the ethical question of the day...

just because you are able to do something, does that mean you ought to?

as industry makes things 'safer'; soceity's intellegence shrinks. we have cars that will parellel park for you. now you do not have to be intellegent to turn a wheel and go in reverse. one less thing you have to think about.

we have cars that will alert you if you get too close to another car. so now you don't have to pay attention to what is in front of you. just drive in a straight line until the car beeps at you.

get on your cell phone while you drive, and pay more attention to the conversation than what is out in front of you.

so our thinking capacity is shrinking. there then becomes no need to think anymore. sit back and relax...everything is being done for you.

i was engrosed in conversation a couple of days ago with a woman who framed a picture for me, and we were talking about the youth of the day, and their thinking 'development'. speaking from experience...the kids of today don't care. in school all they want is a grade. not understanding. their analitical skills are for nothing. politically speaking...they have no clue why they are against what they are against. so the conversation moved to an over stimulus of information and ideas. so much is coming at them, that they don't know how to process it.

there are times when i'm reading, when i come across something that i find very interesting, i'll stop reading and think about it for a while before i pick up the book and continue.

so things become 'easier' for people, and thus they lose intelligence. where will it end? will it end?

just because you have the ability to do something, is there a duty to preform that act? a question that should not be taken lightly...

[shalom...]

the swiss are...

a very...sexy[?] people. i think the word that i want to use is sexy. i'm not sure.

i've been introduced to a couple of swiss companies lately, and they all seem to have very sexy people 'modeling' their product. and it is where sex really isn't relevant.

this is one example...



how does this want me to buy your clothing?

this picture is taken from a cycling company called assos

here is one of a man, who is so aloof about what he is wearing he has no time for you...



now to assos' credit; they make great stuff, and i love their slogan- 'sponsor yourself.' the best cycling clothes i ever put on. they are very expensive, but that may be because they have to pay their models. just look at them, these people don't ride bikes. that is just some archaic form of transportation. do you think these models would actually break a sweat? not in public anyway.

which moves us to another swiss company. my other big hobby is the yo-yo. my collection is growing. well i picked up a yo-yo by a company called hspin. i went to their website to check out the company, get more information about them, and maybe some yo-yo tips. what do i find?

this...



and this...



these are yo-yo's, not some sexy dress, or something. who plays with yo-yo's? geeks like me. not sexy models. i'm sure if i went to a 'hip' bar in town, pulled out my hspin yo-yo, and did some tricks that would really impress the ladies. i'd have two chicks on each arm. hell ya.

hot chicks never made me pick up a product. much less a piece of cycling gear or a yo-yo. i love the marketing game.

[shalom...]

speechless...

my thoughts and prayers go out to those at virginia tech...

cnn
new york times

it's a terrible thing that should not have happened.

[shalom, with palms together...]

awhile ago over...

at joe's (mmmm....scotch) blog there was a discussion about connecting with others, well i'd like to expand on that in some way.

we live in a state. a civitas. why?

well many philosophiers have tried to answer this very same question. plato believed it was because no individual was self sufficient. so we formed a state to 'help' each other out. however; this state would form in such a way that the state would look at itself as an individual. the details are not needed here.

aristotle believed that humans are political animals. we need to form a state. a state grows from a family, then to a village, and then after we have many villages we have a state. it is in the state were humans are able to reach their true actuality. where we become moral. the state is very important for this.

the list could go on, but i want to get to my point.

in our 'society' here; i believe that we have forgotten the importance of the state, and it's unity. not only have we become more individualistic based; where everything is 'me, me, me'; we lost the idea of the state somewhere. anything that is said about the government or state is deemed bad, or evil. this whole 'big brother' thing. (side note: i hated '1984'). with this lose of the state has come the lose of community. closeness. who are your neighbors? much less the guy next to you at a bar. i went to a certain bar for years, all the time. and the only ones i felt close to was the ones i was drinking with, and the wait staff. just me? i don't know, but i couldn't find a 'friendly' face. everyone was too involved in their own space.

you may not like what is going on in the political world, but that does not take away from the importance of the state. meaning you should not throw away the baby with the bath water. the state is important. community is important. has i have gotten to know my neighbors, i have this feeling of saftey in my neighborhood.

understand what the state, and society is here for. the importance of community. unless you'd like to go back to the state of nature?

so maybe we should get a bunch of people together, and go down to a bar and put delilah on the box, and play it and sing it loud and proud over and over and over again. until we are kicked out (would we have to pay our bill?), or people start singing along.

[shalom...]