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ouinon
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25 Dec 2007, 5:02 pm

Elemental wrote:
The collapse of civilisation is around the corner, and has been around the corner for millenia. There are tablets from ancient Assyria complaining about how society is going down the tubes.

Yes, it's just a particular head space people choose. I did for quite a while, couched in environmental disaster terms. Crichtons book "Fear", and his source material by Bjorn Lomborg , called "The Sceptical Ecologist", helped me see that. I stopped smoking as a result; i suddenly realised that there was a point!! :lol:

I realised that i had been doing it because of fear of death. It was a very effective way of avoiding thinking about my death by pretending to myself that the world was going down the pan anyway. That my death wouldn't matter cos i wouldn't be missing anything anyway. A kind of odd sour grapes. Weird.

8)



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25 Dec 2007, 8:33 pm

nominalist wrote:
Odin wrote:
We seem to be using different definitions of Essentialism and Nominalism. I am both a Realist and a Nominalist and I think Essentialism is a crutch that promotes bad, tautological "something acts the way it does because it is it's nature to do so" thinking that gets in the way of good explainations.


I am using these terms as they were classically used in the Middle Ages. Realism and nominalism reflect different views of universals. A middle position was conceptualism, but I do not find it to be tenable.

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I am a Realist in that I think there is a reality outside our minds that our phenomenalogical world is an approximation of


The philosophy of nominalism, as generally defined, would be inconsistent with the idea of "a reality outside of our minds" if, by reality, you mean a single reality. If you are referring to particular realities (separate realities), such as you and I are separate realities (aka particularism), then your view would be in line with nominalism.

Nominalists generally reject the legitimacy of ontology and metaphysics, not epistemology. In other words, while nominalism is anti-realist (in the medieval sense of the word), it is not necessarily an idealist position. Most nominalists are not idealists, but some, like George Berkeley, were idealists.

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I am a Nominalist in that I think the only things that can be said to exist are the fundamental physical objects described by physics and processes made up of interactions of those funamental objects such as stars, galaxies, organisms, societies, etc. Universal concepts like "dog" and "chair" don't exist outside the mind.


Okay, then we are using different terms. Nominalism was a reaction against ontological realism, not epistemic realism. I was speaking of ontological realism; you were discussing epistemic realism, i.e., that objects exist. Epistemic realism is anti-idealist. Ontological realism is anti-nominalist.


Ah, thanks for the explaination! :)


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25 Dec 2007, 9:03 pm

I just hope that humanity can brave this storm in one piece, and that in the end, many of the deceiving scum are removed, one way or another. I also hope that the gap between rich and poor will lessen, and that more people will be well-informed and affluent. There are still many big fibs and untruths which most, if not all here believe, and many more secrets.


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techstepgenr8tion
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26 Dec 2007, 1:00 am

I think we are slowly falling right now but for different reasons. The 60's f'd us up big time. Since then our whole societal outlook and attitude has changed. There's a lot more entitlement attitude, a lot more in the way of us letting the world tell us what to think, and I think NAFTA and GAT have been brutal to us economically. Maybe free trade was inevitable but we haven't done anything we need to compensate it or keep our industrial base here. Anymore our society is going to be strictly service - either you have a professional skill or you'll be minimum wage cannon fodder for life.

On the bit with the Iraq War, maybe the enemies of the U.S. are getting what they want just in terms of draining our resources but the ugly part about it is we did get there before the U.N. weapons inspectors had left for good, before Saddam was able to bring back his WMD's and research nuclear, and it seems like much of the world is absolutely brilliant with playing the game of 20/20 hindsight almost to a degree where it seems like some sort of Jedi Mind Trick. If we'd had to do WWII again, with our present culture, we would have seen the results of Tunisia or Normandy and had such a huge public outcry that we would have pulled our troops back.

So in other words I don't really know that there would be a right answer no matter what we did right now. If we could somehow outgrow the lack of religious imposition and put what matters first in this world at the forefront rather than fashion and pop culture, if we could maybe institute a fair tax where we stop beating the hell out of corporations and ultimately let them produce more cost effectively in the U.S., if we could somehow deflate the dollar enough to encourage investment rather than divestment, maybe straighten out our trade deficits, we might actually have something.



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26 Dec 2007, 8:03 am

The 50s and 60s definitely saw alot of cultural upheaval. The rise of "hippy" liberalism, but also a big movement against racial discrimination. But still, much unfair discrimination remains.

A massive world war would not be justified in the public eye unless there was major aggression.

The current generations in the developed world cannot stand loss of life. But sometimes people have to die to preserve some degree of security and the wellbeing of their fellow humans . One day most of humanity will learn that.

Another Vietnam, Bush would be out within a week. Most modern developed countries can only stand so many losses before it becomes unacceptable to the public. Unless the television crews were greatly restricted, there would be a MASSIVE public outcry. With the birth of the internet, there's not much of a chance of restricting the media.

It's true, techstepgener8tion, that many modern countries are screwed up to a big degree, but so are alot of developing countries.


