Mad Magazine fame put it that Christian Europe's values as to the measure of manhood revolved around challenge and violence to the extent that they necessarily killed off their second-best, third-best, etc fighters. The absolute best may have temporarily survived all challenges, but much of the society's strength was eliminated in internecine fighting for that top position.<br /><br />Says Dave Berg, Jewish men, on the other hand, proved their worth by making one woman happy for the rest of their lives.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />Robert:<br /><i><br />eugenics as practiced in England (encourage positive traits)...<br /></i><br /><br />I wonder how much influence that had over George Bernard Shaw's theme of <i>Man and Superman</i>, that men and women should be free to choose mates from the entire available population, unhindered by expectations based on class or race. On the one hand, that was a very democratic notion back in the early dawn of the 20th century. On the other hand, his stated goal for this unhindered selection was that it would eventually lead to (decades before either Hitler or Clark Kent) the birth of the "superman", a superior specimen of human being who would be wise and strong enough to rule as a benevolent dictator.<br /> Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-316317006503457642022-03-03T05:19:05.070-08:002022-03-03T05:19:05.070-08:00The film Gattaca gives (American) health insurance...The film Gattaca gives (American) health insurance as a credible reason for a society to practice eugenics through selective breeding.<br /><br />Ukraine has been keeping a running tally of Russian casualties that appears to be accurate (at least,they match American estimates), so I was floored when I saw that the numbers had nearly doubled overnight. 9000 deaths is getting close to a decimation of the entire Russian invasion force. In response to the increased targetting of infrastructure (ie civilians), Ukraine special forces announced they will no longer take artillerymen prisoner... I don't think this is a wise course of action (Ukraine is definitely winning on humanitarian grounds atm, and those prisoners won't be doing any more harm). Then again, it's not my family being bombarded by folks who have had a week to contemplate the depravity of their actions in Putin's depraved war.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85978422305692896332022-03-03T03:56:34.543-08:002022-03-03T03:56:34.543-08:00His "Leaf by Niggle" is pure allegory, w...His "Leaf by Niggle" is pure allegory, which is really odd. Don Gisselbeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05770961482198971383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92019695245884911102022-03-03T00:27:41.660-08:002022-03-03T00:27:41.660-08:00The best single-volume book on the history of euge...The best single-volume book on the history of eugenics in North America that I've found is Edwin Black's <i>War Against the Weak</i>, published in 2003. Here are some reviews:<br /><br /><i>Genetics is in the news. What is not in the news are its origins in a racist twentieth century pseudoscience called eugenics, which was based on selective breeding. In 1904, the United States launched a large-scale eugenics movement that was championed by the medical, political and religious elite. History has recorded the horrors of ethnic cleansing, but until now, America's own efforts to create a master race have been largely overlooked. In War Against The Weak, investigative journalist, Edwin Black, reveals that eugenics had an incredible foothold in America in the early twentieth century, and was in fact championed and funded by America's social, political, and academic elite. Even more shocking, Black traces the flow of ideas, research, and money from Cold Spring Harbor (Long Island) to Germany, in the process proving that it was America's eugenics programme that gave Hitler the scientific justification to escalate his virulent anti-Semitism into all-out genocide.</i><br /><br /><i> In the first half of the 20th century, more than 60,000 Americans—poor, uneducated, members of minorities—were forcibly sterilized to prevent them from passing on supposedly defective genes. This policy, called eugenics, was the brainchild of such influential people as Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegie and Margaret Sanger. Black, author of the bestselling IBM and the Holocaust, set out to show "the sad truth of how the scientific rationales that drove killer doctors at Auschwitz were first concocted on Long Island" at the Carnegie Institution's Cold Spring Harbor complex. Along the way, he offers a detailed and heavily footnoted history that traces eugenics from its inception to America's eventual, post–WWII retreat from it, complete with stories of the people behind it, their legal battles, their detractors and the tragic stories of their victims.</i><br /><br /><i> Edwin Black’s book about eugenics is a well-written, informative work, focusing primarily on the American eugenics movement, as well as its connections to Nazi eugenics. As an investigative journalist, Black excels at poignantly portraying the injustices perpetrated on the weak by elites, most of them scientists funded by Carnegie, Rockefeller, and other powerful business interests. He properly expresses outrage at the way that racial and social prejudices were clothed in scientific garb to label people “inferior,” which then gave scientific license to forcibly sterilize people, hinder or even break up marriages, and restrict immigration. Some more radical eugenicists even proposed killing the inferior. Black does a good job showing the ways that certain prominent American eugenicists waged a “war against the weak” by targeting marginalized groups for persecution.</i>Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909011338723657265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19582530547991263652022-03-03T00:27:34.575-08:002022-03-03T00:27:34.575-08:00The Nazi's gave eugenics a bad name
Eugenics ...<i>The Nazi's gave eugenics a bad name</i><br /><br />Eugenics fully deserves its bad name, at least as it was practiced in North America. No death camps, but forcible confinement and sterilization were legal in both America and Canada.<br /><br />https://www.npr.org/2017/03/24/521360544/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations<br /><br />Last eugenics law in Canada (Alberta) was repealed in 1972.<br /><br />https://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/timeline/517310e2eed5c60000000032<br />https://historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/main-events/eugenics/<br /><br />Last eugenics law in America (West Virginia) was repealed in 2013.<br /><br />https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/w-va-house-passes-repeal-of-forced-sterilization-law/article_21dd1f3c-778c-5c34-828f-781451c44e52.html<br /><br />There was a difference between eugenics as practiced in England (encourage positive traits) and America (eliminate negative traits).<br /><br /><i> The English eugenics movement, championed by Galton, promoted eugenics through selective breeding for positive traits. In contrast, the eugenics movement in the US quickly focused on eliminating negative traits. Not surprisingly, “undesirable” traits were concentrated in poor, uneducated, and minority populations. In an attempt to prevent these groups from propagating, eugenicists helped drive legislation for their forced sterilization. The first state to enact a sterilization law was Indiana in 1907, quickly followed by California and 28 other states by 1931. These laws resulted in the forced sterilization of over 64,000 people in the United States. At first, sterilization efforts focused on the disabled but later grew to include people whose only “crime” was poverty. These sterilization programs found legal support in the Supreme Court. In Buck v. Bell (1927), the state of Virginia sought to sterilize Carrie Buck for promiscuity as evidenced by her giving birth to a baby out of wedlock (some suggest she was raped). In ruling against Buck, Supreme Court Justice Wendell Holmes opined, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind....Three generations of imbeciles is enough” (Black 2003). This decision legitimized the various sterilization laws in the United States. In particular, California’s program was so robust that the Nazi’s turned to California for advice in perfecting their own efforts. Hitler proudly admitted to following the laws of several American states that allowed for the prevention of reproduction of the “unfit”.</i><br /><br />https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909011338723657265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15669878850457742992022-03-02T23:57:10.879-08:002022-03-02T23:57:10.879-08:00@Jon S re allegory (or lack thereof) in LotR: it&#...@Jon S re allegory (or lack thereof) in LotR: it's funny how art can contain undercurrents escaping the knowledge or control of the artist. Many times viewers will describe what they loved best and the artist will protest that they had no such idea. I think this happens most with truly great art. Mystics might describe it as tapping into the collective unconscious or something of the sort, and despite the clumsy nomenclature it's a pretty good description. <br /><br />DB: Tolkien made a number of strange pronouncements about his work. He once described it as "very Catholic" which is very weird; the utter lack of priests, nuns, popes, religious rituals and scripture is decidedly un-Catholic. The narrative landscape is pulled directly from pagan Germanic myth and legend with a healthy dose of Celtic lore - so it's catholic but not Catholic - but he actually seemed to be covering his ass by claiming it wasn't heretical or something. <br /><br />Great artists are judged by their work, not their press releases. geroldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05140093281920523064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23474863857686126302022-03-02T21:40:44.959-08:002022-03-02T21:40:44.959-08:00Sorry, that characterization of Aragorn’s first 10...Sorry, that characterization of Aragorn’s first 100 years is all wrong. He was hereditary chieftain of the Dunedain, the root stock of all Numenoreans and the most powerful tribe of humans north of Rohan. <br /><br />Jews of Europe became urban largely because they were denied all normal patterns, e.g. their own landed aristocracy. This had a weird side effect that those who married the richest and healthiest girls tended to be scholars and not barons or warriors. Some assert that had selective effects.