Writing (fiction) has at least three important parts to it. The first is Arrangement/construction, wherein the writer builds a compelling tale (which might also be described as imagination). The second is messaging, where the writer layers in themes and concepts. The third is the painting, where the writer smears all of that stuff on the page (wordsmithery). Both Adams and Vonnegut were quite good in the first two, but merely adequate at the third. Rowling, for instance, was extremely good at the first, pretty good at the second and barely mediocre at the third.
How well something reads is not always the indicator of how good it actually is.
It does have to do with calculating one’s chances after the fact. Maybe killing was never part of the plan, but if their own lives are at stake, they will remove the possibility of a living victim’s testimony to save themselves. They’re not stupid.
My impression is that bioengineering will experience rapid price deflation the same way computers and cell phones did. Cell phones went from something only the rich in large cities could afford, to something the middle class could afford, to something poor people could afford, to something even the poorest in Africa could afford over the span of 20-30 years. Biotech will likely follow the same trend.
China has a superior system and will be the Middle Kingdom again.
All land should be publicly owned like in China. If you want to use land for housing or industry, you can get a 75 year lease. Land was here before we were and is now owned by the descendants of those who seized it. Private ownership of land is a vestige of feudalism.
The West cannot go forward because money creation is private, and finance takes a cut from everything before profit and wages.
The Fed should expand it quantitative easing program and buy up everyone’s mortgage and then burn them.
The US Constitution is a terrible document created as a compromise with slaveholders.
Revolution in our day simply means socializing finance
The US judicial system is horrible. 97% of people in prison never get a trial because they are blackmailed into giving up their rights.
Everything most people believe is a lie. The system is built on lies.
I believe that climate change is real. There is no way you can say it is not real. We have always had climate change, one way or another, and always will.
HOWEVER
what is debatable is how much of a role people have in it. This does not mean that we have a right to excessively pollute our planet.
I may be mistaken, but I don’t think that, in China, all land is publicly owned, I believe there *is *private ownership here and there.
With your 75-year proposal, wouldn’t the temporary owners just take worse and worse care of the land as that 75-year term end nears? It won’t be theirs anymore, so why treat it well?
I believe 95+% of the problems in U.S. public education can be solved by instilling and enforcing (much) stronger student discipline, starting in elementary school and continuing through grade 12.
A lease is a contract. If the government leases you this land, there will be stipulations. If you fail to properly maintain it, you can be in breach and simply lose it.
Very few things really matter. Of those things that really matter, most do not matter very much.
Legalize drugs and prostitution.
Organized religion is responsible for more grief and woe than any other cause.
Churches should pay taxes.
Sexual education should be mandatory in public schools. Alternatives to intercourse should be taught as a means of preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Abortion should be available on demand.
I hold a really radical viewpoint which I’ve hesitated to share since I know that it will lead to my isolation on the board, and possible banning.
However, the truth may come out at some point, so I might as well 'fess up. Because of the seriousness of the subject matter, I am spoiling it.
Do you really want to know?It’s not pretty. I’ve warned you.Stranger On A Train isn’t always right, especially on topics such as historyI await my warning or worse.
It is the absolute right of any person to commit suicide, even if mentally ill. The person need not be considered terminally ill. Forcing another human to continue to live against their will is a cruelty.
I think the type of capitalism the United States practices which continues to concentrate wealth at the top is not going to be sustainable across the long term and if a substantial change does not occur that a revolution of some kind is probable within the next 50 years.
I think progressives and liberals do tend to live with them a media bubble just like right-wingers that reinforces their own attitudes and predispositions.
I don’t think that black American culture is particularly positive overall and is more of a danger to black people’s ability to progress than a real benefit.
I think Islamic culture is often intolerant and dangerous and I can understand why Europeans have had enough an influx of Islamic immigrants.
I think a lot of the current College Rape Crisis situation getting spun up by some activists and the media reflects more media hype than the statistical reality of huge numbers of college women getting raped at incredible rates.
I think Trump voters are largely deplorable.
I think they should bring back whipping for certain crimes.
I don’t think people have necessarily Heroes just because they are soldiers or policemen.
I think pitbulls and pitbull mixes are in general more dangerous physically and temperamentally then other breeds of dogs and landlords refusing to allow them on-premises are well within their rights.
I think many US women who complain that there are no suitable men to date or marry often have very unrealistic expectations.
I’m sure some of my controversial opinions would cause me a lot of grief, largely due to my own ignorance. Not sharing those ones.
I am a proponent of the Universal Basic Income.
Ridley Scott movies suck.
All tattoos are ugly.
Derek Jacobi is a terrible actor.
Sport is a meaningless waste of time.
I don’t know about that. Americans have been conditioned to blame the poor and blame themselves for their money problems, the rich have a very effective media apparatus to push a divide and conquer strategy to divide americans by class, race and political views. I doubt we ever get united enough to stand up to the rich, at least not anytime in the next 20 years.
If anything, sadly I think the US will move further and further to the right as income inequality grows. People will scapegoat trade deals, foreigners, minorities, etc. for their problems.
Possibly but IMO at some point in the future the distance between the US and other advanced industrialized democracies in terms of health care and lifestyle outcomes is going to grow to a point it will be too wide to ignore or scapegoat away and the poo will hit the fan.