Hindsight

Constantly, older generations are telling me what it was like when they were young and they compare the freedom they had to the freedom we have now. Apparently people were more able to speak out. An example of that is Sex pistol's song God save the queen. Playing that on the Thames during the diamond jubillie. Or even pirate radios. There were seriously large scale protests and complete population strikes. Currently, residents in London are photographed and monitered a horrendous amount of times simply walking down the street. Protests are dictated by the police who say where and how fast protesters can go.

I don't know how things are in America or many other places, so your input is welcome.

My question is, looking back on how things were and the current way things are done, do you think socioty has gone the correct way? Do you think authority figures hold too much power? Should we to react things, if there is anything to react to at all, the way older generation did?

I strongly agree with The Randomness. In Canada there is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that gives, like America, the Freedom of Speech to all citizens. However there is a limit to this freedom. Once it goes on to the point when it causing harm in society in any way,whether it be mental or physical, that is when the right can be revoked.

Oh and if i were to compare the freedom that past generations had compared the current one, i would have to say that concept of "freedom"has greatly expanded. I will say that government officials hold too much power, however that is how society works, the ones with he money have power. But back to the point, i would say that this generation has so much freedom and one of the main reasons for this is because of the internet. Comparing the older generation, the internet gives us a strong sense of freedom, being able to do countless of things online and enjoy the fruits that hangs from its branches. Older generation were not able to have this kind of freedom, there was of a different type.

That being said, i think that the concept of "freedom" will change as time goes on. I can't say how, but future generation could compare their freedom with ours and say that they definitely have more. But anyway that my take...

Please correct me if i have stated a fact that is wrong.

This topic brings to mind, for me, the "1984 vs. Brave New World" look at progress.

It seems like a lot of people have a real fear of a 1984-like scenario, and in fact believe it already exists, especially with things like the Patriot Act in the US or the ubiquitous CCTV in the UK. I don't necessarily disagree with this fear; the advancement of technology makes it easier for those in power to see into our private lives, and that can be scary. I think, though, that the overbearing, totalitarian style of controlling the masses is probably too obvious to be effective. I think any system in which people know they are being subjugated is unsustainable.

I'm more concerned with the Brave New World scenario; a world in which every aspect of life is controlled by the system, but everyone is kept complacent with drugs and over-saturation of media.
Modern society being more like Brave New World than 1984 is the subject of the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," and I think it's even more true now that it was in 1985 when the book was written.

Also, I think it's hard to quantify freedom, and it's sort of a subjective thing. An extreme example could be slavery. To abolish slavery increases the freedom of slaves, because they now own themselves, but it decreases the freedom of slave-owners, because they are no long free to own slaves.

That being said, I think we are more free in some ways, and maybe less in others.

And I don't think the real issue is the freedom to do things like speak out against government and corporations going away, but the relevancy of doing so going away. I think peaceful protest is pointless, and the general response people give to hearing the truth of things is, "Yes, and so?"

This kind of thinking is bred by ignorance.

Learn about governments, learn about laws, learn about human nature, learn about society, learn about action vs consequence and learn about the meaning of true freedom.

This isn't a broad 'THEY ARE TAKING OUT FREEDOM', there are genuine reasons why laws and systems are made. To think it's a conspiracy for control is mostly ignorant.

Of course, your examples also work the other way round. Most of society is being careful about what they say due to this. Plenty of people can't, for a moment, look at things diffrently. If I say a political group did something wrong, I'm suddenly ignorent. But It's how many of us are. I've been guilty of this so many times before but now I try and look at something differently for an understanding. Allthough I'll never be able to do that with some of the stupid shit people do. It's not always bad though, defiance has given a vast amount of people more, slaves for example.



We do have freedom of speech as a civil right over here, but, I think it's more restrictive. If you start insulting someone for all to hear, it might be disturbing the public. If you decide to bring sexual orientation, gender or beleifs into your insults you'll be shut down instantly. That goes for threats as well. It's understandable but it isn't really freedom of speech if you think about it.



Something I've noticed is that the law hopes you don't actually know the rules. People don't even know you don't have to let police stop and search you, you don't have to give your details to them and you aren't even obliged to pay any attention to them if they call you over. People don't know this because they aren't told. We don't really have anything like the bill/charter of rights to stop members of socioty from getting power. I think that's due to having a monarchy before a government. Basically, what the government says, goes.



This is what socioty expects of us. When a major event happens everybody is supposed to make a scene. It doesn't who you are or where your from, if you don't react you don't belong in socioty. Yes, even if it has fuck all to do with you. Once everyone has recovered from their state of shock halfway across the world, they ocupy themselves with something comepletely unimporatant. This is why things don't seem to be challenged much over here and it pisses me off that people think it's fine for this to happen. Most of the people that do challenge the government (by shouting at their tv screan) are complete hypocrits who get fooled into the same shit when their choice of government goes up. People that actually do something like protest are ignored.



Again, hypocrites that think their veiw trumps everyone else's. You probably didn't hear about what our previous government did with peoples money. They spent random amounts of peoples cash on random things. One MP actually bought a duck house. A place for her DUCKS to swim into, eat and sleep. But guess what, people still wanted them in power. Now we have a party that supports the rich and is constantly cutting funds to serious areas. They wanted to make the NHS private. That means we would pay to go to hospital. It is a big deal over here. But people will still support this party on the next election. Why?

People bitch about everything. If they call you a pet hater because you don't like pets, tell them why you don't like pets. Such a simple issue has a simple response. If they can't understand a rational explanation, they're not worth your time.


You said it yourself, as long as they are able to meet the requirements set by the military, gender isn't an issue. For what it's worth, military standards are ridiculously strict, but that's an entirely different issue.



I thought it was important to quote this because you've been bitching about what people say about what you say.

I think it's important to impart a certain piece of wisdom at this point. Say what you will, but take into account what other people say, even if it is stupid.



If that's the problem, stop bitching and learn from them. Get the people on the "good side" to voice their opinions more and even louder.

I think you've missed my point. Rationality is subjective. There are many people who can rationalize many different ideas. I believe in The One Truth, but it is undiscernable unless you can take a step back and see things objectively.

I'll repeat myself... Say what you will, but take into account what other people say, even if it is stupid.

I could easily respond to every post on every thread in the Serious Discussion section with a pearl of wisdom. That is the truth, let your disbelief be the measure of my honesty.

I have my own set of beliefs, but I recognize that I might be wrong. In the end, I may be wrong, but my openness to other ideas is the gateway to The One Truth.

As time goes onward people constantly challenge what guidelines have already been set and want to take new liberties, the opposite is rarely true and structure is not often replaced. So the aging society always feels that people have freedom, as their parents did before them. This answers your question hopefully but bed the question when will we hit the breaking pout or is there one? Notice how clothing has become more lax as time goes onward, from tight dresses to lose ones to pants to skirts to booty shorts. What is next, will people wear only underwear will we all streak around nude? I think not so when the barrier is hit will we stop challenging the norm? What happens then?

I view hindsight as an annoying thing that follows you around constantly telling you how you fucked up