<br /><br />JRRT’s claim not to do allegory is one of the most absurd protestations I have ever seen from a smart and decent man.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73305601245143765172022-03-02T21:09:24.321-08:002022-03-02T21:09:24.321-08:00"You're right that people don't read ...<i>"You're right that people don't read LotR for social allegory, they read it as an action fable. But it seems to me that the underlying allegory provides it with a resonance that makes it more powerful."</i><br /><br />Let's ask Prof. Tokien about that.<br /><br /><i>“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” </i>Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18987084218115063962022-03-02T20:24:46.792-08:002022-03-02T20:24:46.792-08:00@Alfred: the Church and aristos may have railed ab...@Alfred: the Church and aristos may have railed about wealthy merchants upstaging them with their wealth but the dynamic in medieval Western Europe was quite different as far as rural populations were concerned. <br /><br />The growth of cities (starting in the Low Countries and French urban centers that survived the fall of the Roman Empire in the 11th century) was seeded by rural populations who would send some of their sons and daughters to live in town. Those ties remained intact as the cities grew in size and wealth. <br /><br />Things were different in Eastern Europe where town and country populations often remained quite distinct. There the roots of antisemitism were fed by a predominantly Jewish town population who were a large proportion of the merchant class and a rural population who often relied on traveling merchants to provide access to manufactured goods. Resentments developed naturally as a result.<br /><br />Town life in Western Europe was quite different and provided mutual benefits to town and country. Walter Christaller described how towns evolved as nodes in the exchange system with Central Place Theory; there is a good wiki page on it. <br /><br />Obviously exploitation existed alongside cooperation, but systems emphasizing mutual benefit have a competitive advantage over systems of exploitation. People like to view history through brown-tinted lenses but it can be overdone. geroldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05140093281920523064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31571193302249008672022-03-02T20:07:41.563-08:002022-03-02T20:07:41.563-08:00@Tim H: the idea of human genetics being "imp...@Tim H: the idea of human genetics being "improved" the way elves were twisted into orcs is certainly unpleasant but it's one of those infinitesimal risks that we can toss it out of the equation. Who would gain? What possible benefit could it provide? By the time we have the science and tech to make directed mods to the human genome we'll be able to make killer robots with way more destructive capability that any orc. Faster too. Robots roll off the assembly line. By the time your killer orc was ready to start rampaging he'd be long obsolete.<br /><br />The Nazi's gave eugenics a bad name but let's face it, evolution has been all about improving dna sequences since forever. We don't want to let natural selection do that job anymore because it would require a lot of people to be killed before they can reproduce. Natural selection never was all that good at it anyway unless you have millions of years to spare and we don't have that kind of time. geroldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05140093281920523064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-77266902196837709822022-03-02T19:15:02.896-08:002022-03-02T19:15:02.896-08:00A.F. Rey:
What did you think the whole idea of ma...A.F. Rey:<br /><i><br />What did you think the whole idea of making supers illegal was about, but not the hoi polloi trying to keep heroes down? The ridiculous legal suit again Mr. Incredible for saving a person's life? Mr. Incredible's slimy little boss keeping him from saving a mugging victim? Dash being unable to win races because he was faster than everyone else! The whole first act is about how mere mortals keep Supers from using their powers and being superior.<br /></i><br /><br />Well, yeah, that was the theme kinda ripped off from <i>Watchmen</i>, <i>Dark Knight Returns</i>, and probably many other antecedents--the fickle and suspicious public turning on heroes. But that makes my point--whatever justification Syndrome might have about spreading superpowers around to everybody, he was hardly a misunderstood good guy who was unfairly cast as the movie's villain. He was driven to devalue heroism by his petty resentment of heroes, and his plan to make powers available to the public was just the other side of the coin of the early movie's making powers available to no one.