that was then, this is now

[lord_casek]

found this on dmiessler.com

 

thought it a good read.

 

 

 

 

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1967 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack’s shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2007 - School goes into lock down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1967 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.

2007 - Police called. SWAT team arrives. Johnny and Mark are arrested and charged with assault. Both are expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

1967 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.

2007 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with ADD and given huge doses of Ritalin; becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a learning disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1967 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is placed in foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist convinces Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1967 - Mark shares aspirin with principal out on the smoking dock.

2007 - Police called. Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. Car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1967 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college, and graduates.

2007 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, and blows up a red ant bed.

1967 - Ants die.

2007 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security, and FBI called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates parents; siblings are removed from home; computers confiscated. Johnny’s dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Heather. Heather hugs him to comfort him.

1967 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2007 - Heather is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.

[Cracksmoka]

yep, basically the state that our country is in nowadays... its kinda sad how we could go from a pro-active problem solving people to mindless sheep that are "terrorized" by the drop of a dime. It makes me sad to call myself an american. I still hold out hope that it is the institutional systems and government bodes that heavily enforce and co-operate with this type of fear mongering... and that the core of real americans would still be willing to draw up arms and fight for themselves if things got to out of hand and a civil war was called for....but ive been called a dreamer before...so. I just hope people dont stand idly by and let the government rewrite the constitution AGAIN and ban the everage citizen from owning firearms.

[Theo Huxtable.]

i thought it was funny. especially the pedro part. a bit exaggerated of course.

[Mercer]

1967- Mike is happy to take his first trip in a jumbo jet. The experience is first class all the way and the airline staff treats him like they appreciate his business. The food was good the staff was friendly and the trip its self was convenient.

2007- It takes mike 2 hours at the airport to get through security for his flight. They confiscate the expensive perfume he bought for his wife in duty free and take his lighter, toenail clippers, and bottled water for safety reasons.. The flight attendant almost to big to fit down the isles has Mike arrested when they land for getting upset about her spilling beer on him.

 

1967- Jane and Billy fool around in the back seat on prom night. Jane gets pregnant and Billy marries and supports her.

2007- Jane and Billy fool around in the back seat on prom night and invite Sally to join in. Billy is in heaven till he finds out Sally's real name is Sol. They all die slowly from aids.

[lord_casek]

yep, basically the state that our country is in nowadays... its kinda sad how we could go from a pro-active problem solving people to mindless sheep that are "terrorized" by the drop of a dime. It makes me sad to call myself an american. I still hold out hope that it is the institutional systems and government bodes that heavily enforce and co-operate with this type of fear mongering... and that the core of real americans would still be willing to draw up arms and fight for themselves if things got to out of hand and a civil war was called for....but ive been called a dreamer before...so. I just hope people dont stand idly by and let the government rewrite the constitution AGAIN and ban the everage citizen from owning firearms.

 

 

this sums up how i feel to the tee.

[ILOTSMYBRAIN]

there was this foul smell going around the area i live in a while ago. i also happened to be in the local barber shop that day.

 

the whole barber shop was talking about how the terrorist were behind the foul smell. and who knows what could happen next. what was also funny about this, is how even though everyone was talking about this, and seemed pretty shook at the time. everyone remained in the barber shop getting their haircuts. which pissed me off, cus i thought i was about to cut the line.

 

people don't even think anymore. as soon as something bad happens regardless of what it is, where it is, or before any information is gathered. the automatic assumption is, terrorism.

 

seriously i'm more scared of what the people that run this country will do to me, or how the average person will handle an actually FUCKED UP situation, now due to the mindset and fear everyone is devoured in. then any other nation on this planet, except china.

[WORDISM45]

what makes you think there is more fear mongering in China than in the US?

[lord_casek]

what makes you think there is more fear mongering in China than in the US?

 

 

i think what he's saying is since china is and has been under martial law type rule for a long time, they just kill you for dissenting. here they have to make up charges first.

[the.crooked]

You can partly blame science for all of this.

 

 

In the last hundred to a hundred and fifty years, we have placed such a strong positive social value on rational thought. Is it rational to get into a fight? Is it rational to bring a gun to school even if not for malicious intent, etc.

 

Therefor, whenever these things occur, we immediately chalk it up to irrational behavior. Behavior which is to be corrected and in further instances prevented.

