|
Post by Stacy on Apr 16, 2011 0:22:21 GMT -5
Yes, I'm going to keep posting stuff like this in this forum as long as the IRL forum is hidden. So. In Michigan they passed a law allowing an emergency financial manager to take over a town and dissolve its democratically elected government. That law has now been used. Benton Harbor, Michigan, is now under the rule of an emergency financial manager. The elected representatives of the citizens have been stripped of their power, and the citizens have been stripped of their rights. Tell me, when will you get off your ass? When the Gestapo comes and knocks on your door? Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Strips Power From All Elected Officials
|
|
|
Post by drew on Apr 16, 2011 10:52:01 GMT -5
Okay, I will get off my ass.
And delete my account here.
Sorry to all those who still come by here, but I cannot. I will still be dabbling in sims fun, doing stories. But not here.
Take care, drop by my blog and say hello sometime.
Cheers ~Drew
|
|
dinuriel
Full Member
Torturing characters? Me? Nooo...
Posts: 374
|
Post by dinuriel on Apr 16, 2011 14:50:55 GMT -5
I hate posting this in a public thread, but whatever.
I know you're not going to read this, because you never read anything (remember that time you were complaining about there not being any debates? Well, there was an intelligent debate going on at that same time on another thread, between two good people I haven't seen around this forum in God knows how long. Way to miss that.)
I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly do you expect us to do about any of this? Clog up unrelated forums with with discussions that very few people will ever see? Spit out retweet after retweet after retweet at such a rate that it's impossible to actually read any of them? I'm sorry if I sound out of line, but I don't understand what you expect me to do other than vote and maybe discuss politics once in a while with interested individuals, both of which I already do offline.
And I am "off my ass". I'm a full-time student in the middle of the examination period. When that's over, I have to go home and make money to pay for a trip to Scotland so I can go and scatter my grandmother's ashes in her homeland. There's a pivotal election coming up in my country involving an increasingly frightening regime and a bunch of suspicious alternatives which I have been agonizing over for the past month. So don't accuse me of sitting on my ass, don't accuse me of being uninformed and ignorant and a fascism enabler, and don't make me out to be villain for going to a Sims writing forum with the intent on discussing Sims and writing.
I really looked up to you, Stacy. I admire your passion and your devotion to it. It was good to have you as a friend, back when you were willing to be one. I hate to say it, but you've become something of a zealot. I understand that you're scared about the direction your country seems to be taking and the atrocities being committed by fascist regimes overseas, and those are things that people should be concerned about, but you have to understand that while people do care about these issues, they have other things going on too. By labeling them as unintelligent war-enablers, you're showing an incredible excess of black-and-white thinking, which is sad because you used to be so fervently against that.
It's not just you not understanding other people. You're a writer. You understand people better than you think you do, better than most people do. I know you hate to hear it, but you are being an elitist, and like all elitists, your elite is imaginary.
Don't expect any more posts from me either. I won't delete my account, just in case things start to pick up around here, but I'm not holding my breath. Let me just say that I loved this forum and I met a lot of wonderful people here, and I'm glad to have had such great times before everything went to shit. If anyone wants to get in touch with me, feel free to drop by my blogs or shoot me some emails or whatever.
Take care of yourself, Stacy.
|
|
pinkfiend1
Full Member
Missing everyone
Posts: 467
|
Post by pinkfiend1 on Apr 16, 2011 17:25:26 GMT -5
Stacey I think you need to remember that not everyone lives in the same place as you so we can't do anything about it anyway. Now I don't have a clue about how the American political system works, I don't completly understand politics full stop, I vote in my country when I can and educate myself about the politics then. Stacey if you want to change politics in what I am assuming is your local area, meet up with other like minded people in your area, but trying to recruit people who don't live in the same continent let alone state or town as you isn't going to make a difference. All your doing is scaring people away from a forum you created, and said you were leaving. You created this forum to be about writing, not about political debate. If you want political debate join one that does that, I'm sure there are plenty. Stacey we love your writing, we love the forum you created, and maybe after you've taken a breather you will realise that it is nice to have a place dedicated writing and not much else, where all the seriousness of politics, and the world in general can disapear into our stories, and you can just forget about everything that is going wrong in the world. It is nice to have a place of isolated goodness.
|
|
|
Post by Stacy on Apr 16, 2011 19:11:57 GMT -5
There are insane psychopathic inhuman ignorant people killing the rest of us and the planet. We have to stop this. We HAVE to, if we want to live. If we want decent lives. If we want our planet to continue to support us.
How do we stop them? What gives them their power?
Call it capitalism. Call it fascism. Call it feudalism. Call it racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, nationalism, whatever you want to call it. But it is the use of money to buy power, to accumulate power in the hands of a few, and to divide and conquer the rest of us by forcing us to compete for resources. And damn, don't they just make all sorts of money off those conflicts for resources. We can have world peace. We can have an end to prejudice. It starts with getting off our addiction to money.
Having the basic necessities of life is an inviolable human right. Everyone on this planet deserves food and water and shelter and health care and education. And those things only cost money because we say they do. Money is an illusion. Money is the barbed wire fence that keeps us inside our prisons of fear and alienation and hatred and submission. Money denies people the basic needs that need to be filled before they can have self-actualization, and so money keeps us perceiving in a deficit-motivated manner.