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27 Dec 2007, 1:49 am

"western civilization"
is a system created by a group of wealthy families that run the banks.
with terror and deceit through their tools like the media, movie industry, radios, magazines, schools, music and others, is that they are able to shape the minds of the masses, and there is where this "civilization" takes birth. from those people who have an idea called "New World Order", which is the final phase of "western civilization" which is nothing by a fake reality.

it is failing because people's consciences grow.

the next big blow from our part to them is Ron Paul.
already in South America we seeing growth and positive union taking place.
Asia grows, Russia grows, Iran cant be proven a threat and be attacked.

and as technology and communication advances things for the NWO will become worst, so lets not give up now. we almost got them.



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27 Dec 2007, 7:38 pm

ASPER wrote:
"western civilization"
is a system created by a group of wealthy families that run the banks.
with terror and deceit through their tools like the media, movie industry, radios, magazines, schools, music and others, is that they are able to shape the minds of the masses, and there is where this "civilization" takes birth. from those people who have an idea called "New World Order", which is the final phase of "western civilization" which is nothing by a fake reality.

it is failing because people's consciences grow.

the next big blow from our part to them is Ron Paul.
already in South America we seeing growth and positive union taking place.
Asia grows, Russia grows, Iran cant be proven a threat and be attacked.

and as technology and communication advances things for the NWO will become worst, so lets not give up now. we almost got them.


Need some more tin foil? LOL! :lol:


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nominalist
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27 Dec 2007, 10:38 pm

Odin wrote:
Need some more tin foil? LOL! :lol:


Speaking generally, and not wanting to offend anyone who believes this stuff, the Illuminati conspiracy ideas are spreading like an epidemic on the Internet. IMO, it is a testimony to a lack of critical thinking.


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27 Dec 2007, 11:49 pm

nominalist wrote:
Odin wrote:
Need some more tin foil? LOL! :lol:


Speaking generally, and not wanting to offend anyone who believes this stuff, the Illuminati conspiracy ideas are spreading like an epidemic on the Internet. IMO, it is a testimony to a lack of critical thinking.


Conspiracy theories are a perfect example of confirmation bias and circular reasoning, pathetic really.


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nominalist
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28 Dec 2007, 10:54 am

Odin wrote:
Conspiracy theories are a perfect example of confirmation bias and circular reasoning, pathetic really.


Because I actively challenge illuminati conspiracy theories in chat rooms, I regularly get called an Illuminati supporter.


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28 Dec 2007, 2:07 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
On the bit with the Iraq War, maybe the enemies of the U.S. are getting what they want just in terms of draining our resources but the ugly part about it is we did get there before the U.N. weapons inspectors had left for good, before Saddam was able to bring back his WMD's and research nuclear, and it seems like much of the world is absolutely brilliant with playing the game of 20/20 hindsight almost to a degree where it seems like some sort of Jedi Mind Trick. If we'd had to do WWII again, with our present culture, we would have seen the results of Tunisia or Normandy and had such a huge public outcry that we would have pulled our troops back.


Would that be the same UN inspectors that told us there was no evidence Saddam had a WMD program? It's not that hindsight is 20/20 - it is that hindsight showed that the UN was seeing it closer to 20/20, while we hallucinated plaid elephants.

Speaking of not having the mind and stomach for war ... if this really is the defining clash of civilizations, why only 150,00 troops in Iraq? Why did President Bush call for tax cuts, and ask us to be patriotic shoppers? If he really thought this is the shiznit, why didn't he call for a draft and hit it hard? At least enough force in Afghanistan to get Bin Laden? Put off the tax cuts, maybe even raise taxes (that what you do in a time of real crisis). Maybe all those yellow ribbon stickers on our cars are enough.

?? How many retired US generals have publicly agreed with Greenspan:

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I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

Alan Greenspan



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28 Dec 2007, 8:49 pm

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I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

Alan Greenspan


I hadn't heard that before! We've all been saying that for years, but to find out he said that ...

And how much more money is it costing us for the oil, when you add the overhead of the war on top?

Did they ask his advice before making war without a congressional declaration, as required by our Constitution, and if so, how did he so advise them?


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06 Jan 2008, 7:08 am

Doesn't anybody realise that Saddam and his sons were the weapons of mass destruction?


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06 Jan 2008, 1:37 pm

Pandora wrote:
Doesn't anybody realise that Saddam and his sons were the weapons of mass destruction?


As were George H.W. Bush and his sons, especially Dubya. ;-)


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06 Jan 2008, 2:15 pm

nominalist wrote:
Pandora wrote:
Doesn't anybody realise that Saddam and his sons were the weapons of mass destruction?


As were George H.W. Bush and his sons, especially Dubya. ;-)


Yeah, shame GWB isn't available for a third term. :wink:



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06 Jan 2008, 3:40 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
Yeah, shame GWB isn't available for a third term. :wink:


My concern is that, no matter who gets elected, we will see a continuation of American imperialist policies.


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