tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post6366562129912287816..comments2024-03-18T17:09:55.964-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Science Fiction: Hope vs DespairDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71978221375142219902016-06-20T17:05:35.603-07:002016-06-20T17:05:35.603-07:00onward
Though you guys have been having fun here...onward<br /><br /><br />Though you guys have been having fun here so continue.<br /><br />I am moving onward.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-21261090193258284072016-06-20T16:08:35.159-07:002016-06-20T16:08:35.159-07:00Not always-wrong… but generally and often, locum h...Not always-wrong… but generally and often, locum has lost track of the difference between 1980 Warsaw Pact and 2016 Russia. Today it is the russians who know they could not withstand conventional war with the west for more than a few days and hence are emphasizing tactical nukes. Back then it was us.<br /><br />Oh, and in fact Hitler started WWII in 1939 instead of his preferred 1945 because Speer showed him production charts in Britain and the USSR. In just one more year or two, German production would be swamped.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58878363784053480912016-06-20T15:28:17.501-07:002016-06-20T15:28:17.501-07:00Yes, they are all pretty much just words people th...Yes, they are all pretty much just words people throw around to denigrate their socio-political opponents. At one time they had more specific meanings, but over time people have twisted them to suit their own propaganda desires. Isolationism is just one common feature, and ironically a sort of cultural isolationism quite commonly goes hand-in-hand with imperialism, and both are commonly associated with fascism, but none of it is 100%.<br /><br />(It's 105˚ the A/C is dead, and I am stuck waiting for the repairmen while my kids splash in the pool...)Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-13779571241119419312016-06-20T14:24:21.422-07:002016-06-20T14:24:21.422-07:00@PaulSB - I like Orwell's definition, "fa...@PaulSB - I like Orwell's definition, "fascism = bully," and beyond that, it's all wordplay for "I don't like you." <br /><br />In terms of the application of the definition by Loci to assert that isolationism cannot be fascist - well, history offers many counter-examples.<br /><br />Imperial Japan, in the immediate pre-Meiji era? Certainly isolationist for a significant time (also rather imperialistic, and with all the traits of fascism). One finds other isolationist/fascist epochs in Chinese, Korean, and many South Asian dynasties. Further west, Kemalist Turkey fits the bill, as would several Latin American leaders. The most interesting example could be Nasser - he is either an imperialist (if one accepts the borders drawn by the UK and France after World War I & II), or an isolationist (if one does not). <br /><br />And hence Orwell's point: these terms have no value whatsoever.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19261429563788077242016-06-20T14:04:15.377-07:002016-06-20T14:04:15.377-07:00Once again little loci has given us a zinger purpo...Once again little loci has given us a zinger purportedly backed up by a web site, but if you read the web site, it says something very different. <br /><br />Here's what he wrote:<br />@LarryH: Fascism = Socialism + Nationalism + Imperialism. This means that Isolationists aren't Fascists by definition. You do know the definition of Imperialism, don't you? http://www.anesi.com/Fascism-TheUltimateDefinition.htm<br /><br />But the site he links to goes through 3 different definitions of fascism, then tries to create its own based on the commonalities. Thus: “Fascism is a form of political and social behavior that arises when the middle class, finding its hopes frustrated by economic instability coupled with political polarization and deadlock, abandons traditional ideologies and turns, with the approbation of police and military forces, to a poorly-defined but emotionally appealing soteriology of national unity, immediate and direct resolution of problems, and intolerance for dissent.” <br /><br />Now we can debate how useful this definition is, but one thing this definition clearly isn't, is Fascism = Socialism + Nationalism + Imperialism. True, it does not address isolationism, but neither does it include either socialism or imperialism. Of the 3 isms he offers, only nationalism is actually incorporated ("... soteriology of national unity" presumably).<br /><br />Ting-a-ling-a-ling!