Boom?

[!Luck]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...festo.text.htm

[spoonitnow]

Posting in a !Luck thread.

[oskar]

You really are the shitlord of shitposts. This is worse than spoon's less than elaborate troll threads. What do you have to say for yourself?

[!Luck]

Thought it was an interesting read, especially considering it was written by the Unabomber.

Thus, the sharing with the community.

[MadMojoMonkey]

[a500lbgorilla]

1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in “advanced” countries.

Yesterday, while driving home, I was lucky enough to catch a radio show called On Being interviewing an Irish philosopher poet John O'Donohue. He talks about the beauty of landscapes and the deep fortune he enjoyed for living in Western Ireland where the landscapes are abstract and natural and open and free. The imagination lives off such places and they gift him an inexhaustible reserve of beautiful thoughts to call on; which Pascal recommends you always have one in mind. There is a loss, he says, that inner city youths suffer unknowingly for living in a landscape so drawn, regimented, and commonly maintained. It reminds me of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance, another author trying to make the point that the Quality has been drained from the world on the back of the advent of technology.

It's been said that there are two types of people, systematizers and emapths, who differ in how they appreciate the world. When standing on top of a mountain, do you appreciate the beauty of the view or that of the processes of nature which created it? I know which one I'm in. I have very little appreciation for aesthetics, and a great view of methods and the rational history of phenomenon. I'm a big fan of the industrial revolution and am deaf to the losses of inner or outer beauty it may have incurred.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I remember once when I was a teenager, I was riding in a car full of friends. We drove past a large electrical substation. It was one of the complex sites with dozens of HV towers and transformers and over-sized electrical thingamajigs. I remember saying how beautiful it was. My friends looked at me like I was joking, but when they saw that I wasn't, they were a bit uncomfortable. One of them said something about how I was the only person in the world who thought that hideous monstrosity was pretty.

I guess that puts me on the functional side.

I've seen vistas from the mountains of New Mexico that I will never forget. I don't think about how nature made them, so much. I just remember being stunned and overwhelmed by the expanse of the landscape I could see. I remember the feeling of personal empowerment I felt to see so much stuff. Like as if seeing it made it mine or something.

I guess that puts me on the aesthetic side.

[chardrian]

I rarely, if ever, get pms

[!Luck]

one things that rings true for me is when i'm in nature, i don't need a computer. i can sit there and stair at the trees, water, fire, whatever in front of me without having to be distracted by educational resources that are ever present at my fingertips.

[oskar]

I just tried this with a bath towel and then a second time with a full sized linen. and both are way too small. In order for you to tie it like that you'd need a tunica bigger than my dick. THIS PICTURE IS LYING TO YOU!

[MadMojoMonkey]

I just tried this with a bath towel and then a second time with a full sized linen. and both are way too small. In order for you to tie it like that you'd need a tunica bigger than my dick. THIS PICTURE IS LYING TO YOU!