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Is a bigoted dystopia really feasible anymore?

Started by Ideologue, April 09, 2013, 09:24:56 PM

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Ed Anger

Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 08:08:42 PM
Uhm... Still worth it.  Plus he'll entertain me with stories about the time he met the king of Siam.

Only reason you was called porkchop was that it fit the oven theme.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Ideologue

Quote from: Razgovory on April 10, 2013, 08:09:01 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on April 10, 2013, 07:53:01 PM
I guess a bigoted dystopia need not be totalitarian, but if I felt like it I could make a colorable (lol) argument that any bigoted dystopia is going to have at least a bit of a totalitarian cast to it.
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Not to mention blacks were in a pretty bad situation for most of US history, but nobody calls 1850's America "Totalitarian".

Quentin Tarantino probably did.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

HVC

Quote from: Ed Anger on April 10, 2013, 08:10:45 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 08:08:42 PM
Uhm... Still worth it.  Plus he'll entertain me with stories about the time he met the king of Siam.

Only reason you was called porkchop was that it fit the oven theme.
I'll still take it :D
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

grumbler

Quote from: Jacob on April 10, 2013, 06:03:58 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 10, 2013, 11:14:36 AM
I think we are being recklessly blind if we dont recognize that intolerance continues to exist in all Western democracies and if we kid ourselves into thinking that the sins of the past could never be repeated again.

I agree also, but unlike grumbler, I don't think it's trite :)

If that's not trite to you, then I am shocked.  Were you actually recklessly blind before he posted?
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

CountDeMoney


HVC

Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Razgovory

#82
Quote from: Ideologue on April 10, 2013, 08:11:23 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on April 10, 2013, 08:09:01 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on April 10, 2013, 07:53:01 PM
I guess a bigoted dystopia need not be totalitarian, but if I felt like it I could make a colorable (lol) argument that any bigoted dystopia is going to have at least a bit of a totalitarian cast to it.
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Not to mention blacks were in a pretty bad situation for most of US history, but nobody calls 1850's America "Totalitarian".



Quentin Tarantino probably did.

He's a lot older then I thought.  Tyranny need not come from a all powerful central government.  It can come from smaller local governments, or no governments at all.  It can come from private individuals with littler or no state mandate.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

grumbler

Quote from: PDH on April 10, 2013, 07:04:03 PM
Part of the problem, Ide, is not that those involved in the elements of the Holocaust could not grasp the moral wrongness of the acts, but rather the group morality and belonging became more important than the actions.  It was not that an internal morality was broken or that cowardice made the right course of action unpalatable, but more that the socialization of humans gives multiple levels or types of morality - and the weighing of actions within such a balance does not always come out clean and neat.

People have done things they know is wrong when the group says they are all right (at least given the circumstances) for as long as there have been people.  Often it is the action of people outside of this communal group that are able to record, stop, or attempt to alter the actions.  Inside the group the community can and does overwhelm.

I have to say that the present economic problems, while the greatest in 80 years, are not the type of thing to lead to such behavior.  Had the mechanisms to restart internal credit, etc not been in place and 2008/9 had seen a total credit and financial meltdown, then such a scenario would have been possible.  It takes time to enculturate, it takes time to exchange or add to their mores and possible actions.  The devil is in the increments, not the sudden takeover.

I think you grossly underestimate the power of communications in the modern age.  The communities you argue for aren't really primary any more in the West.  Communities are as digital as they are physical in today's Western world.  The power of people "outside of this communal group" aren't really outside it any more, at least in the West.

I suppose there could be some series of events that topples Western technology and ushers in a new Dark Age, but I can't think of any that are not wildly improbable.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

grumbler

Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Did Canada do that?  The US didn't. 
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

grumbler

Quote from: Ideologue on April 10, 2013, 07:53:01 PM
I guess a bigoted dystopia need not be totalitarian, but if I felt like it I could make a colorable (lol) argument that any bigoted dystopia is going to have at least a bit of a totalitarian cast to it.

Oh, I think it would have to have more than a tinge of totalitarianism to it.  Otherwise, information technology is going to blow apart the myths that bigoted dystopias require to have legitimacy.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

HVC

#86
Quote from: grumbler on April 10, 2013, 08:23:38 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Did Canada do that?  The US didn't. 
fine, america interned like 100,000 people of a racial group.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

grumbler

Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 08:29:22 PM
Quote from: grumbler on April 10, 2013, 08:23:38 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Did Canada do that?  The US didn't. 
fine, america interned like 100,000 people of a racial group. Happy Little Boat?
Okay.  So long as we use actual facts and not made-up "facts" in our discussions.  At least you 'fessed up immediately.  That was the honorable thing to do, and I commend you for it.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

HVC

#88
Quote from: grumbler on April 10, 2013, 08:32:17 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 08:29:22 PM
Quote from: grumbler on April 10, 2013, 08:23:38 PM
Quote from: HVC on April 10, 2013, 07:58:55 PM
Canada and America interned an entire racial group not 70 years ago.

Did Canada do that?  The US didn't. 
fine, america interned like 100,000 people of a racial group.
Okay.  So long as we use actual facts and not made-up "facts" in our discussions.  At least you 'fessed up immediately.  That was the honorable thing to do, and I commend you for it.
The intent of that post was clear, but i apologize for the personal attack, it was uncalled for and i'll remove it.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive