I find the idea of collapsing birthrates to be interesting, so I posted it because I thought other people might find it interesting.
The reason why this thread appeared in 'Anything Else' is because this is anything else.
One thing I am optimistic about is how more and more scholars are beginning to turn their focus on sexuality and society. They are asking, "What exactly is marriage?" "What are the origins of these old sexual laws?" "Why do some people have children and others do not?" These are all good questions.
What are the consequences of a collapsing birth rate? Will there be any long term consequences? Is there a problem? Or is this simply going to be a matter of a larger older population?
Lots of questions emerge from this. What I find also intersting is how George Bernard Shaw predicted it in the "Don Juan in Hell". In fact, it seems that "Don Juan in Hell" is a discussion of the ideas that lead or don't lead to population decline.
It seems that if birth rates do collapse, governments will take an interest in people's private lives. "Compelling interest" will override past objections. After all, a nation isn't going to let itself go out of existence.
Cultural ideas on sexuality and even government policy will change on this demigraphic shift, don't you guys find it fascinating? I sure do.
Nocturnal
This thread is becoming a mess, but I did catch your post.
You are right to suspect ideological single mindedness in Lomborg's book. We ought to hold all people through the same suspicion. However, a press release on 12/31/03 says, "The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has today repudiated findings by the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DSCD) that Bjørn Lomborg's book 'The Skeptical Environmentalist' was 'objectively dishonest' or 'clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice'."
Critics have responded to Lomborg and Lomborg has responded to his critics. It's all out there.
Lomberg's book is about the litany, the idea of doomsday. Lomberg is still an environmentalist, his book is just saying that doomsday will not come about. Food supplies keep growing, resources keep becoming more plentiful, the world keeps getting better and better. "But it is not getting better fast enough!" he argues.
There exists an entire industry based on 'doomsdays'. The world will end because of X. When the doomsday passes, they just update the doomsday.
Remember the Y2k scare? People honestly believed as soon as the year hit 2000, planes would fall out of the sky, stock market would crash, food would cease to exist, and so on. Most people fell into the category of, "Well, I don't think anything will happen... but... we must play it safely..."
After the New Year, were there any problems? No. "It is because we prevented it with our foresight." What if there was no problem in the first place? "That cannot be, there was a problem and we prevented it!" The doomshovelers will never admit they are wrong or mistaken. It is like all reality must fit the doomsday template. I don't see how one can live with such a pessimistic world view.
The reason why I posted Lomborg and Simon was because they skewered these typical doomsdays. I found being freed from believing that an inevitable doomsday was right around the corner was liberating.
Who wants to go through life expecting doomsday? Ugh, give me life, not 'disaster'.
What is interesting is that if you show a doomsdayer that the doomsday is not going to occur, they do not get happy but enraged. You would think they ought to be happy, that they needed not worry about such a problem. But they don't. They lash out at you.
It just shows that unhappy people are controlled by ideas, whereas happy people control their ideas.
----------------------------------
The reason why I'm becoming more and more shy about posting is the bizzarre responses I get. At first, it was something of deja vu. I'd post that Don Juan is a mindset, not a technique calculus and get the usual objections. My favorite one was the feminism post and the guy mad that I had a post against feminsm. "I'll never read you again!" Um.... OK! How does it affect me if you like or dislike my posts, or not even read them?
After the "Habit is All" post, I noticed something was up. How there could be any crazed objection to something so simple and clear boggled the mind. It seemed apparent that there are people who just like to go at it with authority, any authority. Since I am assumed to an 'authority', no matter what I post, there will be crazed responses to it. If I said, 'The sky is blue', someone would go, "No! It is red, Pook! Red!" People disagree with me all the time, but they like that I am contributing to the forum. Aside from the pook baiters, there are those who psycho-analyze any comment I make "Pook is arrogant." "Pook comes here only to get an egotistical ride." Frankly, I'm sick of it. If I post, there is no discussion of the post, it is discussion of pook and how he posted.
Ever since last fall, you've seen no tips posts from me. I'm still writing them (probably a couple hundred pages so far), but they stay on my computer. Why can't Atlas shrug? To those who think I'm here only to stroke my ego, why hold the posts? And to those who think I'm arrogant, why am I so quiet? And to you pook baiters, I'm taking away your nutrients so you leeches will starve. I'm here to help myself and exchange ideas; I have absolutely no interest in 'forum fame' or anything like that. I was posting before there was a DJ Bible. I was posting before and after 'pook' was talked about.
Do you think I'm going to tell the ladies, "Yes, I am Pook, MASTER DON JUAN from sosuave?" Do you think the ladies will go, "Oh! It is Pook! We bed famous internet forum people"!?
What you guys think of me does not improve or harm my success with the ladies. It's so meaningless that I'm stunned anyone would 'try' to write posts for the sole reason that they go to the DJ Bible! One day, I've always expected to get up, and see this forum vaporized. "Oh well," I would say. "It provided clarity to MY thought." Why anyone would waste any time fussing about Pook is beyond me.
Who says its my job to entertain you or anyone else? Why do you people make a fantastical image of me?
Why not make a fantastical image of yourself? That would be more interesting than anything Pook could say.
The reason why this thread appeared in 'Anything Else' is because this is anything else.
One thing I am optimistic about is how more and more scholars are beginning to turn their focus on sexuality and society. They are asking, "What exactly is marriage?" "What are the origins of these old sexual laws?" "Why do some people have children and others do not?" These are all good questions.
What are the consequences of a collapsing birth rate? Will there be any long term consequences? Is there a problem? Or is this simply going to be a matter of a larger older population?
Lots of questions emerge from this. What I find also intersting is how George Bernard Shaw predicted it in the "Don Juan in Hell". In fact, it seems that "Don Juan in Hell" is a discussion of the ideas that lead or don't lead to population decline.
It seems that if birth rates do collapse, governments will take an interest in people's private lives. "Compelling interest" will override past objections. After all, a nation isn't going to let itself go out of existence.
Cultural ideas on sexuality and even government policy will change on this demigraphic shift, don't you guys find it fascinating? I sure do.
Nocturnal
This thread is becoming a mess, but I did catch your post.
You are right to suspect ideological single mindedness in Lomborg's book. We ought to hold all people through the same suspicion. However, a press release on 12/31/03 says, "The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has today repudiated findings by the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DSCD) that Bjørn Lomborg's book 'The Skeptical Environmentalist' was 'objectively dishonest' or 'clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice'."
Critics have responded to Lomborg and Lomborg has responded to his critics. It's all out there.
Lomberg's book is about the litany, the idea of doomsday. Lomberg is still an environmentalist, his book is just saying that doomsday will not come about. Food supplies keep growing, resources keep becoming more plentiful, the world keeps getting better and better. "But it is not getting better fast enough!" he argues.
There exists an entire industry based on 'doomsdays'. The world will end because of X. When the doomsday passes, they just update the doomsday.
Remember the Y2k scare? People honestly believed as soon as the year hit 2000, planes would fall out of the sky, stock market would crash, food would cease to exist, and so on. Most people fell into the category of, "Well, I don't think anything will happen... but... we must play it safely..."
After the New Year, were there any problems? No. "It is because we prevented it with our foresight." What if there was no problem in the first place? "That cannot be, there was a problem and we prevented it!" The doomshovelers will never admit they are wrong or mistaken. It is like all reality must fit the doomsday template. I don't see how one can live with such a pessimistic world view.
The reason why I posted Lomborg and Simon was because they skewered these typical doomsdays. I found being freed from believing that an inevitable doomsday was right around the corner was liberating.
Who wants to go through life expecting doomsday? Ugh, give me life, not 'disaster'.
What is interesting is that if you show a doomsdayer that the doomsday is not going to occur, they do not get happy but enraged. You would think they ought to be happy, that they needed not worry about such a problem. But they don't. They lash out at you.
It just shows that unhappy people are controlled by ideas, whereas happy people control their ideas.
----------------------------------
The reason why I'm becoming more and more shy about posting is the bizzarre responses I get. At first, it was something of deja vu. I'd post that Don Juan is a mindset, not a technique calculus and get the usual objections. My favorite one was the feminism post and the guy mad that I had a post against feminsm. "I'll never read you again!" Um.... OK! How does it affect me if you like or dislike my posts, or not even read them?
After the "Habit is All" post, I noticed something was up. How there could be any crazed objection to something so simple and clear boggled the mind. It seemed apparent that there are people who just like to go at it with authority, any authority. Since I am assumed to an 'authority', no matter what I post, there will be crazed responses to it. If I said, 'The sky is blue', someone would go, "No! It is red, Pook! Red!" People disagree with me all the time, but they like that I am contributing to the forum. Aside from the pook baiters, there are those who psycho-analyze any comment I make "Pook is arrogant." "Pook comes here only to get an egotistical ride." Frankly, I'm sick of it. If I post, there is no discussion of the post, it is discussion of pook and how he posted.
Ever since last fall, you've seen no tips posts from me. I'm still writing them (probably a couple hundred pages so far), but they stay on my computer. Why can't Atlas shrug? To those who think I'm here only to stroke my ego, why hold the posts? And to those who think I'm arrogant, why am I so quiet? And to you pook baiters, I'm taking away your nutrients so you leeches will starve. I'm here to help myself and exchange ideas; I have absolutely no interest in 'forum fame' or anything like that. I was posting before there was a DJ Bible. I was posting before and after 'pook' was talked about.
Do you think I'm going to tell the ladies, "Yes, I am Pook, MASTER DON JUAN from sosuave?" Do you think the ladies will go, "Oh! It is Pook! We bed famous internet forum people"!?
What you guys think of me does not improve or harm my success with the ladies. It's so meaningless that I'm stunned anyone would 'try' to write posts for the sole reason that they go to the DJ Bible! One day, I've always expected to get up, and see this forum vaporized. "Oh well," I would say. "It provided clarity to MY thought." Why anyone would waste any time fussing about Pook is beyond me.
Who says its my job to entertain you or anyone else? Why do you people make a fantastical image of me?
Why not make a fantastical image of yourself? That would be more interesting than anything Pook could say.