Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!newshosting.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!image.surnet.ru!news.clara.net!wagner.news.clara.net!lnewsoutpeer01.lnd.ops.eu.uu.net!lnewsinpeer01.lnd.ops.eu.uu.net!bnewsoutpeer00.bru.ops.eu.uu.net!bnewsinpeer00.bru.ops.eu.uu.net!bnewspost00.bru.ops.eu.uu.net!emea.uu.net!read.news.fr.uu.net!not-for-mail From: Paul Vigay Subject: Re: Comp.Sys.Acorn.FAQ part 4 of 4 Approved: Paul Vigay Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce,comp.sys.acorn.misc,comp.answers,news.answers References: <01Dec2004-faq4-csafaq@vigay.com> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 07:24:25 GMT Message-ID: <44Beb7212_eeo6$bzbdbi@vigay.com> X-Newsreader: Mews-0.74 04/05/01 "QURXYQY" Followup-To: news.admin.net-abuse.email Lines: 38 NNTP-Posting-Host: p25-54.isdn.iway.fr X-Trace: 1103011234 read.news.fr.uu.net 3515 194.98.130.54:1249 X-Complaints-To: abuse@fr.uu.net Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.sys.acorn.announce:8979 comp.sys.acorn.misc:251753 comp.answers:58939 news.answers:281450 An industrial society, if built from scratch without outside help, can only be built in a series of stages: You need tools to make tools to make tools to make tools ... . A long process of economic development and progress in social organization is required. And, even in the absence of an ideology opposed to technology, there is no reason to believe that anyone would be interested in rebuilding industrial society. The enthusiasm for "progress" is a phenomenon particular to the modern form of society, and it seems not to have existed prior to the 17th century or thereabouts. 211. In the late Middle Ages there were four main civilizations that were about equally "advanced": Europe, the Islamic world, India, and the Far East (China, Japan, Korea). Three of those civilizations remained more or less stable, and only Europe became dynamic. No one knows why Europe became dynamic at that time; historians have their theories but these are only speculation. At any rate, it is clear that rapid development toward a technological form of society occurs only under special conditions. So there is no reason to assume that long-lasting technological regression cannot be brought about. 212. Would society EVENTUALLY develop again toward an industrial-technological form? Maybe, but there is no use in worrying about it, since we can't predict or control events 500 or 1,000 years in the future. Those problems must be dealt with by the people who will live at that time. THE DANGER OF LEFTISM 213. Because of their need for rebellion and for membership in a movement, leftists or persons of similar psychological type are often unattracted to a rebellious or activist movement whose goals and membership are not initially leftist. The resulting influx of leftish types can easily turn a non-leftist movement into a leftist one, so that left