The Hard and Hungry vs the Soft and Satisfied

[jolly rancher]

https://www.academia.edu/8413567/THE_FATE_OF_EMPIRES_and_SEARCH_FOR_SURVIVAL

I don’t know if this has been posted before but if interested give it a read. It’s an essay written in the mid-1970’s and kind of long but it could every well apply to the times we are living In today. What are your thoughts?

 

[chocktaw2]

It has been said, "learn from your mistakes". The first part of that means "one has made a mistake". Good luck getting folk to admit that one. Most of the people I talk to, other then family, will tell you they don't makes mistakes. When they utter those words, I end the conversation with "well, your father sure did". Good read.

 

[Old Bear]

It has been said, "learn from your mistakes". The first part of that means "one has made a mistake". Good luck getting folk to admit that one. Most of the people I talk to, other then family, will tell you they don't makes mistakes. When they utter those words, I end the conversation with "well, your father sure did". Good read.

 

[chocktaw2]

Yep.

 

[maxwelhse]

It has been said, "learn from your mistakes". The first part of that means "one has made a mistake". Good luck getting folk to admit that one. Most of the people I talk to, other then family, will tell you they don't makes mistakes. When they utter those words, I end the conversation with "well, your father sure did". Good read.

Some people are crazy... I'm wrong almost as often as I'm right when I'm anything outside of the dead center of my comfort zone.

How do people ever learn anything?

 

[chocktaw2]

Some people are crazy... I'm wrong almost as often as I'm right when I'm anything outside of the dead center of my comfort zone.

How do people ever learn anything?

They don't, that's the point! One should not strive to know everything, it's not possible.

 

[NKBJ]

Not strive to know everything...
Got to buy a Christmas present for a young man who was rebuilding Geiger counters for fun before he bothered with high school graduation.

 

[EPeter213]

The more I learn, the less I know, but that doesn’t make me want to stop learning.

 

[BugI02]

Not strive to know everything...
Got to buy a Christmas present for a young man who was rebuilding Geiger counters for fun before he bothered with high school graduation.

A nice Fluke Digital Multimeter (if he doesn't already have one)?

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Well, that made an interesting deer hunting read. Thank you.

 

[ditcherman]

That was an amazing read.
Thanks for the post.

Something that stuck out at me was that the author called a generation 25 years, which seems kind of short to me. Maybe that's a standard, I dunno. But something my father often said, mostly in reference to farms, is that the 1st generation builds it, the second hangs on to it, and the third loses it. If you were to extend the definition of generation to more or less a lifetime, say 70-80 years, then this saying could hold true in the empire studying business as well.

I've always thought (hoped) that the U.S. might be different, that we might be able to beat the old 267 year record. That's a pretty heady thought in the big scheme of the history of mankind. Just like the author says, we care more about our internal sides than we do about our overall survival. Rinse, repeat.