Indeed, Marx was primarily a philosopher. His attempt to relate dialectic to materialism accepts a lot of criticism but he had to do it and he did!
As so often happens, he was misunderstood by the masses and exploited by the politicians.
Do you read Herodotous ? I don't know if all the bad things about me are by reading him. He ruined me like Dawkins ruined the rest. Dawn good read with insights far advanced on most I meet. Such as when he talks about forbidden subjects it is just to get the history in context. He has a very modern understanding of the sensibilities of discussing them. When I finally get time Plato should be my reading. The first pages of H are pure magic and not really how it continues. The Eygptions talked about as we do now through the telescope of time.
Herodotous says approximately " The Athenians were choosen as they were the only people to remain in one place throughout history. When others moved, they move considerable distantces ". Mr H would be a Turk these days and wasn't of Athens.
Herodotous says approximately " The Athenians were choosen as they were the only people to remain in one place throughout history. When others moved, they move considerable distantces ". Mr H would be a Turk these days and wasn't of Athens.
Herodotus was kind of a journalist at a time when educated people were more or less philosophers. He was from Halicarnassus, a greek city-state on the other side of Aegean sea from Athens, another greek city state. Those cities were related by means of civilization but otherwise ready to declaire war to each other if situations were calling for this!
PS. Save some time for Heraclitus!
PS. Save some time for Heraclitus!
Any pure type of political system can't work because it ignores the complex and paradoxical nature of people. Sure, pure socialism would be groovy if everybody went to work and pitched in and only took what they wanted. Cooperation and sharing are vital evolutionary features; so are greed and deception. Having both features in a population serves the goal of long term survival of the population. All that matters is that somebody passes on some genes and that the offspring are able to perpetuate this. That's it.
We see the same thing in primates. In social groups of chimps,there is always a dominant male that defends his right to be the only male to breed with the females. He defends this status until another male comes along and kicks his ***. But even some of the younger males manage to breed. They have to be very sneaky and be ready to sneak away from the group with a willing female while the alpha male is distracted. He has to be very clever because if he gets caught he's in for a hell of an *** whipping.
So are big alpha bully genes perpetuated in this social system? Yes. Are clever sneaky genes perpetuated in this social system? Yes. Does the presence of both types of genes in the population serve the goal of its survival? Yes.
We are very complex, very imperfect, very flawed creatures. It doesn't matter though for survival of the species, until it does.
The sooner you realize that society is flawed, everyone you know is flawed, and you are flawed, and accept the reasons why, the smarter and happier you'll be. I have a buddy - very "smart" in a bookish way - who is sick and getting sicker. He's going through all the remorse of hindsight, recalling times when he was a bit of a dick and especially when all his friends were not perfect. He's still complaining about the time when I drank his last beer when we were roommates in college - that was in 1978! I say what's the point, quit torturing yourself buddy. Everybody has regrets and you're not quite on your deathbed yet - let's go to the park and listen to some live music instead. Forget the bad stuff we did; we've been friends for 50 years and you know who's going to be right there when you breathe your last breath, so give it a break.
I used to believe that, perhaps prompted by Jean-Jacques Rousseu. 🙂
But is that reality? Scraping together enough to eat for your family isn't always easy. People from Cabeza de Vaca to Anthony Bourdain have remarked on what a had scrabble life primitive peoples face.
Western society does want us to work hard, but is it really a harder life than surviving in the wilderness?
I'm not sure that's true. 52% of the U.S. population works. They support the other 48%. That 48% includes all children, pensioners, prisoners, disabled and the lazy. So basically, each working person pays for one other person.
I don't know the numbers for Europe or Asia, but in my French family-in-law there were 11 kids. All but the youngest three worked, as they were in school.
The father of the Garrard 301 wrote a book on the 301 and his other inventions. Edmund Mortimer also wrote a book about life in Swindon before 1939. It was grim.
Guess Who .
Herodotus: II 19-31. On the Nile River
Now the Nile, when it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also the tracts of country on both sides the stream which are thought to belong to Libya and Arabia, in some places reaching to the extent of two days' journey from its banks, in some even exceeding that distance, but in others falling short of it.
Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others. I was particularly anxious to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins to rise, and continues to increase for a hundred days- and why, as soon as that number is past, it forthwith retires and contracts its stream, continuing low during the whole of the winter until the summer solstice comes round again. On none of these points could I obtain any explanation from the inhabitants, though I made every inquiry, wishing to know what was commonly reported- they could neither tell me what special virtue the Nile has which makes it so opposite in its nature to all other streams, nor why, unlike every other river, it gives forth no breezes from its surface.
