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shonk · Feb 14, 2004, 12:06 am

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (chicagoastronomer,)
Man is capable of great and beautiful things, but that is not the norm. It is often more of destruction, murder and retarded behavior.
<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

I wouldn't say that destruction and murder are any more commonplace than the great and the beautiful. In my opinion, if you can't find beauty all around you, you aren't looking very hard. For example, to me, the internet is a thing of beauty. Sure, there are lots of ugly things online, but if you take a broader perspective, this medium is amazingly beautiful. People from every part of the world are interacting with eachother, telling their stories, reading the thoughts and feelings and opinions of people from thousands of miles away. On forums, in chatrooms, through email, on weblogs, journals, personal sites and online communities, people are talking, interacting, learning that people all over the world share the same concerns, have the same hopes and dreams, even that they have the same fears. Instead of listening to the rulers, instead of accepting the notion that people who talk a different language or have a different skin color are different, that they need to be dealt with by diplomats or politicians or corporations or armies, people are talking to those same people that in earlier ages they've been taught to mistrust, to fear or to hate. It's not art, but to me that's a beautiful thing.

The same goes for so many other things in this world. Have you ever really stopped to think about how incredible it is that you have the opportunity to play games, to read, to spend time thinking, to go out and dance until the wee hours of the morning, instead of spending all day, every day doing nothing but trying to find food, running from animals with bigger teeth or stronger muscles, that you can grow old rather than being eaten as soon as you lose a step? That, if you're a woman, you can live to menopause instead of dying during childbirth? To me, those things are all amazing. Maybe they don't mean much in the grand scheme of the universe, but, then again, how much impact do quasars have on your life?

And now, back to my usual, cynical outlook...

Feb 14, 2004, 12:06 am	#8 (permalink) (top)
shonk Sedimentary Rock Posts: 18	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (chicagoastronomer,) Man is capable of great and beautiful things, but that is not the norm. It is often more of destruction, murder and retarded behavior. <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> I wouldn't say that destruction and murder are any more commonplace than the great and the beautiful. In my opinion, if you can't find beauty all around you, you aren't looking very hard. For example, to me, the internet is a thing of beauty. Sure, there are lots of ugly things online, but if you take a broader perspective, this medium is amazingly beautiful. People from every part of the world are interacting with eachother, telling their stories, reading the thoughts and feelings and opinions of people from thousands of miles away. On forums, in chatrooms, through email, on weblogs, journals, personal sites and online communities, people are talking, interacting, learning that people all over the world share the same concerns, have the same hopes and dreams, even that they have the same fears. Instead of listening to the rulers, instead of accepting the notion that people who talk a different language or have a different skin color are different, that they need to be dealt with by diplomats or politicians or corporations or armies, people are talking to those same people that in earlier ages they've been taught to mistrust, to fear or to hate. It's not art, but to me that's a beautiful thing. The same goes for so many other things in this world. Have you ever really stopped to think about how incredible it is that you have the opportunity to play games, to read, to spend time thinking, to go out and dance until the wee hours of the morning, instead of spending all day, every day doing nothing but trying to find food, running from animals with bigger teeth or stronger muscles, that you can grow old rather than being eaten as soon as you lose a step? That, if you're a woman, you can live to menopause instead of dying during childbirth? To me, those things are all amazing. Maybe they don't mean much in the grand scheme of the universe, but, then again, how much impact do quasars have on your life? And now, back to my usual, cynical outlook... selling waves instead of making them.