<br /><br />Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84754849200445518612016-06-20T12:45:11.733-07:002016-06-20T12:45:11.733-07:00Step away from an interesting debate, and miss the...Step away from an interesting debate, and miss the eddies and ripples. Perhaps a lawyer can offer one thought thought about the 'anti-institutional' gloomy bent of writing... ;-)<br /><br />First, I assume that serial works are influenced by movies, television shows, and serial novels. Publishers don't want a book, they want a successful series of books. Comics don't want a hero, they want a franchise of heroes.<br /><br />Writing about an effective 'institution' means casting enough of the members of the group to show their function as part of a working whole. In competence porn/procedurals (esp. police procedurals), the stories are mostly set down - writing consists of modifying the template to fit the characters, or the characters to fit the template. Laziness, sure, but more thrift accounts for much of the regurgitation (esp. in the expensive film/tv genres). <br /><br />If you lose a key member of the 'team' in a optimistic procedural, you can replace them with relatively easy adjustments while preserving the tone. Lose too many 'core' characters though, and the whole comforting sensibility is lost, forcing you to reboot. That creates incredible contracting power for 'beloved' characters on 'happy' shows.<br /><br />Original works lack such templates, but maintain the same risk of losing key team members (to contract disputes, or otherwise). Starting with a gloomy premise makes it much easier to anticipate the loss of characters - making it much easier to sell such premises to studios (and publishers hoping to option intellectual property to the studios). donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88856106811155361942016-06-20T11:56:57.126-07:002016-06-20T11:56:57.126-07:00In relation to the whole 'lazyness' topic ...In relation to the whole 'lazyness' topic I offer this quote:<br /><br />"The three principle virtues of a good programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris."<br />Larry Wall, creator of Pearl<br /><br />Berialnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-10939370511379888562016-06-20T11:43:58.068-07:002016-06-20T11:43:58.068-07:00Just in case you hadn't noticed (and/or care),...Just in case you hadn't noticed (and/or care), P.Z. Myers linked and quoted from your latest blog in his Pharyngula site. (He's quite agreeable, although differs with you about engineers.)<br /><br />http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/06/18/imagine-a-spherical-apocalypse/A.F. Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49786475128546883272016-06-20T11:13:38.355-07:002016-06-20T11:13:38.355-07:00Alfred, the great Rooseveltean reset was exactly a...Alfred, the great Rooseveltean reset was exactly a case of the smarter elements of bourgeoisie deciding to ally themselves with moderate elements of labor to create a redistribution of power and wealth that would rob energy from the Marxist elements and leave stranded the racist-romantic elements. <br />In Italy and Germany things went differently. The aristos and industrialists subsidized the racist-romantics as their counter against the Marxists.<br />Both efforts worked. In germany with outcomes the cynical lords came to regret. In the US and then the West, it resulted in a middle class vastly beyond anything Marx could have or did imagine. Though he would have (correctly) predicted future crises as predatory oligarchs attempt further putsches.<br />The thing to remember: leading folks deemed Marxism to seem PLAUSIBLE, especially after 1917. It had apparent momentum and when the depression hit, that redoubled. Smart folks took very seriously the need to offer an alternative. David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-13770956535586233962016-06-20T10:22:10.683-07:002016-06-20T10:22:10.683-07:00The big deal when I was younger was the beginning ...The big deal when I was younger was the beginning of Heavy Metal comics. I grabbed them up for the first year or so, but the stories left me hungry for something else.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76212357919739257762016-06-20T09:12:19.828-07:002016-06-20T09:12:19.828-07:00Re: kibble-boys
I run into these guys a lot in my...Re: kibble-boys<br /><br />I run into these guys a lot in my sport. They're convinced they're the greatest. But they have a very hard time reconciling the narrative in their brain with their actual results. What often happens is that they become convinced that there's some 'secret' knowledge out there that the guys who beat them are withholding. So it's not their fault they don't win, it's the fault of the guy who do for not playing fair by keeping the secrets away from them.<br /><br />They're almost as bad as the guys who are young, fast, and athletic who stall out because they can't wrap their heads around the idea that the sport is far more mental than physical. Some get past it, some do not.