[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

A long personal rant...

I agree about "buying local".
If you can actually (personally) know the grower maybe there's a chance,
but there are a lot of products out there that are taking advantage of the current fad of "green".

I try. But it is not as easy as you think, even when you think you are buying local.

I disagree with the idea of survivalism.
Not everyone can go that route, nor should they try.
Can you imagine the situation if they did... it would be back to Dan'l Boone days...
and feuds would not be settled as easily, smoothly, and friendly as they are here in The Cellar .

That is going to be my approach. I no longer trust the government to do it's job.

In starting this thread (post #1), I was trying to use the idea that stand-alone computers are personally satisfying, but networks make things better for everyone connected.
The problems come when all of the data is stored on "the big computer in the sky", and that big computer is owned by just one or a few individuals who have their own motivations.

It's OK if the owner is a "benign dictator" working for the good of all it's users, but if $ is the only goal... well, you know where that is going. Can you spell BP, Comcast, Koch... ?

It is a fact of our world, just substitute Google, Microsoft, and Apple and you have it.

My most recent concern is the US Supreme Court's decision to bestow the Right of unlimited free speech on corporations (i.e., any business). That is, they are now legally defined as an "individual" with all the rights of an individual. Advertising, whether political or not, can be done in any form, saying whatever the company desires, in whatever amount the company can afford. So with mega-corporations, well, you know where that is going.
Can you spell BP, Comcast, Koch... ?

Corporations are now individuals equivalent to a person with all legal rights
and enormous coffers of funds to run rampant over the human beings and smaller (vulnerable) businesses.

And my fear is that we have law makers who want to regulate the airwaves and take away the free market forces which have shaped radio, under the guise of "leveling" the playing field, all along the motivations are purely partisan. Let those who want to enter the market do so, and then support themselves with advertising and support of the listeners as others do. If they make it they make it. If they fail they do so by their own failures. I am not a supporter of the SC ruling, but it is what it is. So I guess we have to live with it for now.

How can we protect ourselves from:
the big computer in the sky ?

I don't know, get off the grid and don't allow it to influence you?

the egg farm distributing tainted eggs with impunity ?

Buy chickens?

the corporation that mounts overwhelming political advertising that to only benefits their $ bottom line to the detriment of the population?

It has already been happening for years, since the age and development of the advertising industry.

How can we (humans) protect ourselves from the non-benign dictators ?

Revolution? I am about ready to start with this Congress and President.

I hope that if we find the underlying principle that is working here, it will lead to a beneficial solution.
Otherwise, you get what you... are sold.

Agreed.