It's like deja vu all over again...and again....and again.....

[jus_the_facts]

"We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin; Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures and the Congress, and touches even the bench. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few." From the Populist Party platform, July 4, 1892


http://www.winterboy.com/dejavuintro.html

....HISTORY proves the *HAVES and HAVE MORES* will always rule over the HAVE NOTHINGS....we bigger brained animals never LEARN from our histories...but are desperately doomed to repeat them....same ol' song and dance over our existence....as so much changes...it all stays the same....can't look at any of this any differently than all other trials and tribulations throughout the eons of time....the names have changed but the end result remains the same damned shame.

[jojo54]

1. The more things change, the more they stay the same....

and I'm happy to see that someone else remembers the infamous "haves and have mores" comment.

[jus_the_facts]

7. Indeed...just reminded myself that i'm *a have and have more*

...to your average Etheopian...sigh...reality is..if all the atrocious things in history hadn't happened where millions of people died...we'd have already consumed the planet and ourselves to extinction...the paradoxes o'life boggle the mind.

[Protagoras]

2. Always right up till the moment that the Have Nothings

say ENOUGH. Then heads tend to roll.

[jus_the_facts]

3. ...then their animalistic tendencies of the very greed they fought...

...against rears it's ugly head again..they become what they once loathed...time and nature march on....our emotions never evolving with our ability to consume our environment while learning new and improved ways of killing each other over territory and and resources....the differences in the way we choose to view how it is we exist in the first place...same shit different millennia...logic and reason loses to emotion and greed every time. :evilfrown:

[Protagoras]

4. True...a new elite rises from the ashes of the old

but that doesn't mean the period between can't last a good long while...or that wisdom can't arise from that period. We can grow and advance. And each time we go through the change we have a new opportunity.

Note...there is a certain level of arbitrary selection here...you can count each time the elite rise to authoritarianism and describe history by hopping from valley to valley...and I can count the times that Despots have been brought down and lives were improved and look from peak to peak.

Is there a gross pattern if we look at it sans context? Sure. But I can assure you that the actions that take place in the present...acquiescence vs rebellion...very much makes a difference in the lives of those living throught it.

We live today. What do we want to do?

[jus_the_facts]

5. The laws of nature will decide our fate...we can't continue to grow...

...and advance consuming our planet in our wake in hope of some universal enlightenment that could change it for the better for all....unless a whole lot of people DIE...then it's only short lived...thousands of years of the ebb and flow of this happening has only made us more complacent and more divided than ever....guess I should just be thankful that I can sit and type this instead of being in say Etheopia sleeping in sewage....sigh.

[Protagoras]

6. been reading Liebnitz or something lately?

your determinism sure is taking you to a bleak place.

Yep the world can be a nasty, dirty, brutish place...but check out some nice happy psuedo existentialism...define your own good/purpose/value.

For a light read, escape into Richard Bach's Illusions...you don't need the sour stomach that comes with unremitting negativism.

Keep hope alive :D

[jus_the_facts]

8. I'm not negative....it's reality based cynicism.....

....I SEE through the veil of illusions cast to placate the masses...and hope is just another illusion of which I choose to apply sparingly as not to suffer as much mentally as many will when the grand illusions begin to fail to keep them alive and prosperous...which they most definitely will.

[jus_the_facts]

9. a swift kick to the head.....

....for what it's WORTH. :eyes:

[jus_the_facts]

10. kick