Posts by andin
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But, Andin, that’s the point. You won’t know until you’re there!
Yup, I think Occam’s razor is taken too far. Just because you don’t, and can’t possibly, know about something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Well I have satisfied myself there is no “there” after life. But I expect no one to believe anything I say on the subject because this fiction of something incorporeal in the walking meat has become so pervasive there is all manner of fantasising around it.
All I can say is if there is an afterlife/a god, any clues or hints as to what it maybe, will not to be found in any of the speculations of mankind so far. -
Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Just thinking ahead Jacqui, and kicking against all the christian and other mystical bullshit we have constructed around death over the centuries.
I would like to be able to make that decision when it suits me, and not have medical staff trying to keep me alive in whatever state until my body gives up.we’ll find that the secret of dotage is life/awareness in a different dimension? A real cosmic joke!
Another cosmic joke? HA There are no secrets of awareness, different dimensions where all is revealed. I dont mean to sound harsh, but we have to trim back on the fantasy realms it makes for mental flab.
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If the state takes a lien out against their property, it’s means the kids inherit less,
I think you’ll find something along these lines is already in place. If my experience with my Grandmother is typical. One thing Im not sure of, if it was driven by the rest home or the state.
Could be, definitely the average lifespan increased a lot.
I dont want to live much past 85. In fact if I had my way I'd choose my death date.
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I'm sorry, I cannot see what our lives and world views have in common beside coincidence of birth year.
And coincidence is all those of us born after the war have in common.That's a stereotype?
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Joe Wylie,
C’mom andin, just having survived this long is selling out.
I guess street cred is everything. I wondering which street tho'?
I think time has been called, and the real world gets back tomorrow.
Hobbitses 'n all. -
First off special mention to Deep Red
If Kyle had made it plain that his beef was with the selfishly affluent, rather than an entire generation, I’d have no problem.
Specifically the ones who became what they rebelled against in the first place.
Yes living , it seems, turns out to have many ironies.
But having long hair in your youth does not make the man.We don’t even have the balls to implement a capital gains tax to make crystal clear to everyone that speculative property gambling and bigger and flasher houses are not productive investments for this country’s future.
While law changes go some way to righting wrongs. There is a whole lot more we could do but I fear the time has passed, many in a generation slunk pathetically back into the beliefs of their parents and childhood. But thats not a punishable offence, it was just a hope now pushed out to another time.
The national conversation about this needs to help everyone think about our grandparents and our grandchildren; about the sustainable wellbeing and wealth of this country’s future residents and environment, not just what’s easy or comfortably familiar for us right now.
I would say again I like to broaden things out. Its not about our anything. The "conversation" needs to virtually be global now. All cultural views need revised updated to our rapidly changing understanding of the globe.
I would say get rid of the straight boring turncoat boomers and bring back the alternate boomers. -
Selfish Generations (reviewed by Ann Reeves of MSD’s Social Policy team and by economist Brian Easton). I won’t delve into their assessment of the work, but feel free to.
Easton sez
‘… the big winners … have been … those born between about 1920 and 1945. Throughout their lives they will make contributions which cover only a fraction of the benefits. For their successors the reverse is true.’ (p.3)
Much of the book is a rambling attempt to justify this accusation, based on anecdotal rather than systematic argument.Reeves OTOH
I was wrong. Firstly, the book does not attack any generation. It simply records the gradual shift in State assistance from a focus on children and young families, with minimal assistance to older people, through a stage where assistance to young and old was fairly evenly balanced, to the present focus on older people while assistance to those with young children has progressively been whittled away. Thomson notes that this has systematically benefited those he calls the "welfare generation", born in the 1920s, 1930s or early 1940s, while those who follow have faced cuts to current or prospective forms of support for themselves or their families. However, he acquits the "welfare generation" of greed or event intent in this.
So...um....yeah.. Back to working on the Time Machine.
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Prior to the 1976 there was no universal system, student support was largely based on bursaries and scholarships. Some baby boomers would have ended up in that camp.
A big fast tick in that box for me.
The intergenerational shift between those born in the 40s-60s and those born in the 70s-80s isn’t particularly controversial. Brian Easton isn’t the only economist who was written on it.
No quite right, There are many economist's and journalist's getting ready to blame a generation for being born, and the faults of a few. As I said if birth control had been more readily available there wouldn't be this problem.
Its not hard to realise after years at war, fucking would have been high on the agenda in many minds.Ben and Jimmy have outlined pretty good examples of stories that I heard dozens of time when I worked at a students association – my parents/grandparents/uncles/aunties don’t understand how the tertiary funding system has changed. Taxpayers tended to have very little understanding of just how little they were supporting tertiary students compared to ‘back in their day’.
I dont doubt it is more difficult to be a student at present, and maybe your extended family has difficulty grasping the changes. Was there anything else?
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Andin, whilst I appreciate that the generalizations about baby boomers might not apply to an artist like yourself,
I just fell off my chair Sir! You flatter me.
it’s worth comparing what the life of artists my age is like. My sister is a professional dancer (arty, not sleazy), and has been on the bones of her arse for … ever. Her student loan passed the $100,000 mark years ago, now I don’t even ask, I think my parents are paying the interest, and will subtract that from her inheritance. She’s not lazy, quite the opposite, she’s one of the most driven people I know. But the year you topped $26,000 is an unthinkable dream for her.
It was for me too. And I got fringe benefits Woohoo.
Sorry I'm an irrepressible print comic. As Simon said the downstream effects of student loans are horrendous or something...There is just NO MONEY in the arts, unless you are lucky enough to crack the big-time, which does also seem to mean “selling out” as well. She’s only able to do it because of support from Mum and Dad. The subculture she dwells in is very much an underclass, bearing all the hallmarks of lumpen proletarianism, lots of scamming, abuse, and a generally grasping attitude, as you’d expect from people drowning in poverty.
I thought we were at the "waving as we go down" stage.
But Im always jumping the gun, just like the weatherman. -
Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to JackElder,
Yes