<br /><br />Yes, superheroes can be boring. It would be outside the current genre, though, to have someone with extraordinary powers attempting to affect the course of society. The stories tend to be too personal for that. Superman dragging back a few of those asteroids so popular here would be the least of those stories.<br /><br />I really do wish I could recall the author of one of the old pulp stories where people started using 'electrical secretaries' to keep their daily notes. Then someone put radios in them so that bosses and wives could put items on the agendas. By the time people spent all day talking to their devices, the devices had their own agenda. Sound familiar?<br /><br />One of the problems with competence fiction, especially in sci-fi these days, is that it tends to be mixed in with apocalyptic fiction. Disaster happens, the human race is nearly wiped out, and people have to rebuild using whatever skills they have. From Alas, Babylon on down, it's practically a sub-genre of its own. I like reading about the rebuilding, it's the disaster I don't like. But for competence fiction (even though only marginally fiction), try Little House on the Prairie.<br /><br />The listing of what various generations grew up knowing pings my mind to point out The Mindset List from Beloit College. This is a list of things that comprise the world of incoming college freshmen. Its founders began it when they saw a cultural disconnect starting between professors and students. It's kinda rough on old guys when (several years ago), one of the items was 'Jim Henson has always been dead'.<br />https://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2019/<br /><br />raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91265046843357305582016-06-20T08:57:54.105-07:002016-06-20T08:57:54.105-07:00Rob,
It's good to know that there is a way fo...Rob,<br /><br />It's good to know that there is a way for web comic people to be successful. I gave up on my own art ages ago, and my skills have atrophied to nothing, but I invest a lot of hope in the first fruit of my marriage. If she doesn't manage to get any of her work published, I will suggest going the web comic route. Given that she is busy trying to get her bachelor's, committing to regular updates might not be feasible at this point, though. And as far as fizzling goes, one person's dross is another's life line. The only way to know is to throw something out and see if anyone bites - though in the deep, deep ocean of the Internet, an enormous advertising budget must help a lot.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53397241622091442032016-06-20T08:49:25.431-07:002016-06-20T08:49:25.431-07:00Larry,
It sounds like we have pretty similar stor...Larry, <br />It sounds like we have pretty similar stories, though looking at me now you would never guess that I was once thin as a bean pole and had hair. Trick with marriages is that the Larry you are today is not exactly the Larry you were when you first met your partner, and she isn't quite the same, either. This is probably pretty cliché, but it takes a level of commitment to weather the changes. It is also much easier to see how your other half has changed over the decades than to see it in yourself, which requires an admirable level of commitment to overcome. People typically underestimate how much they have changed, while allowing their partner's evolution to get under their skin. So it sounds to me like you are doing much better than average - maybe not enough to put on a goofy costume and become a marriage counsellor, but well enough to be the envy of a great many middle-aged couples and divorcees. If I were the drinking type, I would raise a glass to your next 20 years (or is that too schmaltzy to bear?). Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14192231359838798232016-06-20T06:59:03.829-07:002016-06-20T06:59:03.829-07:00@Larry: I've had troubles getting into the com...@Larry: I've had troubles getting into the comic. I've tried several times. I probably will have to do the tried-and-true method of reading it backward as often that gets through various mental blocks that keep me from reading some strips. As for reviewing it... I still need to rebuild the Tangents Reviews site after some Russian hacker put malware in the old site. And rebuilding a decade's worth of reviews and not trusting the old files thus having to copy-paste everything and fix links and do new images... yeah. <br /><br />I probably should admit to myself it never will get done.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84972153901484943772016-06-20T06:55:09.790-07:002016-06-20T06:55:09.790-07:00@Paul: I'm actually familiar with independent ...@Paul: I'm actually familiar with independent comics. Back in the 90s I'd considered crafting my own near-future comic that mixed psychics, androids, mecha, and more. I researched printing costs and distribution, found you could do a bare-bones comic for over $3,000 for a print run of 500 black-and-white comic books, and even how many companies would have an initial success and then run wild with a half dozen new books, be unable to carry the load, and then go bankrupt. <br /><br />While most of the tubs of comic books in my house are Marvel and DC, there is probably a couple tubs that include such odd titles as Ninja High School, some horror comic with a woman who could turn men into spider-human hybrids by having sex with them (never did find the last issue of that one), and other various comics. <br /><br />The problem was that distribution companies started going under and the primary distributor that remains focuses primarily on DC and Marvel. Though I'm not quite as up-to-date on comics as some of my internet friends so there may be small rivals that have cropped up to help create competition in the trade.<br /><br />Now, consider for a moment what you said: low costs encourages people to start comics that then dry up and go nowhere due to no real return on investment (in this case, the investment of time). Compare that to a cost of $3,000 for a print run of 500 comics. I've no idea if newer technologies and Chinese printing companies have altered that cost structure, but it does mean that only someone who has invested a lot of money into a comic can publish. Nor does it mean that comic will come out regularly - that comic may very well end up with an unfinished end because the cartoonist never made money off it, didn't repay initial expenses, and gave up.<br /><br />Meanwhile, you have an interesting business model of webcomics-as-advertisement which was done by Studio Foglio with "Girl Genius" and more recently by Adam Warren with "Empowered" (those two from the top of my head) in which they put out their comic for free online... and then make money by selling graphic novels of their strips. And the more traditional business model for webcomics is to, once enough material is available, offer a graphic novel or manga print of the comic to interested fans.<br /><br />And with Fred Gallagher with Megatokyo, not only does he sell the manga prints (with a distribution/printing deal with Dark Horse Comics) but he also has independent sales of original artwork and the finished draft of the artwork for the comics... and even has taken to drawing one or two panels on one piece of paper so that there is more available for sale. <br /><br />Just because a comic came out in print before the web does not make it more likely to continue. The same factors which can cause a webcomic to fizzle and die could make a print comic fizzle and die. What's more, the higher starting costs not only would create a barrier to entry for potential cartoonists, but also created scarcity in independent titles so that most people might never know that comic exists.<br /><br />There is a massive amount of dross out there among webcomics (though there is a lot of dross out there for print comics as well). But it is easier to find good non-superhero comics on the web than in print. And cartoonists can tell the stories they want without having to cater to an audience or wonder if they will ever get the entire story out there because of cost constraints.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22275520586440357332016-06-20T06:46:52.179-07:002016-06-20T06:46:52.179-07:00Robert:
One interesting aspect about webcomics is...Robert:<br /><i><br />One interesting aspect about webcomics is how superheroes do not dominate the genre. <br /></i><br /><br />While travelling last Christmastime, my daughter was looking specifically for comics that weren't superhero comics. As I just happened to have the three print volumes of "The Dreamer" along with me (a comic I first read at the SPACE convention in Columbus OH), I asked her if that's what she was looking for. She snarfed them down in less than an hour, and wondered when the next volume would be out.<br /><br />There is a market out there.<br /><br />BTW, have you reviewed "The Dreamer"? I'm curious what you think of it.<br /><br /><i><br />Print comics often have superheroes as their selling point and it is a significant detraction on the genre. <br /></i><br /><br />That's probably true from the late 70s or early 80s onward. It wasn't always the case. When I first discovered comic books in the 60s, there were funny animal comics and boy's adventure comics and funny kid comics and even adaptations of tv shows. In fact, the superheroes I read at the time (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four) were "adaptations of tv cartoons" as far as I knew. Superheroes were around, sure, but they didn't define comic books the way they do now.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33363573323500904162016-06-20T06:33:13.976-07:002016-06-20T06:33:13.976-07:00Dr Brin:
Wow LH your brush with greatness!
