Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- From: Mark_Reichert@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:13:34 -0700 (PDT)
On Jun 13, 12:23 pm, Quadibloc <jsav...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 13, 6:43 am, il...@xxxxxxx wrote:
Does anyone else find this trope irritating and unbelievable?
It can be irritating without being unbelievable.
Someone else noted that often people do learn from recent history -
and, thus, they overcompensate, and err in the opposite direction from
their immediate predecessors. But that doesn't stop errors from being
repeated in the same direction when you skip a generation, in fact, it
makes it more likely.
But why _should_ errors be repeated, when people have access to so
much written history nowadays?
Avoiding the mistakes of people in past history assumes we have a
choice.
For example, it is now said that with global warming, we are in danger
of repeating the mistakes of the ancient Babylonians and others whose
civilizations collapsed due to environmental problems.
Do we have the choice today of drastically cutting back our energy
consumption?
Typical false choice. More money should have been prudently invested
in renewable energy research so that we'd have relatively cheap solar
and wind alternatives and electrical storage options to turn to now.
We should have been going massively into debt to put solar panels and
wind turbines on every roof and an electric car in every garage,
rather than McMansions, a worse than useless invasion, and tax breaks
for companies so their CEOs can get hundred million dollar bonuses for
failing businesses.
But that wasn't likely in United Corporations of America, particularly
when the fossil fuel industry calls all the shots.
At least in the previous Gilded Age, the country's infrastructure was
built up not allowed to fall apart.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- From: John Schilling
- Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- From: Quadibloc
- Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- From: Matthias Warkus
- Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- References:
- Prev by Date: Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- Next by Date: Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- Previous by thread: Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- Next by thread: Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