Some of the Greeks, however, wishing to get a reputation for cleverness, have offered explanations of the phenomena of the river, for which they have accounted in three different ways. Two of these I do not think it worth while to speak of, further than simply to mention what they are. One pretends that the Etesian winds cause the rise of the river by preventing the Nile-water from running off into the sea. But in the first place it has often happened, when the Etesian winds did not blow, that the Nile has risen according to its usual wont; and further, if the Etesian winds produced the effect, the other rivers which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to present the same phenomena as the Nile, and the more so as they are all smaller streams, and have a weaker current. But these rivers, of which there are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect.
The rest if you want it. You really should, it's pure gold.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~klio/tx/gr/H-NILE.HTM
Herodotus: II 19-31. On the Nile River
Now the Nile, when it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also the tracts of country on both sides the stream which are thought to belong to Libya and Arabia, in some places reaching to the extent of two days' journey from its banks, in some even exceeding that distance, but in others falling short of it.
Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others. I was particularly anxious to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins to rise, and continues to increase for a hundred days- and why, as soon as that number is past, it forthwith retires and contracts its stream, continuing low during the whole of the winter until the summer solstice comes round again. On none of these points could I obtain any explanation from the inhabitants, though I made every inquiry, wishing to know what was commonly reported- they could neither tell me what special virtue the Nile has which makes it so opposite in its nature to all other streams, nor why, unlike every other river, it gives forth no breezes from its surface.
Some of the Greeks, however, wishing to get a reputation for cleverness, have offered explanations of the phenomena of the river, for which they have accounted in three different ways. Two of these I do not think it worth while to speak of, further than simply to mention what they are. One pretends that the Etesian winds cause the rise of the river by preventing the Nile-water from running off into the sea. But in the first place it has often happened, when the Etesian winds did not blow, that the Nile has risen according to its usual wont; and further, if the Etesian winds produced the effect, the other rivers which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to present the same phenomena as the Nile, and the more so as they are all smaller streams, and have a weaker current. But these rivers, of which there are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect.
The rest if you want it. You really should, it's pure gold.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~klio/tx/gr/H-NILE.HTM
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I'm not sure of the statistics. But in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois, the math isn't working. Prices are high as hell and taxes eat more than half of just about any working person's salary - not only federal and state, but 10.25% sales tax (not VAT tax), half the cost of a gallon of gas is tax, property tax, various transaction taxes, tollway is a perpetual tax, etc.
I wouldn't mind if the system worked but there's problems in all sectors of society. And the State of Illinois couldn't pay its backlog of bills if they charged 50% income tax - they just raised taxes AGAIN but it won't make much difference. At this point I feel like I'm burning my money when I pay my taxes because our "leaders"are more interested in self aggrandizing and we haven't even had a budget in over two years - courts are now deciding which bills must be paid and who gets stiffed. Money is fleeing the state and I might leave too - it's collapsing. And it's people like me that have been paying for it all along, at the barrel of a government gun.
And stupid, lazy people are still having all the babies. See where this is going,from a biological point of view?
Personally, I can't find any connection between my IQ and the fact that I don't have any children. It is rather females IQ that prevented that, I think!😀
Taxes
This brought Eygpt down all those years ago. So much so they didn't realise that had lost control of the country to Greece as we might call it. In turn Rome did the same when Greece. The one thing none of them changed was learning! Even the Vikings that became Normans were the same. In Eygpt all wanted to be priests and none wanted to work.
Herodotous stated that Egypt's powers in maths came from rectangular use of land and flood cycles. They knew how to turn a slave into a surf. The surf works better than the slave and deserves a bonus. Mr H said this continuous use of shapes and numbers has forced the Eygyptions to think very deeply about maths and geometry. Mr H also said Eygpt worked very well when the floods wiped out land. The officials were very quick to make land available to cool disputes and hardship.
This brought Eygpt down all those years ago. So much so they didn't realise that had lost control of the country to Greece as we might call it. In turn Rome did the same when Greece. The one thing none of them changed was learning! Even the Vikings that became Normans were the same. In Eygpt all wanted to be priests and none wanted to work.
Herodotous stated that Egypt's powers in maths came from rectangular use of land and flood cycles. They knew how to turn a slave into a surf. The surf works better than the slave and deserves a bonus. Mr H said this continuous use of shapes and numbers has forced the Eygyptions to think very deeply about maths and geometry. Mr H also said Eygpt worked very well when the floods wiped out land. The officials were very quick to make land available to cool disputes and hardship.
OK, thanks. You just lost all credibility on the subject. We can safely ignore you now. 😀
Note: Why are veering off into politics? No need for that.
Oh, look what one can do with a simple rearrangement of the available material, nothing added, nothing taken away............I'm doing my bit for the planet...flat or otherwise
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