Someone mentions that brain disorder/genes/upbringing/poverty/provocation/bad experience might be a cause of some murder/robbery/terrorist attack/other bad thing.
Someone else is outraged and says you can't use that as an excuse and some people had the same background and are model citizens
Someone else says it's an explanation, not an excuse.
Somebody else tries to make a pat distinction between people who know what they're doing and those who can't help it.
It goes on and on, night after night. And never gets anywhere.
Meanwhile philosophers sit and debate free will and responsibility (or maybe they don't anymore) but the people on the radio don't get involved in this. No, they don't come to a single conclusion but they get a long way past all the crap above.
I hate people. The enlightenment is over. Everyone's just giving up.
What other things do people pronounce back and forth about in the same simplistic way that make you want to scream "YOU ARROGANT FUCKS - PEOPLE HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT THIS FOR CENTURIES AND YOU THINK YOUR STUPID 2 MINUTE CONVERSATION DESTINED TO BE REPEATED A MILLION TIMES IS WORTH HAVING"
?
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 4 November 2002 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)
I'm with you. But there's nothing to say. Let's end it now, shall we? But how do we do that?
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 00:44 (twenty-two years ago)
Oh god, no...
But come to think of it, what else is there to do?
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)
Oh come on N, you know that isn't true. These conversations have always gone on, people have always been inane and stupid. Precicely because of that, you've not heard those conversations - nobody thought to record it, same as no-one records talk radio.
― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)
I was about to say my point isn't really that this is a new phenomenon by thinking about it, I think mass media of this sort *has* trained people's minds into producing stock brain farts on subjects like the above.
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)
Well I took the part where you said "The enlightenment is over. Everyone's just giving up." to mean that you thought it was a new phenomenon. But you know I think the media is just a macro/microcosm (which one?) of humanity generally. People don't say this crap because the media has trained them to. Or maybe they do, I really can't say... I'm in Mansfield at the moment. The people here just grunt.
― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)
Yeah 'The Enlightment is over' bit was really just a bit of stupid hyperbole I liked the sound of.
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)
n, philosophers have been debating whether enlightenment is over for far longer than it took you to come up with that.
― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)
not sure if this will make you feel better or worse, n:
friend of mine heard one of our philosophy professors call in to a show on public radio. announcer eventually said: 'can you get to your point?' hahaha
― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)
Better!
Actually, I don't know why I said 'phone ins'. What had really prompted me to post this was a late night radio show with a panel of professional commentators. They are always the worst.
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)