Thornbrier
20th May 2012, 05:35
Salutation, greetings, hola, salude, saluton.
I am Thorn Brier, and this is my brief tale of my journey here.
The past few years have been quite a ride for me as I've gone from hardcore whako mormonism to wishful thinking (The Secret, Law of Attraction), to atheism, and finally skepticism.
Skepticism has caused me to challenge everything I thought I knew about people and the world in general. Some things it turned out I had right, many others I had so wrong, and still others I am continuing to look into either because we just don't know yet, or because I haven't found that we do.
These last few months my concepts of the value of capitalism have been going down hill (I was Libertarian). Socialism began making more and more sense to me. Then I met a Marxist in my philosophical writing class and realized I didn't really know Marx's claims, only what others had written about his claims and the general capitalist view of communist states.
Since I knew debates were coming up in our class I wanted to be ready for when the topic came up, so I started my research at Wikipedia to get a good overview of the topic. My eyes were opened akin to when I first read The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!
Sure, there are various versions, but there will always be differing opinions. This is people we are talking about, not a simple topic.
A couple days later I am asked to write a paper on a complicated topic, and I figure I would write on the merits and flaws (from a personal psychological perspective) of providing free housing.
And my research brings me here today.
My view of the future in the SpoilerCurrently, I don't know if Communism is possible. Though I do believe it is necessary for our survival. And, at the very least, I think we can make it possible with technology.
In my undereducated view True Communism (without class, without money, without personal property) would require True Democracy (ie everyone gets a single vote on every significant matter). I view this as impractical unless we develop a technological method for everyone to be up-to-date on the issues and able to cast their secure vote in a timely manner. We are not there yet, but I think it is only a matter of time before we develop the technology required to facilitate such a system.
Now, as "a lynch mob is a true democracy" as well, I think we would have to establish a Consitution-like foundation for equality and reason.
I imagine a future in which everyone has a personalized and biometrically locked PDA like device on a world wide network. They are notified of issues, can propose issues, can research issues, debate issues, and can vote on issues, all anonymously (or not, but that's a whole different topic). Oh, and they can also use it like a normal smart phone if they want.
For those in favor of a system of work assignments you could get your assignments on the device. For those in favor of the system of picking jobs the jobs could be posted and selected via the device.
I am Thorn Brier, and this is my brief tale of my journey here.
The past few years have been quite a ride for me as I've gone from hardcore whako mormonism to wishful thinking (The Secret, Law of Attraction), to atheism, and finally skepticism.
Skepticism has caused me to challenge everything I thought I knew about people and the world in general. Some things it turned out I had right, many others I had so wrong, and still others I am continuing to look into either because we just don't know yet, or because I haven't found that we do.
These last few months my concepts of the value of capitalism have been going down hill (I was Libertarian). Socialism began making more and more sense to me. Then I met a Marxist in my philosophical writing class and realized I didn't really know Marx's claims, only what others had written about his claims and the general capitalist view of communist states.
Since I knew debates were coming up in our class I wanted to be ready for when the topic came up, so I started my research at Wikipedia to get a good overview of the topic. My eyes were opened akin to when I first read The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!
Sure, there are various versions, but there will always be differing opinions. This is people we are talking about, not a simple topic.
A couple days later I am asked to write a paper on a complicated topic, and I figure I would write on the merits and flaws (from a personal psychological perspective) of providing free housing.
And my research brings me here today.
My view of the future in the SpoilerCurrently, I don't know if Communism is possible. Though I do believe it is necessary for our survival. And, at the very least, I think we can make it possible with technology.
In my undereducated view True Communism (without class, without money, without personal property) would require True Democracy (ie everyone gets a single vote on every significant matter). I view this as impractical unless we develop a technological method for everyone to be up-to-date on the issues and able to cast their secure vote in a timely manner. We are not there yet, but I think it is only a matter of time before we develop the technology required to facilitate such a system.
Now, as "a lynch mob is a true democracy" as well, I think we would have to establish a Consitution-like foundation for equality and reason.
I imagine a future in which everyone has a personalized and biometrically locked PDA like device on a world wide network. They are notified of issues, can propose issues, can research issues, debate issues, and can vote on issues, all anonymously (or not, but that's a whole different topic). Oh, and they can also use it like a normal smart phone if they want.
For those in favor of a system of work assignments you could get your assignments on the device. For those in favor of the system of picking jobs the jobs could be posted and selected via the device.