Comments on: The Star Trek Prophecy

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:08:07 +0000

I LOVE Idiocracy. Its so funny, because its so possibly true – possibly, but NOT hopefully. Orlando people need only go to Crash-a-rama at Orlando Speedworld to see Idiocracy in action.

By: Ted Marrero

Ted Marrero — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:38:30 +0000

I share Marcus’ love of Star Trek and its vision of the future and I do not share Hedges’ pessimism. To say that our core values are dying implies that once they were more vital. When? When has our society been more open? When has it been less repressive of dissent? When was it more socially integrated and connected to the greater world at large than now?

I think we are freer and more democratic than ever. We can do this, what I’m doing right now, saying what I want to anyone who will care to listen. I have no fear of being an atheist and no fear of reading whatever I want, things that would have got me hanged or burned at the stake just a few generations ago.
When I was a child, television was practically worthless. Now, I have hours of documentaries on everthing from The History of the Universe to A Brief History of Unbelief. I know more about physics, astronomy, chemistry, cosmology, history and philosophy than I did when I graduated college, all from watching excellent programming on cable and reading articles on the internet. Any of my friends now are a thousand times smarter about all sorts of things than all the friends my parents ever had or ever knew.

Yes, there are a tremendous number of ignorant people out there. They have always been there and likely always will. But our numbers are growing steadily. And now there is no Library of Alexandria which can be burned. Knowledge and reason are proliferating at an ever-increasing rate, far beyond the reach of even the most tyrannical North Korean or Iranian dictator. We are living in the greatest time humans have ever witnessed. We just gotta keep our shit together.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:38:06 +0000

Well Pamela, I feel that the only thing that can truly save us is for humanity to simultaneously ditch religion and start living like modern humans. Of course I don’t think this will happen, so the short answer to your question would be no, I don’t think there is time. I think our end is already written, which is a shame. In some senses of course, it doesn’t matter since the sun will eventually explode and wipe us out of the picture anyway, but it would have been nice to know we’d given a better account of ourselves!

By: Pamela Dodd

Pamela Dodd — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:22:15 +0000

Thanks for the introduction to the writing of Chris Hedges, Marcus. I’ve heard the current state of our society compared to declining Rome.

What combination of changes must we make to insure that our civilization doesn’t die? And do you think there’s still time, or is it already too late?