tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post233326587775368638..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: The Deakin storyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-92141274486871541992018-05-15T10:10:15.349+10:002018-05-15T10:10:15.349+10:00Deakin seems, as you portray him, almost half trag...Deakin seems, as you portray him, almost half tragic, as if he was one of the last few conflicted men to knowingly throw off the conservative shackles, for God's sake. Is he the quintessential emerging modern liberal, mentally pocketing his few vestigial traditionalist thought experiments while politicking "progressive" policies? <br />What does it matter what we think if we do nothing about it; if we know something is wrong, and we do nothing to stop it? What is that? What is the mental mechanism that allows men to act against the good with a straight face? What god was he listening to?<br />Is modern liberalism a temporary human aberration or glitch? Is it genetic defect that will select out before it's too late? Or, is it a new branch or path compelling human exploration? It has the effect of a new force of nature acting on humans like the new fifth, so-called "dark matter" to go along with strong and weak nuclear, electromagnetism and gravity? <br />It seems to me that it can't succeed without technical adjustments, but technical prowess is a human thing. Growing expertise in the sciences will mollify certain fears about obvious challenges to a natural order less definite for lazy-fair modern humans, with less resistance to overcome. The natural order is immutable, but it can be denied and defied in a committed systematic regime of technical and psychological work arounds, which are clearly underway. <br />Is Deakin typical of many in his day? Did he know in his heart what was coming and say to himself, "what the hell can I do about it. Let's see where this goes"? Was he ahead of his time and ready for the change?<br />I feel like an anthropologist pondering something more structural than what we suspect is at play. I can't help but to note, almost incidentally, that something as fundamental as the sudden explosion in human population growth (more than 3 fold since my birth, more than 10 fold since the Black Death, more than a 25 times since the birth of Jesus Christ.) - like over flowing boiling water puts out the fire that caused it - has a good bit more to do with the growing mass psychosis in "civilized" populations than with the mundane challenges of material resources. I realize that there is still plenty of room, but is that really how it's going to work? "Everyone take you places!"<br />Is evolution-ism dead? Simple human stuff continues to get more complex. What about human nature? Is it fixed, or not? Are we in over our heads? Have we the slightest clue as to what we're doing and to what is coming? <br />Buck Onoreply@blogger.com