We have what we need. The earth and our own human intelligence and emotions can provide us with everything we need to live good and decent lives.
Not engorged greedy selfish lives. Those of us who ended up on the top end of the pyramid are going to have to give up some useless luxuries. We are going to have to live simply so that others may simply live, as the bumper sticker says. As a person who drives a 17 year old car and who lives in a two bedroom 50 year old house and who rarely goes shopping - I can tell you that, when not under the threat of soul-killing fascism, I am happy. I am fulfilled. My life is beautiful and good, and I feel at one with the universe. Until money intrudes. Until people are taking basic necessities away from my loved ones so that they can gold plate the toilets on their fourth yacht. You are not better than anyone else, and no one is better than you. Money has nothing to do with your value as a human. Nothing. Other than how having too much of it deprives you of your humanity.
We are all of equal infinite worth. We are all divine. We are all part of the Way, the Tao, God, Christ, Allah, whatever you want to call it. And when we realize that, when we treat each other as the divine gods that we all are, then we can have peace. We can have prosperity. We can have security and safety and respect and belonging and love and accomplishment and self-actualization.
Money is the enemy. Kill it. Work cooperatively with others for the good, instead of competing with them for money. Know that every human you see is worthy of the utmost respect, no matter how much stupid useless green paper they have or what meaningless number represents their bank account. Know that you are worthy and good and loved, no matter where you are in the social pyramid created by money. There is a story about a man who kept a group of monkeys and forced them to go out and pick fruit for him in return for taking care of them. One day one of the monkeys decided to eat the fruit instead. The other monkeys saw this, and realized that they could eat the fruit too. The man no longer had power over them and they became free. Capitalism, the idea of competition and self worth based on money, the idea of winning a competition in which we are all losers, MUST DIE. It must. We either start eating the fruit that we pick ourselves and leave the old rich white jowly cheeked men bitter and alone and powerless, or we die at the hands of those who try to control us through making us think that we have to depend on them to take care of us.
|
|
pinkfiend1
Full Member
Missing everyone
Posts: 467
|
Post by pinkfiend1 on Apr 17, 2011 14:34:14 GMT -5
Stacey did you even read the replies to your first post? If so you did a great job of ignoring the repercussions of your behaviour and not responding to comments. What is the point of you trying to start a debate if your not going to read and respond to anyone who wants to join your debates?
Stacey the society you are describing is not a good idea. They tried it in Russia under a guy called Marx and Marxism did not work, Russia is still trying to recover from the Marxist society where everyone is payed the same regardless of their job etc. Marxism/communism destroyed Russia. If everyone earns the same regardless of their job, and everyone has the same things nobody would aspire to do anything hard or challenging, or involving responsibility as they wouldn't be getting any extra reward for all their extra work. Nobody would become a farmer because it would involve too many long hours operating machinary and looking after animals and crops when they could be doing something alot easier for the same money. And that would cause obvious problems. Jobs need to have a sliding pay scale to aspire people to acomplish things, and do the difficult jobs that lots of people wouldn't necessarily want to do. I mean not everyone can be a lawyer, or a teacher, or a surgeon. Teachers are underpaid, nurses are underpaid, and yes the hospitals have too many berocratic positions when they could be using the money to pay nurses and other medical people, but Britian is pretty good really. We get free healthcare, it may not be perfect but I'd still take it over having to spend a fortune in America. I mean if your going to campaign for something that will really help people why not free healthcare in America? I mean in th UK you find a lump or something you go to the Dr without panicking about if your health insurance will cover it. You can't have a communist society like you seem to want without making health care free, and insuring that people are still going to do the vital jobs involved in running the country. Yes certain jobs are overpaid, british footballers geting 20 mill for a game is obscene, I mean not even the Prime Minister gets that much and he is making decisions that affect the entire British population. Money is needed to help foster ambition and without ambition a population will fail as it needs people with drive and vision to decide to take on the decision of making decisions that affect the entire population, and however you try to frame it the country needs a limited amount of people in charge, or else there would be chaos as the saying is correct "too many cooks spoil the broth"
|
|
lepifera
Junior Member
"....."
Posts: 93
|
Post by lepifera on Apr 18, 2011 10:19:48 GMT -5
Pink,
Your mentioning of Russia's experience reminded me of a poem, "Utopia".
It is written by a Polish writer Wislawa Symborska, who was active in the communist movement in her youth, and then became disillusioned by the gaping distance between the reality and the ideal.
"Utopia" by Wislawa Symborska, originally written in Polish, translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh
"Island where all becomes clear.
Solid ground beneath your feet.
The only roads are those that offer access.
Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.
The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here with branches disentangled since time immemorial.
The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple, sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.
The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista: the Valley of Obviously.
If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.
Echoes stir unsummoned and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.
On the right a cave where Meaning lies.
On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction. Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.
Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley. Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.
For all its charms, the island is uninhabited, and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches turn without exception to the sea.
As if all you can do here is leave and plunge, never to return, into the depths.
Into unfathomable life."
|
|
pinkfiend1
Full Member
Missing everyone
Posts: 467
|
Post by pinkfiend1 on Apr 18, 2011 13:35:27 GMT -5
That poem is beautiful Lepifera.
|
|