http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWjZ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEX...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqgW...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ok...

<Is that a form of a rising canon? Just Wondering aloud.> Good call... Made me Wonder as well....

I think the many modulations prevent the song from being "sung" as a Canon, though it would make an interesting musical experiment, for sure...

Niels thanks for dropping that highly informative post at my house.

It was very refreshing to see you let loose with the keyboard- I hope you have bent that board to your will.

I hope it is not haunted.

I have 27 horror movies on tap for tonight, including the very fine Vincent Price Classic "The Witchfinder General" (now in color!).

This is considered by many to be Price's masterpiece, and I'm looking forward to it.

heh

Sounds like you have prepared yourself one scary meal, I may download <The Witchfinder General> following your endorsement, Ta.

<Niels thanks for dropping that highly informative post at my house. It was very refreshing to see you let loose with the keyboard- I hope you have bent that board to your will.>

<Jess> Admitted, for a brief moment my blood was boiling there... I have "confectionary" @#$%face on ignore for a long time now, and happened to catch "it" while moving my mouse over the latest posts at the right of the homepage, where the filter doesn't work (of which I am well aware)... If I had known it would result in the kind of apology plus reaction that followed, I might have thought twice...

Oh well...

And I don't care about any reaction either. I'm very glad to know who the REAL @#$%*@! was- above all else.

He's dead to me now, as he should have been months ago if I had any sense like you.

Here is a HALLOWED WEENER gift for you-

Just hit "play all" and sit back to watch the movie without having to stop and start 10 minute segments.

It's a WITCHFINDER GENERAL PLAYLIST I made

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_li...

When thinking about Utopia in the sense of " Utopian Society"- I end up - no exception - worrying about this one species that makes the earth tremble in fearful anticipation, which is: Homo Sapiens. ("Man")

But before getting into the many levels from which one can approach your question, let me just make it clear that the way (western) society is structured, organized-- is in a way a "recipe for disaster" - and ensures the the continuation of bloodshed, and even worse, an increase of it.

I'm extremely pessimistic in that regard, and hope for a force to bring about a change in the current "samenstel der dingen."

But before I go any further, I too am curious about *your* (recent) journey and experiences you went through while thinking about- and discussing- Utopia.

Please Tell !!

heh

Maybe under here...

Nope--no weapons overthere..."

All of it.

Except for the stuff I steal. Although even there I supply it for others to steal back- that's how "file sharing" (file stealing) works as you know.

You can watch WIITCHFINDER GENERAL with a clear conscience though as its copyright is long expired.

When I saw <dak's> post I thought that Utopia should include some chess and music, as per the STRICT NEW GUIDELINES in the <Euwe Center>-

<The Utopian Principle> can clearly be seen at work here, IMNSHO!

heh

(Wish my conscience could remain as clear-- viz- I shared the <Antichrist Files> yesterday, by Von Trier, but now it is MINE

lotsa supplies for anyone here, yeah, that's pretty sure ;)

Pretty sure about that.

<HAPPY REMIND US OF ONTOCAUSTIC'S BRILLIANCE WEEK>!!!

(I don't smoke, Goldangit...;))>

My response in return could turn out to be rather long. Don't know yet.

Either way, I may have mentioned at the start of this school year I had gotten the assignment of writing down my view of a Utopia; in a nice story, so not just facts, in about 1000 words. I probably mentioned this for due to that I got recommended the movie Megane.

About a month later we got a new docent [first one was the Dean since the teacher was rather ill and thus only temporary]. As first assignment for him we had to write an essay with quite a lot of freedom on the subject. Since we had just dealt with Plato, Socrates and Aristotle -about among other things their political views- i decided to compare Aristotle and Plato with my own view.

