Leonidas
Posts: 2078
Joined: 2/16/2004
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: xBullx
What world is it that values these things you stated? Safety, Social Justice, Equality? The western society of earth I presume you mean? I have no doubt that certain stretches of this globe have no use for equality, comfort or freedom. Hell, just watch the News and you should get example enough of that. Certain Gorean type cultures exist on the third rock, of course the US doesn't like them very much. Then again are they all that Gorean as they insist a man live a certain way, wear his facial hair a certain way.
I was assuming that he was using "world" as some folks do, to mean culture. Since he's standing behind a big Marvin the Martian, I figured it was a pretty safe bet he lives in the west, rather than Afganistan or some other place where the values I mentioned don't hold much water.
The fictional Gor was fictional, so it was possible to have many different cultures with basically the same underlying values and ethics. So, you can compare "Gor" as a whole to a single society here on Earth. Here on Earth, values are very different depending on where you are, as you pointed out, though there are some common themes, so it would be very difficult to compare "Gor" as a whole to "Earth" as a whole in the way that the OP was intending.
quote:
Yes, I have many misgivings about my homestone, the good ole USA, but I do so little to change it, I am also part of the problem. How about you? I'd love to find a way to live as I see fit, but in our democratic free society, my way of living is illegal in parts and chastised in others. If this ole globe were Gor, wouldn't we need to do a great deal of house cleaning all the way around?
I live very much as I see fit. As long as I don't infringe on anyone else's right to do so and conform to some basic requirements of the society around me, I can. What I do to change it consists mostly of posting on these boards, to lend whatever support that represents to others who are trying to live similarly.
Societies run in cycles, Bull. They rise, they prosper, and they fall. Always have, always will. It's because prosperous people become self-absorbed and complacent and are eventually supplanted by those who are hungrier. In that way, success is its own worst enemy. There is nothing that you or I are going to do to change that. To the Gorean way of thinking, the Home Stone in your house is the most important, followed by the one that represents your village and so on outward. What you and I can do is be good soveriegns over that Home Stone, and maybe contribute in some way to our neighbors out there who share our values. Further from us than that is a foreign country.
quote:
Wouldn't it be best if non emotional creatures that communicated through scent were judging the good from the bad. You and I would both rule the other out, and that would just be a clash of ego's having nothing to do with our strength of character.
The Priest Kings were in the books as a philosophical stand-in for the Will of God. Unlike the gods folks worship here on Earth, though, they would actually strike you down if you pissed them off and kept a pretty tight reign on what was and wasn't allowed. There is a line of philosophical thought that asserts that since we can't forsee the ultimate consequences of our actions, we cannot, as men, define right and wrong by what seems to us to be good (pleasant, beneficial, etc.) or bad (unpleasant, unfair, harmful). The Priest Kings were in the books to resolve that philsophical question by making some choices that men would surely make (like inventing fire-arms) off limits. Dr. Lange cheated, in other words.
So, would the world be better if we were an order of magnitude more intelligent than we are, and were able to forsee all possible ends to the actions that we take, and so could, therefore, truly judge right from wrong and then actually act on those judgements even if they weren't in our short-term interests? Yeah, probably. We aren't so lucky, so we do things like inventing nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons solve a problem that we happen to be facing at the moment and so it seems a good thing to do. Whether it was ultimately right, or wrong, to do so, we don't know yet, and depends some on your definition of "right" and "wrong".
quote:
Gor exists only in the hearts of what I see to be good men. I reckon someone else would oppose that notion though.... You see there is only Earth and there is no other place... there is only various mindsets, We have out Gorean Banner, out colors if you will. But so long as Goreans fantasize abot what if's and butt heads over what some damn Authors intentions were, the Gorean way is no more adapt and leading a planet than the one we have.
Gor exists, or not, in what you choose to do, and not do, every day. The Gorean way is not a model for leading this planet, and cannot be so. As you pointed out, we have no priest-kings to sort out for us what the things that we shouldn't do, just because we can are, and enforce those judgements. The Gorean way can only be a model for personal ethics and conduct. It's enough.
< Message edited by Leonidas -- 4/21/2007 8:47:15 AM >
_____________________________
Take care of yourself
Leonidas
|
Would the world be better if it was Gorean? - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread