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July 7, 2004 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Isokretes, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustus Abelard, Montesquieu etc lead us in our own age and our own concerns. Who are the great thinkers of the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st. In the earlier part of the 20th century there were the English writers Somerset Maughn, George Orwell, the Americans, Scot Fitzgerald and Earnest Hemingway, the German Hans Hass etc. Who are the great thinkers of our age? Well we have Margaret Atwood, the Canadian author who won two Booker prizes and points out in her books the dangers inherit in the Christian religion and the possible rise of a religious dictatorship (not in her own country but in the US) in addition to the moral and intellectual deficiencies of the western world in general, at times taking stabs at the US, for whom she seems to have a particular dislike. John Grisham the popular US courtroom drama author also points out the hypocrisy of the US regarding its lack of values etc inherent in all western societies, in the US in particular, in a hip easy to read fashion. With the advent of the invention of the motion picture camera and the sound recorder it is now not even necessary to be able to read as the message is in the movies and on the nightly news. The invention of movable type enabled more writers than was previously the case to get published. Gone were the days when manuscripts were labouredly copied by hand. Gone also are the days when a thing has to be good to get published. It is interesting that all of the doom and the gloom regarding western civilization came about in the earlier part of the nineteenth- 20th century, first with Gibbons “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” followed by Oswald Spengler’s “The decline of the West” which opened up the virtual flood gates of those also jumping on the bandwagon. Why then and why so many. If we look at cause and effect we see a trend developing over several hundreds of years. Publishers found that by playing upon people’s sense of worth they could cash in. In every society there are those who are successful and those who are not. Publishers have found that by concentrating on the lower base of the pyramid they could maximize their profits every one having a sense of their own worth eager to be confirmed in their belief that they have been put under an unfair disadvantage. It is an easy go from here and attribute ones lack of success upon The “system“, as they used to say. As society underwent the industrial revolution machinery evolved which at first needed the human element. Those who could fit themselves into the machinery turning their minds into a blank for eight to fourteen hours a day prospered while those who were unable to force themselves into a mould that even insects reject fell by the way side. These same successful people tended to have offspring much like themselves who were also successful as they to could fit themselves in and be part of a machine. Society evolved as did machinery which no longer needed those human components, the invention of the computer chip allowing the machine itself to complete the more mundane tasks throwing those previously part of the machinery on to the street who now incidententally form the majority of those who protest at the various international trade summits. These are the target audience of the popular press and the movie industry where great profit is necessary in order to stay in business. The message can be as inane as Michael Moore’s documentaries, Oliver Stones movies, Barbara Streisand philosophic mumblings or Tom Brokow’s analysis of the world situation. Great insight is not required; money is the object and what better way to get it than to suck up to those poor Devils at the bottom of the pyramid. ------------ About the author Mike Haran: I write articles for military and hobby publications. I Hope to eventually combine some of them into a book. More commentary -opinionated short stories,mainly sci-fi -history at: http://www.geocities.com/manzikertca Email: 4258529II@canada.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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