The ...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />Wow LH your brush with greatness!<br /></i><br /><br />The kid has a future on SNL! (My daughter keeps saying he'll show up on "Ellen", though she won't explain why that particular venue)<br /><br />The Clinton and Sanders voices were especially spot on. When I've heard the routine played on a tinny car AM radio, I would swear it was really Bernie Sanders speaking.<br /><br />Favorite line: "Why should students have to pay for their own cinnamon rolls? It doesn't make any sense!"<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45335201881719400442016-06-20T06:29:49.564-07:002016-06-20T06:29:49.564-07:00Alfred Differ:
I'll admit to being highly ske...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />I'll admit to being highly skeptical of laziness being a universal for us. I look to our inclination to resist taking direction from others. <br /></i><br /><br />To the ones who talk about worker "laziness", the two are one and the same thing. Listen to ongoing arguments about how poor people are "not willing to work". They only make sense if you realize that phrase really refers to "not willing to submit to a boss".<br /><br /><i><br />When our masters stubbornly persist in issuing orders, they might think we are lazy when we fail to act, but are we?<br /></i><br /><br />See? (note to self--Always read ahead before responding)LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37639958772716914992016-06-20T06:27:28.423-07:002016-06-20T06:27:28.423-07:00Rob,
There was a short renaissance in the comic m...Rob,<br /><br />There was a short renaissance in the comic medium back when I was still larval, with quite a few independent producers creating a lot of more interesting stuff than superheroes. I see it as more evidence for the self-destructive nature of capitalism. When there are a whole lot of independents on the market, they make better stuff. Plots were better, art was better, characters were most complex and interesting, settings were much more rich, etc. The superhero drivel was there, too, but people who wanted to see better quality could get it. But the big two eventually bought or otherwise drove most of those independent publishers out of the market, and that wonderful bloom of creativity withered. However, if you can find a comic shop that carries independents and not just the usual Marvel and DC, you'll find that a few of those independents did survive. Some of their stuff is just as much drivel as the big 2, but some of it is good - and a fair bit is sci-fi.<br /><br />Web comics allow all sorts of people to explore their ideas, get creative and potentially do better than the mass-market schlock that fills most comic shops and inspires summer box-awful blockbusters. One problem, though, is that enough though throwing something up on the web does not require a huge investment in money, doing a web comic still requires a huge investment in time. Since they aren't making the authors/artists any money, most will tend to fizzle as the creators find they cannot justify the time investment while struggling to make ends meet - especially after they have swam upstream to spawn. Larval hominids require massive investments of time. It might be better if people were willing to pay a small subscription fee, similar to what they would have paid if it were in print, but by now we are so acculturated to trawling the Net for freebies that this is unlikely to go far. As Snoopy used to say, "BLAAH!"Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47300742429165821092016-06-20T06:23:05.437-07:002016-06-20T06:23:05.437-07:00PaulSB:
Larry,
"If coveting ones own wife i...PaulSB:<br /><i><br />Larry,<br /><br />"If coveting ones own wife is a sin, I'm in a lot of trouble. :)"<br /><br />Does your wife read any of this? <br /></i><br /><br />She's a Brin fan (she introduced me to the Uplift books), so for all I know, she does. If so, she'll still think I'm only pretending, for some obscure motive I've never been able to fathom. So what'cha gonna do?<br /><br /><i><br />Or, for that matter, are you aware that a great many people here are in about your same age group and can only dream of having what you have? ;)<br /></i><br /><br />If they like it, then they should'a put a ring on it.<br /><br />Seriously, I went through approximately my first 20 years after puberty on the outside looking in, as it were, being a skinny nerd before nerds were fashionable. When the woman I married came along, I thought I was dreaming her, because she was too good to be true. But the smartest thing I ever did in my life was to know not to let this one get away.<br /><br />To this day, I'm not sure what she sees in me, which I suppose is the equal and opposite of what I've been describing about her not believing what I see in her. So maybe, after twenty years, I should just take her word for it.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49387588548900613162016-06-20T06:14:46.110-07:002016-06-20T06:14:46.110-07:00locumranch:
