Check out this comment from Adam E. Zandarski on my blog:
“Putting a man on the moon, or building pyramids and ziggaurats, while also creating new technologies and systems of thought, serve to bind a people with a feeling of combined accomplishment.”
Take that, Gene Callahan!
We have so much to learn. Just wondering, what new technology did building pyramids create ? Or shooting a ballistic missile at the moon, for that matter ?
Well thank god for that. Otherwise we could possibly be led to think that enslaving entire nations to stack bricks on top of one another for no inherent purpose might be a bad thing.
interesting choice of words, ‘serve to bind people’ , bet he didn’t even notice!
To be fair it can be true though. I’m sure a lot of people, if not the majority, felt a sense of national pride when a man landed on the moon. And of course there are plenty of technology advancements thanks to NASA:
I think Adam operates from a faulty view of what society is. He believes it’s like a football team which has a common goal, and the action of the teammates are subordinated to that goal. Callahan has another article on this, in which he distinguishes between an “enterprise association” whose members are united in pursuit of a common end and “civil association” or citizens living under a common legal system but with their own separate goals. Moreover, even football teams are voluntarily entered into and exited from, unlike the communities which the government taxes or conscripts or enslaves in order to build its pyramids. Those who feel a “sense of national pride” should be kind enough to leave those who do not alone.
And I’m quite sure the slaves of Khufu thought they were doing Amon’s(?) work.
I do want to thank NASA for robotic mother pigs and advanced facial cream technology.
Give me an S! Give me an O! Give me a C! Give me an I! Ohh, you know where Im going… SOCIETY! SOCIETY! SOCIETY! Yaaaaaaaa! Lets go team!
I argue for us to work together, you argue that we/re on our own. Whereas I know that much of our lives is up to us alone, I still believe the greatness of man is in its collectiveness. Here, let me pose this question; Is the market itself not in existence to facilitate a more economical society? Isnt that why they call it the economy?
Yes. I did know that i said ‘bind.’ Much like the clothes on your back, things can be bound together and still be right. And of course becuase youre history is severely skewed and lacking, you should know that the pyramids were not built by slaves. They were primarily built by nobleman. And the actual architect Imhotep was really historys first doctor and scientist.
LETS GO TEAM! LETS GO TEAM! LETS GO TEAM!
I have nothing against working together. I just have a problem when people are forced to work together, especially when it is for such mundane tasks as building a pyramid.
And the Pyramids were not built by noblemen. The people who actually dragged the granite blocks were peasant farmers who worked on the pyramids when the Nile was flooded as a tax that the king put on them. Their pyramid labor was a tax, so for all intents and purposes, they were enslaved.
LOL!
Did even putting a man on the moon create “New Systems of Thought” or more accurately put, Philosophies. If so, I am unaware of these, “Philosophies” and would love to be informed.
I actually thought you were going with Socialism…
You’re not arguing for us to work together, but instead to force some people to work for others.
It doesn’t matter whether the people who actually constructed the pyramids were slaves -as you define it - or not, the people who ultimately supplied the wealth necessary to construct them were most certainly not free.
With a free market, men would also travel to the Moon. But only when it makes sense. The Apollo project delivered very little scientific result, and it was hugely expensive. Unmanned expeditions would’ve been much cheaper and better (for example, Apollo chose landing sites for safety, not for science).
Actually, it could be argued that the costs and climax of the Apollo project seriously impeded human exploration of space. Plans for a permanent space station were scrapped, the space shuttle progam cut down, and for 35 years now, nothing has been sent to the Moon, although much science remains to be done there. The governments purpose with going to the Moon was purely propagandistic.
One of the most stupid things any politician has ever said, was the “because it’s hard” phrase of Kennedy.
Give me a Y! Give me an A! Give me a W! Give me an N!
/Yawn.
LULZ
How adorable.
What are you talking about? The market exists because man acting in his own interest finds the division of labour and a market economic to be the most successful means of satisfying his own wants.
I’m curious does your revisionist history extend to the holocaust? I’d be curious to hear it.
It may be revisionistic, but it is a completely true statement.
i suppose it was a charitable organisation, channeling funds and co-ordinating a volunteer workforce motivated out of sheer love of the Pharaoh and national pride?
Here, your tax dollars at work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE As pyrotechnics go their shows are good…
Also, the amount of stupid mistakes they regularly make costing hundreds of millions is amazing.
http://cbs13.com/local/global.warming.satellite.2.942451.html
“Wow! Bad news this morning.” I lol’d.
I have heard recent findings reveal that they were not slaves but in fact paid workers, as their house was to nice to be a slaves housed. I have no source, just heard it somewhere.