Civilisations are like a rollercoaster

I had an epiphany last night, Western civilisation is in decline, the signs and symptoms are everywhere, you just have to look. Each civilisation throughout history saw itself as the pinicle of progress and believed it's own hype so much that it could not envision how it's reign could ever end. The Egyptians, the Romans and now Western civilisation. Pounds to penny's 99% of the population can't see it and can't see what could possibly replace it. I don't know what is going to replace it either but I do know that history dictates it is going to happen. There is nothing ANYONE can do about it, the writing is on the safety rails just glance to the side instead of being fascinated by the clouds. The ratchets prevent us going back, the only effect you could possibly have is as useful as sticking your chewing gum under the seat. Each civilisation goes through a period of ascendancy, it's very exciting, everybody is safely strapped in, the view gets better and better, the only view is the sky and we just keep heading in that direction. The problem is, in the words of someone alot more famous than I, "What goes up, must come down" I believe we have reached the peak, I think I am in one of the front carriages, I can see that we are no longer going up. I have no idea where we will end up but I know for sure that the decent is inevitable. The people behind me still believe that nothing is wrong and think that the troubles we are having are just isolated incidents. History will show how wrong they are. Some of the canary's dropping off their perch are: 1. The legal system is no longer about justice, the law is a weapon. The more skilled the weilder the more likely the win. Justice and who is right has nothing to do with it. 2. Paris Hilton. Talentless idiots with money are still talentless. It baffled me until last night why I am so sickened by her popularity. It's not really her, she is just the symptom of our society in it's death throws. 3. The worship of the dollar over decency. Yahoo, Google and many many other companies do not care about decency, they don't care about Chinas brutal supression of it's own citizens. They filter their content into China so they can make money. 4. The USA Oil War. The US have such belief in their own "rightness" that they ignored their own intelligence about "WMD". The push into Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism, it has nothing to do with democracy, it has nothing to do with anything but the supply of oil. 5. Guantanamo Bay. Attached to the above is the US belief that they don't have to play by the rules. Doing evil in the name of good is still evil. Guantanamo Bay was specifically selected because it is a legal no-mans land. It is not part of the US so US laws don't apply, it is actually in another country controlled by the USA. The US also claimed the Geneva convention doesn't apply to these people because they are "enemy combatants". To them, no Geneva convention = torture ok. 6. Propaganda over truth. I was sent an e-mail the other day that likened people trying to escape with their lives from death squads or persecution to our country to a criminal breaking into your house and demanding that you accomadate them. The email didn't describe the people as I have it was simply "illegal immigrants". The Australian Govt has spun a web of lies and half truths to create the impression it wants. Like conspiracy nut jobs it presents it's case in such a way to draw a predetermined conclusion. 7. People looking outside the culture for answers. It is happening everywhere you turn, it is not possible to avoid it. I myself was listening to an American Indian music CD last night. If you have not taken a Eastern Martial arts lesson then you would know someone that has. We even do it in our health care, alternative medicines, herbs, natural remedies, Reiki, accupuncture, massage. You insticvely know that the system is not healthy and are looking elsewhere. 8. Style over substance. In a previous blog type entry I ranted about politicians announcing bullshit "fluff" policy's to get themselves relected while the basic services are falling down around our ears. I don't think any of them are called Nero and I would have to look up their bio to see if they played the fiddle. 9. All blame, no responsability. The US govt is blaming the sharply declining popularity of it Oil War on hidden muslims using the internet to stir sentiment.... ahh yeah riiiiight George.... Johnny Depp blamed his drug addiction on not being breast feed as a baby....um suuuure Johnny... Paris Hilton blamed her "people" for her drink driving and driving while suspended..... yeah no problems love.... Hang on to your hats folks, we are in for one hell of a ride, I have no idea exactly what is going to happen or where will will end up but I do know that there will be people that close their eyes and deny it, some will scream and some will puke. That aside it will be exciting and full of twists, turns and sudden changes in direction..... here we go, here we go.....weeeeeeee... put your arms up, put your arms up.... it's makes it even more exciting!!!!!  

tuxcomputers As another example of point 3 IT security at London Olympics will go to whoever pays the committee the most money. That's right, not to the best technology, not the the most efficient methods, not to innovative and creative means, not sutiability to the task, just whoever has the biggest cheque book. Posted: June 09 2007

The Central Scrutiniser you are so right harry. i have been thinking about this for some time now. civilisation is related to knowledge, and the value placed on knowledge. the highlenders in PNG had irrigation 9,000 years ago. what happened to that knowledge? it was lost somehow. we no longer value knowledge. public programmes to assist agriculture are lacking people who have any understanding of animal husbandry. gone are the days when you can ring up a government office and get someone who can tell you what is wrong with your soil. now you have to pay a private company to do that... i could go on... but i'd lose my job... Posted: June 13 2007

The Central Scrutiniser btw harry - i think you are spending too much time alone.... ^^ Posted: June 13 2007

tuxcomputers I don't think I am, I know I am, it gets very boring out here with nothing to do, I go to work before the sun comes up and leave work after it goes down, zero opportunity's for photography. Just sitting on my arse all day trying to prevent my brain going to mush with boredom. I started thinking about the issues I have with the way society is operating and if they could be just a symptom of something deeper. After realising what it was I feel much better and much happier. You either have to have blinkers on and ignore the problem or come to an understanding. I was stuck in between and feeling very frustrated, now that I have it out of my system I can stop scaring my wife with my rants that I did not know where they were coming from. It's a relief and I don't even care if others read this or come to the same realisation or not, just knowing the source of my frustration has made it go away. Posted: June 13 2007

The Central Scrutiniser writing is good. i wrote a lot when i was in a similar situation. get yourself a pen and a big notebook. write in that. don;t re-read it. just write. i have books of stuff i wrote years ago - i have never re-read it. no-one has. the content is unimportant. it's an investment in creativity. the hardest thing about writing is parking your arse on the chair. you are already parked. lucky bastard! Posted: June 14 2007

Pam Rosengren I agree with your assessment of the mess. On the other hand, I still think there is a window of opportunity to do things about it. That window is (largely) provided by the internet - as long as we use it in a way that promotes freedom and tackles these problems. If we give up, it is theirs to make a terminal mess of everything. If we let things pass such as Flickr introducing censorship to Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Germany earlier this week then I agree with you about the downhill run. If we keep on booting things like that, it is not necessarily downhill. I base this optimism on (recent) past victories. Quite recently, there was the Digg revolt (it is famous - search it or search 09 F9). A corporation was forced to acknowledge that it couldn't own a number and couldn't sue the internet. Last year, there was the Day Against DRM (digital rights management) which was the beginning of the end of that. (Why it needs to end: DRM has nothing to do with preventing piracy as claimed; it is there to lock customers in to particular products, and has adverse effects such as locking future generations out of our digital heritage.) Apple and EMI are dropping DRM, and the others will have to do it too soon. Now, for the most far-fetched ones: Pam vs Bill Gates and he lost. Twice. Way back in the late nineties, Microsoft had the idea of introducing "smart tags" - a vision combining pop-ups, spam and those awful wiggly lines you get with the spellchecker all in one on everyone's web pages. They would pick a word that might relate to a company, and up would pop that company's stock prices. Like we really want to know Apple's stock price when reading a recipe for apple strudel. Web designers hated the idea. On ZDNet there was an active thread about it. Microsoft then provided a workaround - a meta-tag we could put in the head of the pages we didn't want these hideous things to mess up. Somebody wrote "he doesn't expect much of us, does he" and quoted how many billion web pages there were for us to fix. Somebody else worked out the number of hours that would take - there wasn't an automated fix available. I then calculated the total price, at $60 an hour (which was cheap at the time), and suggested a class action to claim it while noting that it was more money than Microsoft had. My post was the last one on the thread. Smart tags were pulled that morning. Admittedly the big end of town was talking about copyright and creating unauthorised derivative pages. But I know our thread had its effect. Next, there was the time Gates was being made to pay compensation for overcharging and he offered a deal in which he would accept a ruling to give old computers to disadvantaged schools, with free Windows licences. Apple (and others) claimed it was predatory pricing, because it would lock the schools in to Microsoft product that they would have to upgrade quite soon. There was a court case over it, and it looked like MS might win. What I did was e-mail a guy called Mike Swaine (former editor of Dr Dobbs) with a local story how MS regularly provided free software to all the teachers at the school my son went to, even though it was not a disadvantaged school and there was no court ruling. That was a clear example of predatory pricing, which locked all the students in to MS products. Mike published my e-mail on his technology blog (Swaine's World), and that blew Microsoft's story out of the water. The judge ruled that Gates' offer was predatory pricing. I forget what he had to do then, but he wasn't happy. He had been trying to break Apple's lead in the US education market. Why I am saying all that stuff is that it shows things can be done. Unlikely things can be done, despite massive asymmetry of power and wealth. The networks we have are powerful, and we must protect them. Back to this Flickr/Censr thing - we can't let it break the cultural and social networks we have formed. Some of the powers that be don't like the empowerment the internet is giving to everyday people, and they would like to break that. So I am hoping people don't exit too fast (and that Flickr will realise this new setup actually violates German law and will roll it back). Writing down the things you are reflecting on is great, Tux. But please don't lose hope, for without it we really don't have anything. See you anon... Posted: June 15 2007

.steve.t You might check this out on the end of the Soviet system: delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2007/06/yegor_gai... Posted: June 18 2007

doberwoman guardian of the clan I dont anderstand anything :((( Posted: July 01 2007

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