whereas the progressives -- with thei...locumranch:<br /><i><br />whereas the progressives -- with their unceasing insistence on shark-like forward momentum -- force us ever forward despite insurmountable obstacles and "changed circumstance".<br /></i><br /><br />Climate change represents "changed circumstances", yet North Carolina law expressly prohibits agencies from making estimates of flood stages based upon anything but historical norms. The refusal to recognize "changed circumstances" is not a Progressive trait. It's almost the definition of reactionary conservatism.<br /><br /><i><br />Then, the EU will fall apart (if not on June 23 then at a later date) and, with it, the global consensus; the Nationalists will rise to power (only problematic if they fuse with Socialism & Imperialism); <br /></i><br /><br />I notice you willfully left out fascism, which I presume you see as the solution to the problem, not the problem itself.<br /><br /><i><br />the USA & UK will attempt to isolate themselves; the Russian Federation will roll west; Australia will become Indonesia; China & India will be a huge mess; and chaos will reign supreme until (if & when) the Heroes return.<br /></i><br /><br />As someone who used to predict the imminent inflationary demise of the US dollar and the impending rise of a South-America based right-wing hegemony, I feel your pain, but if I had to bet right now, it would be <b>against</b> any of those predictions coming true in my lifetime.<br /><br /><i><br />(3) Offence taken in regards to the Silver Surfer, a moral pragmatist who sacrificed his own freedom, ethics & future to the protect two beloved but defenseless planets (his own & Earth),<br /></i><br /><br />See, the original story, in which he discovers his essential humanity and rebels against Galactus to save the humans of earth is a great story.<br /><br />The retcon that establishes that he has alreday gone through the very same thing with his <b>own home planet</b>--that he already knew and actually cared that Galactus was killing sentient beings, but it was ok with him as long as his own planet wasn't the one being consumed, and that he already knew essential humanity and even love before being "taught" it by Alicia? It just doesn't work for me. Either situation might make a good yarn, but they don't fit together.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40183121852747051172016-06-20T06:09:56.593-07:002016-06-20T06:09:56.593-07:00Alfred,
I am skeptical of any human universals, at...Alfred,<br />I am skeptical of any human universals, at least in the absolutist, 100% sense that most people take "universal" to mean. Most things are normally distributed in populations of living things. If they aren't, the scientists have to figure out why. As to time spent working among our ancestors, nearly all hunter/gatherer societies that still existed when ethnography began in earnest in the early 20th C shocked the hell out of the ethnographers by how little time they had to spend foraging for food. Western people just assumed that life for "primitive man" must be "nasty, brutish and short." Not so, show the actual facts. We work many times harder today, and our agriculturalist ancestors suffered horrific health problems that h/gs never had to contend with. Any osteologist who has examined the transition from the h/g lifestyle to agriculture will tell you that the bones of our more "primitive" ancestors showed that they had very healthy diets and lifestyles, while the bones of agriculturalists - pretty much up until the Industrial Revolution raised the average trophic level of our diets, are crap. Indicators of malnutrition and repressive stress injuries, arthritic lesions and isotope ratios show that the transition to agriculture was an enormous mistake - except for the social elites, who didn't do any of the work but ate the best of the food. But were our h/g ancestors lazy bums? Enthoarchaeo studies show that, above all else, they were gossips...<br /><br />I think what Dr. Brin was saying about Marx is not that his writings were intended as self-fulfilling prophecies. Old Uncle Karl wanted to trash the entire system and reboot it in the image of his assumptions (which probably weren't any worse than the assumptions of little loci, the sapling, or any other overgeneralizing fool who practices Durkheimian "mental hygiene"). Rather, Marx pointed out inconsistencies in the propaganda of the aristocracy, and how parasitical the wealthy elites are. Many people got the point, though not all of them bought into his fantasy about happy, greed-free communes. Marx was wrong about a lot of things, but he did a great job of cutting through the most ancient of BS - the iron-clad belief that those who rule are better people than those who are forced to follow, and therefore deserve their hoards and harems, better diet (and concomitant better K/Sr ratio in their bones). Ironically, the people who benefited most from Marx were not the people who tried out his prescription (communism) but the people who stood on the other side of the Cold War. Thus the truth in your comment about TANSTAAFL.