I could upload both essays, but I don't really know where -- I'm open for a suggestion! :P

I will just quote a part of essay concerning Plato, Aristotle and my owns ideas as a summary what I had come up with: <In short what I tried to reach was a small civilization living a simple life. One of the main aims was trying to ban out greed. Just as Plato proposed, it would mean the end of virtually all private property, aside of things needed in everyday life and maybe some other things depending on exact time and place of the community. Politically the idea was a small (couple of hundred) community based on aristocracy. The mind-ruining problem I came across though was how to appoint the ‘best’, if those are who rule. You can’t ask the other aristocrats for that could easily allow for misuse of their power to get friends in the counsel. On the other hand, you wouldn’t ask a farmer about war-tactics simply because that’s not his expertise; thus you can’t ask the people for they are not knowledgeable on who would make a good aristocrat. A problem I left not completely solved, settling for a combination where the rulers pick the new aristocrat even though this can be overruled by a community-consensus.>

As you will undoubtedly have noticed, there is a communistic-like idea included about everyone barely having any personal property. While this is certainly in no way ideal, I think/hope this will largely remove 'greed', as I think this is one of the main sources of people committing crimes. Aside of that, as seen in the movie Megane, people don't really need a lot of 'stuff' to be happy.

Of course this also brings along the idea that true equality must exist. So for example on the subject of salary [supposing the existence of money], then everyone would get equally much based on effort made. Currently a rocket scientist earns more than a cleaner, but normally that is due to natural inequality of the former merely being smarter. While I don't propose everyone should be treated the same as in exactly same schooling - for it is undeniable that we are not born with equal gifts - I think it may be a better idea to look at ones capacities and make people equal on that; effort made.

Long story short, he brought my attention to the optimistic attitude I expressed by assuming my idea would work, asking the question 'But what if greed is in man itself?', proposed the idea that a society might need a certain degree of inequality [as I had suggested a society can only be stable with equality as otherwise people would get jealous] and I got the idea that money wouldn't work for some people are just terrible at spending [gat in de hand] and how would you deal with such a problem? We might've even talked about more since it was quite a fruitful 10 minutes.

So yes, that got me thinking mainly since two very smart guys were clearly against equality which I had taken for granted for stability, and with that in mind I initially posed the question to you.

I currently presume my earlier proposed idea still might work... but only on a very small scale - say, less than 1000 people. Mostly because I think some things (say stealing) will only be banned out if the group is visible. One won't steal that soon if it is from the own group since that's similar to stealing from yourself. As soon as the group gets bigger it becomes more anonymous though and thus you won't see the rest as part of the group. Similarly I think the proposed aristocratic leaders [thus 'those who are the best'] will try and govern the best for the group if everyone knows everyone.

This all is exactly why I think communism has failed so horribly. Not so much due to the fundamental reason that people should be equal, but that it was tried for a whole country. I don't think that will be possible.

What is ideal for a country then? I don't really know. The earlier mentioned friend proposed that a monarch might be needed, but power on the basis of family right feels wrong as well. Aside of that he had the idea of some kind of meritocracy but he agreed that doesn't seem ideal either, the fact of potential bribery alone!

<Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time>

<When I saw <dak's> post I thought that Utopia should include some chess and music, as per the STRICT NEW GUIDELINES in the <Euwe Center>->

Some political systems and Utopia suppose as well that all kinds of art and music should be banned. A terrible idea I think!

ps: I got the Utopian view of the aforementioned friend somewhere around, even though they are some loose thoughts instead of a real world view.

I don't know anymore exactly what he wrote, but he had 3 concepts of which I think we agreed at most 1 was obtainable. So was one of the ideas 'Ignorance is bliss', a great deal of unhappiness and suffering is due to our extended knowledge. Were this true, we couldn't do anything about it as we can't go back to knowing less and even so curiousity would get the better of us -- if only to find out why ignorance was better.

The obtainable concept was that people should learn to be satisfied with what they have instead of wanting more. I certainly agree of course but still... that alone can't really make a recommendation so to speak on what we should change in this country, in this world.