Real World Event Discussions

MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS AND MOVIES, AND WHY

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, May 3, 2026 17:28
VIEWED: 4878
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FREMDFIRMA

Friday, June 1, 2012 8:21 PM

Quote:
I know that you and I have the ability to survive in that type of world today, as well as zero desire to head a movement that could become a small form of government.... but as well as we'd be able to take care of ourselves if that time came, how well could we be able to also look out for everyone we cared about, with so much unbridled evil roaming around?

That's the kicker, Jack - look at ANY post-catastrophe society, Rwanda, Somalia, others...
And WHO are the bringers of that unbridled evil, mano ?

The remnants and hangers-on of... *drumroll please*... GOVERNMENT.
Hell, even the Afghani Warlords, Northern Alliance, Taliban - remnants of Governments.

The essential problem isn't roving bands of reavers straight out of The Road Warrior, that's pure fiction for the most part cause such bands are completely unsustainable over time due to lack of resources and casualties incurred by resistance - not to mention ultimately self destructive, something known since the 1300's really, no farmers = no farms = no food.
The Rwandans learned that to their peril, and this is one of the REASONS I am wholly against sending food aid to those who perpetuated those massacres, said bastards being the Government, as usual.

Nope, the essential problem, as you'll quickly learn by reading about what happened in Catalonia, is that every other Government on the PLANET will attack you, because your very EXISTENCE is a threat to them, shows up the excuses they have for Government as a lie, shows there is another functional way to do it.
Just like Religions admit failure by their pressing need to not only attack, but utterly destroy any other option for fear that once that is known thier victims will flee to it in droves, so too with Government.
This is a complete admission of abject and utter failure, that they cannot compete in light of any other option - and what then does that say of folks who would doom all to a model they KNOW has failed, will destroy them, then allow the chain to slip, hmm ?

I note that a great part of my 'job' is more or less "looking out for everyone", and although I do get paid, cause this is rather necessary to keeping food on my table, I actually *LIKE* what I do.
Sure, in the grand scheme of things this podunk little place is just a speck of dirt, but it's *MY* speck of dirt, and messing with it is a seriously all-time bad idea.

Quote:
This was no ordinary army. There were no uniforms (neck scarves usually indicated what organisation a militia member belonged to) or officers who enjoyed privileges over the ordinary soldiers. This was a revolutionary army and reflected the revolutionary principles of those in its ranks. Democracy was control. The basic unit was the group, composed generally of ten, which elected a delegate. Ten groups formed a century which also elected a delegate. Any number of centuries formed a column, which had a war committee responsible for the overall activities of the column. This was elected and accountable to the workers. Columns generally had ex-officers and artillery experts to advise them - but these were not given any power.

Workers joined the columns because they wanted to. They understood the need to fight and the necessity of creating a "popular army". They accepted discipline not because they were told to but because they understood the need to act in a co-ordinated manner. Members accepted orders because they trusted those who gave them. They had been elected from their own ranks. Militias were aligned with different organisations and often had their own newspapers. These were political organisations that understood the link between revolutionary politics and the war. The militias formed in Barcelona lost no time in marching on Aragon where the capital, Saragossa, had been taken by the fascists. The Durruti Column, named after one of the leading CNT militants, led this march and gradually liberated village after village. The aim was to free Saragossa which linked Catalonia with the second indus

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FREMDFIRMA

Friday, June 1, 2012 8:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
OBVIOUSLY. Take a pie chart of percentages of the population with some mental disorder, hang it on a wall, use it as a dart board. If you hit one, I probably have it.

I am SO stealing this - I might make it a wall poster for my office.

-F

OONJERAH

Friday, June 1, 2012 9:23 PM

Applies to me also. I called it Mental Illness Stew ...
such an awkward phrase. A pie chart is catchier.

Diverse parentage, I guess, can teach multiple dysfunctions.

KWICKO

Friday, June 1, 2012 9:27 PM

Heck, just put it on a spinner and call it the Wheel of Misfortune. What's it gonna be today, wheel? Manic? Depressive? Bipolar? Shift-work Disorder?

(You think I'm kidding about that last one, but they're actually advertising a new prescription medicine for that one right now. NuVigil, I think they call it, and if you read the list of possible side effects, it is all but indistinguishable from methamphetamine!)

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero

"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Saturday, June 2, 2012 8:09 AM

'Guns, Germs and Steel; by Jared Diamond, because it was a unique way of looking at civilisation that really, maybe for the first time busted out of that 'aren't we in the west so superior' way of thinking. His Collapse was excellent as well.

Downfall, the book by Hitler's secretary Traudl Jung and the film based upon it. Both cut through the Hitler myth to the man, compelling and tragic.

The Diary of Anne Frank, probably one of the first books I read that touched on the holocaust, and it was understated and unforgetable.

RIONAEIRE

Monday, June 4, 2012 4:49 AM

Hi Jack, it doesn't sound like you're enjoying that Torchlight game anymore, maybe time to give it to a friend?

I love the movie of Cold Mountain, one of my favorite sex scenes, and I'm picky about my sex scenes. I really should read the book. I didn't like Angela's Ashes, the movie. It felt like they changed directors two thirds of the way through. I found it uninteresting once he got older, I got bored. I did however like the part about when he gets drunk and comes in singing all his father's old songs, a great illustration of the cycles we repeat without meaning to in life, the generational curse if you will, though I do like songs like that, The Rising of the Moon, etc. The songs aren't the problem of course.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 4:30 AM

Heh....

I can't blame it on Torchlight...

What I'm trying to do is completely inconsequential to the game, since I've already beaten it twice with two different characters.... The only reason a "sane" person would continue on, is to play the 3rd and final character type.

I play it because it is part of my routine at the moment, until it's not...

I wake up around 4:30 to 5:00 AM and water my lawn... get a few dungeons in and rotate the sprinkler....

Then I watch TV until I sleep until about 8AM and start rehab/lawn improvement......

Thus is my life....

To some, a sad and lonely existance, I'm sure....

But for the glory days of the past, I have nothing else to compare it to...

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Hi Jack, it doesn't sound like you're enjoying that Torchlight game anymore, maybe time to give it to a friend?

I love the movie of Cold Mountain, one of my favorite sex scenes, and I'm picky about my sex scenes. I really should read the book. I didn't like Angela's Ashes, the movie. It felt like they changed directors two thirds of the way through. I found it uninteresting once he got older, I got bored. I did however like the part about when he gets drunk and comes in singing all his father's old songs, a great illustration of the cycles we repeat without meaning to in life, the generational curse if you will, though I do like songs like that, The Rising of the Moon, etc. The songs aren't the problem of course.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

RIONAEIRE

Thursday, June 7, 2012 5:20 AM

Well now you have that new job, so that will improve things in your routine I bet.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, May 3, 2026 5:28 PM

The Most Influential Sci-Fi Film Of The 1990s Isn’t Star Wars Or The Matrix
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/most-influential-s
ci-fi-film-154250511.html

Quote:
Stargate, a sci-fi classic