hollowing out - a new way of producing two species?
This was
based on H.G. Wells' Fabian socialist views of the working and owning classes.
"The Morlocks' physical features are the result of thousands of
generations of living without sunlight. They have dull grey-to-white
skin, chinless faces, large greyish-red eyes with a capacity for reflecting light, and flaxen hair on the head and back. They are
smaller than humans, presumably being the same height as the Eloi.
Like the Eloi, they are significantly weaker than the average human
being (the Time Traveler hurt or killed some barehandedly with
relative ease), but a large swarm of them can be a serious threat for
a man alone, especially unarmed and/or with no portable light source,
their stealth and their good vision in the dark making up for their
lack of strength and resistance. Their sensitivity to light usually
prevents them from attacking during the day.
" When he first encounters a Morlock, the Time Traveler begins to piece
together a new image of the future world of the year 802,701 AD. The
Morlocks and the Eloi have something of a symbiotic relationship: the Eloi are clothed and fed by the Morlocks, and in return, the Morlocks
eat the Eloi. The Time Traveler perceives this, and suggests that the
EloiMorlock relationship developed from a class distinction present
in his own time: the Morlocks are the working class who had to work
underground so that the rich upper class could live in luxury."
[Quoted from H.G.Wells 1895, The time machine]
Britain, 2015
"The changing shape of the UK labour market
Over the last three
decades, the British labour market has hollowed out. Most new jobs
have been created at the upper end of the skills scale, and in
low-skilled services work. Technological change and trade are the main
causes. The microchip has enormous disruptive power, replacing
semi-skilled labour with information technology and machinery. For
instance, employment in book-keeping and skilled manufacturing, which
computers and computerised machinery can do more productively, has
been in decline. Many manufacturing jobs have been lost to countries
with lower wages. Meanwhile, the number of highly skilled jobs has
been on the rise. So has work in services such as personal care,
retail and hospitality. Such work is not easily replaced with
technology"
[Quoted from cer.org.uk]
- assortative mating
- Assortative mating is a non-random mating pattern in which individuals
with similar genotypes and/or phenotypes mate with one another more
frequently than would be expected under a random mating pattern. For
example, it is common for individuals of similar body size,
intelligence, 'good' or 'bad' looks, ages, etc to mate with one
another.
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The time machine
by H.G. Wells |
There are many editions and formats of this book available. Here is one.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, pbk, 2013
ISBN-10: 1453767525
ISBN-13: 978-1453767528
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Kindle edition
Xist Classics, 2015
405 KB
ASIN: B00VAOUGR2
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the fragility of individual memory in among the herd - 'not a real socialist'
The individual human is much gathered up and forgetful among the stampeding herds.
It has long been known that individuals lose judgement and personality when surrounded by herd pressures. It was very hard not to be a socialist in national socialist Germany or in international socialist Russia.
What interests me is the manner in which it is so hard to find those socialists who supported the madmen after, once again, socialism fails.
The cry invariably goes up, "He was not a real socialist", along with sudden memory loss that they even supported the latest saviour/lunatic that led them to chaos.
Tony Bliar was not a socialist, Gordon Brown the Clown was not a socialist. Let's vote for the Eds Miliband and Balls. They, just like Bliar and Brown before them, promise a new utopia and free butter for everyone.
So...
Not only is there the self-protective memory loss, there is also the great willingness among many to believe any nonsense 'promises' made by those who were clearly incompetent and dishonest just a few years ago.
Add to this the herd loyalties to Arsenal or Chelsea, and it becomes easier to grasp the way uneducated minds are led by the nose to vote against their own clear best interests.
Discounting long-term gains, putting them aside for short-term promises by socialist con-men seems very simple to do for those without optimism and without sound education.
While the football teams and the dishonest salesmen are fairly easy to understand, what I think is being missed is the unwillingness of fragile egos to remember their errors, and the ability to re-write their past actions.
Teaching 5 year olds that most people are benign and honest does not make for a wary and tough-minded electorate, while teaching them to trust no-one makes for an alienated and quarrelsome neighbourhood.
Useful education is a very complex ambition.
related material
For Socialism and Peace: the Labour Party's Programme of Action, 1934
Socialism and warm feelings
herds and the individual - sociology, the ephemeral nature of groups
citizenship curriculum
reality, laying the foundations for sound education
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obama's implied message is that americans invite jihad by criticising islam
Obama is trying to ellide criticism into hatred, equating relatively minor demonstrations about Jews or immigrants with murderous terrorist attacks made by Muslims. This is highly irrational, as is the assertion "..entire communities feel...". This also implies a form of appeasement, not a useful behaviour in pursuit of a civilised society.
"When people spew hatred towards others -- because of their faith or because they’re immigrants -- it feeds into terrorist narratives. If entire communities feel they can never become a full part of the society in which they reside, it feeds a cycle of fear and resentment and a sense of injustice upon which extremists prey. And we can’t allow cycles of suspicions to tear at the fabric of our countries."