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9628130527316053922022-03-02T18:56:32.427-08:002022-03-02T18:56:32.427-08:00Aragorn spent much of his youth on the run, living...Aragorn spent much of his youth on the run, living in the woods, wandering (I recall that he spent some time as a common soldier in Gondor, too). Though Elrond kept him safe and treated him as royalty, other humans treated him as they would any armed rover - as a possible bandit (note Barliman Butterbur's dark suspicions). His self-doubt is a large part of his initial character.<br /><br />If you are going to choose a monarch, that's not a bad choice. But what are Aragorn's grandsons going to be like?<br /><br />One of the things Tolkien knew about war is that it takes away your friends. There is a long list of the dead on the winning side of the Pelennor Fields, and the common wounded get more book time than in much fantasy work.<br /><br />"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won." Arthur Wellesley<br /><br />PappenheimerUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08628667566485965800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79825185595536575562022-03-02T18:46:34.786-08:002022-03-02T18:46:34.786-08:00Does anyone know what this fellow was talking abou...Does anyone know what this fellow was talking about, sending me this message? "Within the last couple of weeks, you posted on what one might call the anti-western death cult that exists in Russia. In it, there was a link to a really good French article about the subject. Could you repost the link to your post on the subject? "David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4914064399122890152022-03-02T17:31:01.280-08:002022-03-02T17:31:01.280-08:00gerold, the orcs were originally elves, kidnapped ... gerold, the orcs were originally elves, kidnapped by Morgoth and "Improved"*. Sauron was a lesser Valar, who seduced some elves, temporarily, and too many Numenoreans.<br />*A possibility to bear in mind when genetic modification becomes possible.Tim H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12380916635831994159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64872054301112740162022-03-02T15:33:00.782-08:002022-03-02T15:33:00.782-08:00The heroes were not made aware of a scheme to demo...<i>The heroes were not made aware of a scheme to democratize powers, nor did they fight to keep such a thing from happening. They were drawn unsuspecting into the plot, and fought more than anything else to save their own lives.</i><br /><br />Perhaps the heroes were unaware, but Brad Bird certainly was. What did you think the whole idea of making supers illegal was about, but not the hoi polloi trying to keep heroes down? The ridiculous legal suit again Mr. Incredible for saving a person's life? Mr. Incredible's slimy little boss keeping him from saving a mugging victim? Dash being unable to win races because he was faster than everyone else! The whole first act is about how mere mortals keep Supers from using their powers and being superior.<br /><br />So democratizing super powers is just the cherry-on-top of what the tiny, petty and jealous had been doing to the Supers before the Incredibles cut loose--taking away their superiority. And while the whole Harrison Bergeron theme is fine, making the villain be the one who wants to give super powers to everyone suddenly makes it the old "I'm the king because I am superior" tale of the king who deserves to rule because he is superior to you all.<br /><br />In my opinion. :)A.F. Reyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08102355714883828348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-77793540830643309152022-03-02T11:08:42.090-08:002022-03-02T11:08:42.090-08:00“The corruption of power might be the central prob...“The corruption of power might be the central problem of human society”. <br /><br />In a way. Yes. But it goes deeper to the prime reproductive strategy for all males… dominate and prevent other males from breeding while maximizing your own opportunities. Elephant seals, lions, rabbits, kings lords & priests. <br /><br />Nothing could be more ‘natural’ than feudalism. You and a team of big males take other men’s women and wheat. And we now know it happened HUGE about 12,000 years ago, winnowing down the Y chromosome.<br /><br />It also GOVERNS incredibly stupidly. That combination trap ranks in my top ten explanations for the Fermi Paradox. It may be very rare for a sapient race to stumble into the alternative to the male repro trap, the enlightenment / positive society. <br /><br /><br />===<br />Gerold no question that Frodo + Sam + Peregrine the “Took” represented hierarchy that appears more agile, flattened, collegial and even perhaps a little mobile. A version of lamentable ‘modernity’ that Tolkien much preferred over the urban/industrial/clanking type he ascribed to Mordor.<br /><br />Yes the personal tales of friendship are core to LOTR… as kids ignore the evil implications of Yoda’s pure-evil, and take away only “mean people suck!”<br /><br />==<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.com