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| SuspicionVandit |
I've read 1984, Farenheit 451, a Clockwork Orange and am currently halfway to the japanese novel, Battle Royale. I don't understand the complete meaning of "social reform", but I believe it fits the themes of these books.
All contain plots of a totalitarian government restricting its own citizens of any control. Break a rule and you become imprisoned or even executed. 1984 had a government that relinquished citizens from communicating or even thinking thoughts deemed as an uprising. Farenheit 451 took away the freedom of expression, meaning literature and art was set aflame. Clockwork Orange contained expirments on subjects that "hypnotized" them to feel revolted and ill when it came to seeing things the government deemed as immoral.
As for Battle Royale, I am actually right in the middle of the chapter that explains the game (which is students get set on a deserted island forced to kill each other until one remains.
My father was talking to me about Mexico. (conspiracy?) The mexican government does not put much funding into the school system, as a way to keep its citizens uneducated, thus unable to question the crooked government.
With the United States Patriot Act and Carnivore (is carnivore still used?) and governments acting without question or counsel from its allies, are we headed to a world where citizens are numbed and dazed by illusions that offers a chance to totalitarianism?
and a seprate topic, still with control
Are we pre-destined to do what we do? I think there is an american expression that says "whatever happens, happens." Thinking back to Matrix Reloaded, where Neo meets the Oracle on the bench: She offers him candy, and Neo knows he is "destined" to take this candy, or else why would the Oracle share it? After Neo, Morpheus and Trinity meet the Merovingian, Morphues says something like "No, it happened exactly like it was supposed to and not in any other way." There are lots of equations about time travelling to the past, but what about to the future? If you go move ahead in time, then then we could see me typing on TA. I guess when it comes to my own time period, then typing on TA x years down the line was planned for me.
also, I don't understand the world "fate", but i think there is a place for it somewhere in this thread. |
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| Radagast |
| quote: | Originally posted by SuspicionVandit
Thinking back to Matrix Reloaded, where Neo meets the Oracle on the bench: She offers him candy, and Neo knows he is "destined" to take this candy, or else why would the Oracle share it? After Neo, Morpheus and Trinity meet the Merovingian, Morphues says something like "No, it happened exactly like it was supposed to and not in any other way." |
Ah yes, but I like to recall a passage from the original Planet Of The Apes when Charlton Heston first sees the Statue Of Liberty buried in the sand: He falls to his knees and yells "YOU MANIACS. YOU BLEW IT UP. DAMN YOU. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" Are Apes "destined" to evolve from man? If I move ahead in time, will I find the Statue Of Liberty blown up and buried in the sand?
Think about it.
| quote: | If you go move ahead in time, then then we could see me typing on TA. I guess when it comes to my own time period, then typing on TA x years down the line was planned for me.
also, I don't understand the world "fate", but i think there is a place for it somewhere in this thread. |
What if I moved ahead in time and saw you get hit by a short bus while crossing the street? I might think to myself, "Fate has an ironic sense of humor." |
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| SuspicionVandit |
| quote: | Originally posted by Radagast
What if I moved ahead in time and saw you get hit by a short bus while crossing the street? I might think to myself, "Fate has an ironic sense of humor." |
hehe, humorous indeed |
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| Tranc3 |
I think we've been moving towards totalitarianism since the Nixon years when he tried to do what Bush just did - authorize the NSA to spy on Americans without consent of a court. Although...really I suppose you could say that it goes back to the British-American war of 1775/1776...possibly before, I don't remember. Even though we're taught (at least in the U.S.) that it was to gain independence from a monarchy so we could rule ourselves, really it was just a move by the richest men in the country to gain even more money and expand their power. The entire history of America has been one of repression against those who were unlucky enough to stand in its' way, with the government never taking "no" for an answer. So in that sense, we in America have always lived in a totalitarian regime, we're just led to believe we aren't. I have a friend who was born in Morocco and left because of the government there, and right now he's questioning his move.
But then again we've always had a ruler/multiple rulers who have either blatantly or subtly kept the rest of the people under a good deal of control. As long as greed exists, these things will always occur, with one person placing himself or herself above another, so to speak.
About fate...I'd like to believe that I am in complete control of my actions, but if that were true, it would negate the possibility of an omnipotent being. Now I'm not suggesting that an omnipotent being exists, or that I necessarily believe in one, but I accept the possibility. What I do believe in is causality, so that matter came into existence through some action. How that action itself came into existence, I have no idea, but I feel it must be something beyond my comprehension, or simply something I have yet to think of. An omnipotent being would certainly provide a simple way out of this paradox, but it would mean that at least some of our actions are predetermined. The counter argument is, of course, what if the omnipotent being simply created something that was able to think completely on its' own because it had no desire to control that creation. I guess it comes down to the idea of "Can an omnipotent being microwave a burrito so hot that not even the same being can eat it without burning itself?" Or, to take a more classical approach, "Can God create a rock so heavy that not even he can lift it?" Again, we run into another paradox, which points to the impossibility of an omnipotent being...or maybe I'm just missing something.
This is getting rather long for a forum post, so I'll end with a childhood memory. I recall wondering sometime around the second grade (which would be 6-7 years of age) whether or not I was in control of my actions, and I remember picturing two old men sitting in a forest, playing a chess-like game. One man looks like Bak-Mei (otherwise known as Pai-Mei in the U.S.), and the other looks like the classic God figure. No matter what I do, it was done before on the chessboard by the two old men. To that extent, I think I still believe in fate because of that memory. |
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