[Quoted from whitehouse.gov]
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,”
[Rudy Giuliani, New York mayor at the time of 9-11, 2001, quoted from politico.com]
No group is going around trying to kill immigrants or Muslims.
It is standard Socialist practice to blame the victim. After all, they make so many victims themselves, and that leaves them with much residual guilt.
It is also standard Socialist practice to denigrate the societies in which they live. They want to build a new and different society where they are in charge, and they can build the perfect ordered, centrally controlled, socialist world. That's a bit like what the jihadists want, other than the differences in dogmas. So you can see they have similar ambitions, which should develop some degree of empathy.
As Socialists don't want your society, it is natural for them to appease fellow travellers, or other enemies of the present arrangements.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend...
related material
German bad faith between the wars: Socialism and appeasement
Socialist religions
Islamic authoritarianism
The nature of cult recruitment - jihadi bombers
Obama
- what really goes on in his head
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/behaviour012015.php#obama-dont-criticise-islam-210215
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socialist loony toons 2 - a woman's work
Written in 1909 by Maud Pember Reeve, a leading Fabian and close friend of H.G. Wells.
"If a woman's work for the moment be motherhood, certainly let her be
paid for it, in order that she should suffer no stress, and in order
that it be well done.
"But let her look at such times for her support, not to an individual,
but to the state, to which her child is of the utmost value. if the
children of the state could rely on the only power strong enough and
rich enough to care efficiently for them, there would be in the next
generation fewer burdens such as reformatories, hospitals, asylums and
gaols for the nation to bear." [p. 41, Maud and Amber by Ruth Fry]
That worked out well then!
related material
socialist loony toons 1
Fabian socialists misunderstand Darwinism
H.G. Wells and other Fabians - a socialist with a rather better mind
Socialist religions
For Socialism and Peace: the Labour Party's Programme of Action, 1934
end note
-
- Maud Pember Reeve
- After her family moved from Australia to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1885 she marrried William Pember Reeves, a journalist and politician, becoming interested in socialism and the suffragette movement. William, being appointed as Agent-General for New Zealand in London, the family moved to London in 1896. In London, Maud joined the Fabian society, striking up friendships with several of its the leading figures. Her daughter, Amber Reeve, had an affair with H.G. Wells.
Maud and Amber, a New Zealand Mother and Daughter and the Women's Cause, 1865 to 1981
by Ruth Fry |
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Canterbury University Press, hbk, 1992
ISBN-10 : 0908812108
ISBN-13 : 9780908812103 |
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feminism - rebecca west's comments
Rebecca West was a lover of H. G. Wells, by whom she had a child.
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a prostitute or a doormat."
[The Clarion, 14 November, 1913]
I would expect Rebecca West means by doormat, to play the housemouse. She wanted to pursue her own career.
The early 'feminists' had much problem trying to work out how 'to have it all' despite the imperatives of nature.
The Fabians mostly wanted the state to pay women to support their children and make them independent. This is the policy still pursued by 'New' Labour,
and a desperate failure of course.
West had a more robust view that women should work to support themselves.
Wells pointed out that this would mean many of them failing in the market competition, thereby falling into prostitution or penury.
These are problems the present backward society has still to resolve, driven as it is by the foolishness of jealousy and the dysfunctional nuclear family model.
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william james on consciousness and on emotions
William James was an American philosopher and psychologist, 11 January 1842 - 26 August 1910.
- on consciousness
- "In analyzing what can broadly be termed human thinking, [William]
James delineates five generic characteristics:
(1) all thought is owned by some personal self;
(2) all thought, as experienced by human consciousness, is constantly in flux and never static;
(3) nevertheless, there is an ongoing continuity of thought for every
thinker, as it moves from one object to another (like the alternating
times of flight and perching in a bird’s life), constantly comprising
shifting foci and the contextual fringes within which they are given;
(4) thought typically deals with objects different from and
independent of consciousness itself, so that two minds can experience
common objects;
and
(5) consciousness takes an interest in particular
objects, choosing to focus on them rather than on others"
- William James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890
- on emotion
- "We tend to assume that perceptions trigger emotional responses,
eventuating in bodily expressions—that we suddenly see a bear, become
frightened, and then tremble and run away. But James thinks the
actual sequence is perception, followed by bodily expressions,
followed by emotional feeling—that we see the bear, tremble and run
away, then feel those physical events as what we call fear."
- William James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890, vol. 2, pp. 383, 410, 442, 449-453, 467.
- William James, Psychology: Briefer Course, 1892, pp. 391, 375-376, 378-381.
related material
franchise by examination, education and intelligence - stages of conciousness
feedback and crowding-consciousness, part 2
reality, laying the foundations for sound education - who or what are you?
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