@rookie54 saidThere is something seriously wrong with a world in which humans have to prove they're human. I mean, look how hard it is just to prove you're an AMERICAN ....
computers write shakespearian sonnets
with a keats accent
computers control entire warehouses of food destined for the masses of humans outside the gates
computers drive yer car for you, while you relax in computer climate controlled comfort
when a computer wants to know if a human is a computer
the test is for the human to identify pictures of traffic lights and photos of cars
and yer computer tells yer car to take a left
I would like to preface my 'thoughts that keep me awake' by saying that - yes, what I have to say is political.
However, I still have to say it because it is the truth.
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I worry about all the people caught up in vicious wars, where anybody can be a victim, including children.
I never was a believer in thinking that killing enough of 'them' to make them wave the white flag means you won.
It only means you have bigger bombs. that's all,
It's still cold out there - freezing in Ukraine. Iran. food is getting scarce.
and just when you think progress is made, another war breaks out.
this is on my mind quite frequently, at night.
can we please have some peace!!
@Earl-of-Trumps
So true, Earl. War is total destruction of our beautiful planet and a disaster for all living species. I recall having watched a very interesting documentary and the thing that stays in my mind is a statement saying that we, just like other extinct species will cease to exist just like the Neanderthals because we are not fit for the new reality. But there will be another kind of beings who are superior and adaptable to the new world.
In 458 BC, Rome was on the brink of collapse.
An invading army had trapped the Roman consul and his legion in a mountain pass. Panic spread through the city. The Senate did the only thing they could think of:
They sent messengers to find a 60-year-old farmer plowing his field.
His name was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He had once been a senator, then lost his fortune paying his son's bail. Now he worked his own four-acre plot just to feed his family.
When the Senate's envoys arrived, they found him sweating behind a plow. They asked him to put on his toga so they could deliver an official message.
The message: Rome was making him dictator. Absolute power. Total command of the army. No checks. No oversight. No term limit.
He accepted.
Within 16 days, Cincinnatus had raised an army, marched out, surrounded the enemy, and forced their surrender. The republic was saved.
He had legal authority to rule for six months. He could have stayed. He could have expanded his power. He could have done what every other ruler in human history did when handed unlimited control.
Instead, he resigned on day 16.
He took off the toga, walked back to his farm, and finished plowing the field he'd left half-done.
Twenty years later, when Rome faced another crisis, they called him back. He was 80 years old. He took command, crushed the conspiracy, and resigned again, this time after just 21 days.
He died poor. On his farm.
2,200 years later, when George Washington was offered a kingship after winning the American Revolution, he refused and went home to Mount Vernon. The reason he was hailed as "the American Cincinnatus" is because Europeans literally could not believe a man who had won would willingly give up power.
King George III, on hearing Washington would resign rather than rule, said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
The lesson isn't that Cincinnatus was humble.
The lesson is that for most of human history, the people most qualified to lead were the ones who didn't want to. And the moment a society starts rewarding those who chase power instead of those who flee from it is the moment the republic begins to die.
@The-History-Professor
i like american baseball
i mean, i REALLY REALLY like it a lot
but what if i liked it so much
SO DANG MUCH
i began to actively look for boring statistics that were very interesting
i mean, VERY interesting
SO DANG INTERESTING that it would bore a normal person to tears in a matter of seconds
i'm talking metric seconds, they're shorter than imperial seconds
quite the conundrum, eh, rookieboy?
i found one
@Earl-of-Trumps saidPeace will come only when people stop trying to impose their will on other people.
I would like to preface my 'thoughts that keep me awake' by saying that - yes, what I have to say is political.
However, I still have to say it because it is the truth.
--------------
I worry about all the people caught up in vicious wars, where anybody can be a victim, including children.
I never was a believer in thinking that killing enough of 'them' to make t ...[text shortened]... war breaks out.
this is on my mind quite frequently, at night.
can we please have some peace!!
- Joined
- 14 Mar 04
- Moves
- 217842
@moonbus saidWhich is, sadly, very unlikely to happen.😢
Peace will come only when people stop trying to impose their will on other people.