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58021208443781114382016-06-19T22:14:13.121-07:002016-06-19T22:14:13.121-07:00Heh. Actually I'm far less "comics" ...Heh. Actually I'm far less "comics" and far more "webcomics" - my only real brush with print comics was during the 90s... and I ended up burning out on those comics before things went too far south with many of the older strips (a lack of resources to buy comics was responsible).<br /><br />In fact, this is one reason I like webcomics so much - they are free. ;) Though I do support webcartoonists by buying print compilations of their strips when they put them out. :)<br /><br />One interesting aspect about webcomics is how superheroes do not dominate the genre. Print comics often have superheroes as their selling point and it is a significant detraction on the genre. (Graphic novels differ from this, however. Or they did for some time when I first was getting into the Graphic Novel genre.) The reduced cost of webcomics has allowed them to flourish in ways that print comics don't allow. Indeed, the significant number of scifi webcomics Dr. Brin posted recently would be a massive minority with most not printed if they had to rely on print compilations! <br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85202274553988059822016-06-19T22:13:00.942-07:002016-06-19T22:13:00.942-07:00@locumranch: Then, the EU will fall apart (if not ...@locumranch: <i>Then, the EU will fall apart (if not on June 23 then at a later date) and, with it, the global consensus; the Nationalists will rise to power (only problematic if they fuse with Socialism & Imperialism); the USA & UK will attempt to isolate themselves; the Russian Federation will roll west; Australia will become Indonesia; China & India will be a huge mess; and chaos will reign supreme until (if & when) the Heroes return.</i><br /><br />Okay. That's worth a chuckle. The Russians are sinking into bankruptcy right now. A year ago their inflation rate was up around 16% which cuts the currency's value in half about every 4.5 years. They have it down to the low 7% range now which extends to halving rate to 10 years. Putin is about to have his hand forced to choose between national security and internal investments. Ukraine vs National Economy. Russia has a long track record of choosing national security in these situations because they know there people will suffer the difficulties, but WE know where this leads. We've seen it before.<br /><br />Confusing political policy of the US and UK with the economic policy of their citizens is an old mistake. US exports as a percentage of GDP is around 13.5%. The UK is a touch under 30%. Neither of us is going to go hide in a hole unless the US hole includes Canada and Mexico.<br /><br />As for huge messes, I'd like to see you define that term from the dictionary and see you put up some money for a bet on how good your crystal ball is. I need to raise some cash for my wife's next education goal. 8)<br /><br />The EU will come apart in meaningful ways, though. It won't do it over the UK vote, but I won't bet on it meaning much in another generation.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23182202704002177312016-06-19T21:44:32.682-07:002016-06-19T21:44:32.682-07:00I'm not sure we should consider Marx's wri...I'm not sure we should consider Marx's writing as a self-preventing prophesy. We seriously tried to make the vision work and millions died. The educated among us who advocated this path into the future committed a treason against the Enlightenment and should be smacked for it.<br /><br />Marx's history is simply wrong. While it is possible his ideas could work, they won't work with real human beings. We aren't disinterested planners. We aren't prudence-only, utility optimizing decision makers.<br /><br />I also strongly doubt the bourgeoisie understood enough to knowingly reform away from Marx's predictions. I think it more likely that Marx simply got it wrong and we weren't heading where he thought we were going. The proletariats joined the bourgeoisie. The aristocrats were pulled down to join the bourgeoisie. TANSTAAFL turned out to be wrong over the long haul and the bourgeois clade is consuming the entire social pyramid proving that. Their is a social 'gray goo' loose on this planet that doesn't really understand itself. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.com