 

Because our mode of control in this country is policy, we perpetually further restrictions on the possible actions of our citizens in a hope that prohibition of acts that are supposedly "irrational" will lead to a fear of retribution and thus curtail actual "irrational" acts.

 

This maintains a generality necessary to punish everyone equally, but it removes any notion of context.

 

I watched one of my friends get kicked out of school and almost have his entire life ruined cus he got flipped on by some kids that jumped him the day before. This kid is bright as hell. He had a gun in his car at school, but it had nothin to do with school. Now as to whether or not I can speak to his actual use of it in less mundane situations is a different story. But it still paints the picture we are speaking of here.

 

Basically, our choice that it is that which is rational that determines how we should act, morally, etc, we abandon the position that perhaps, sometimes, violence is ok. Two kids fucking each other up and becoming friends afterwards seems a stalwart of past times, indeed.

 

Blahh, what an odd social impact of science and rational thought.

[the.crooked]

We believe so strongly in the notion of correlation between immediate events and future actions.

 

 

Just cus two kids get into a fight don't mean they are tryin to blow up their school. Or that they will be violent people in the future. etc.

 

 

 

 

I am not feeling to sympathetic to rationalism tonight.

[the.crooked]

i think what he's saying is since china is and has been under martial law type rule for a long time, they just kill you for dissenting. here they have to make up charges first.

 

whats the difference though?

 

 

Say, the gov kills you. With no reason. Your fams takes them to court. They pay some remedial ass fee.

 

Did the gov care? Did the relative pennies that they threw in the face of your family change their standard operating procedure?

 

Even if people were fired, etc. The gov at large loses and changes nothing.

 

 

There is no difference between this country's capacity to kill us without remorse and China's.

 

 

People need to get over believing in some semblance of difference as to why this country is still better. Who gives a fuck. All the world powers are fucked up.

[.coma]

You can partly blame science for all of this.

 

 

In the last hundred to a hundred and fifty years, we have placed such a strong positive social value on rational thought. Is it rational to get into a fight? Is it rational to bring a gun to school even if not for malicious intent, etc.

 

Therefor, whenever these things occur, we immediately chalk it up to irrational behavior. Behavior which is to be corrected and in further instances prevented.

 

Because our mode of control in this country is policy, we perpetually further restrictions on the possible actions of our citizens in a hope that prohibition of acts that are supposedly "irrational" will lead to a fear of retribution and thus curtail actual "irrational" acts.

 

This maintains a generality necessary to punish everyone equally, but it removes any notion of context.

 

I watched one of my friends get kicked out of school and almost have his entire life ruined cus he got flipped on by some kids that jumped him the day before. This kid is bright as hell. He had a gun in his car at school, but it had nothin to do with school. Now as to whether or not I can speak to his actual use of it in less mundane situations is a different story. But it still paints the picture we are speaking of here.

 

Basically, our choice that it is that which is rational that determines how we should act, morally, etc, we abandon the position that perhaps, sometimes, violence is ok. Two kids fucking each other up and becoming friends afterwards seems a stalwart of past times, indeed.

 

Blahh, what an odd social impact of science and rational thought.

 

 

 

 

 

in short, we're a nation of critically thinking dumbasses.

[ILOTSMYBRAIN]

HAHAHA.

 

crooked, i agree with most of that.

 

what i actually ment when i said china scared me, was fighting an all out war with them. not that this is going to happen or anything, just if it were to happen it would be a pretty scary situation.

 

of course the things that their goverment carries out on their own people scare the fuck out of me too. randomly getting scooped up, and chopped up for your organs? or being thrown in prison and being tortured until you confess to a crime you had nothing to do with, ya scary shit.

[Cracksmoka]

this happens in the US too man... People just delude themselves into thinking that the united states is somehow more "moral" and "justified" in their actions than china or any other powerhouse. I am curious to see how people are going to react when the US is knocked off its pedestal as world leader. Because i firmly believe that we will see this in our lifetime, look back at rome or greece or any past civilization that "ran the world" ... they all fell, and they all fell when they spread themselves to thin (in a military sense) across the map... its only a matter of time. Im thinking the U.N. is getting AWFULY fed up with the policy and brashness of the US... but thats just my opinion. We will see.

 

 

and i can appreciate all the well thought out responses to this thread. Kudos for people who actually look at life outside of the "ME" perspective.

[the.crooked]

The next fifty years are gonna be fuckin crazy.

 

I just hope to have enough money to be chillin and watchin.