Good piece, although I think there could have been a short mention of how co-operation can be abused, and how that is a part of the relationship between co-operation and trust. And how a breakdown of trust leads to hurt, which can lead to a rejection of *all* co-operation, not just the person who abused it. This co-operate first approach in the face of the possibility of abuse is driven by courage, which recently seems to be failing us. To our detriment.
The third episode was touching and blah blah blah, but it’s a zombie show. I don’t read romance novels and I don’t watch the Hallmark network. I don’t have an issue with gay characters, but I do have an issue with a love story injected into an adventure story. I don’t watch tv to be educated. I watch it to be entertained.
Not sure that I'd agree that the decline in organised religion is responsible for the collapse in co-operation. In my experience, the religious look down their noses at the rest of us and try to force us into their world: witness Roe vs Wade
"Until well into the nineteenth century, this was the usual state of all human societies. People were forced to trust each other and forge social bonds to survive a dangerous world."
I am a baby boomer and even in my generation we grew up with strong family ties and friends. Community was important. Today younger people are growing up in an increasingly alienated world of iPhones, iPads, Computers and Social Media. Twitter and TikTok are replacing human personal interactions talking face to face. Forgive me I know the old adage things change but is this really for the betterment of society and the human race? I don't think so. Fact is we need other people to survive and that involves a degree of trust.
Ah, yes! "Brokeback Apocalypse". Only HBO could imagine this as the next offering in the zombie apocalypse genre.
My fave paragraph from this "article" is the one with the oh-so-expected snark that the characters - Hollywood fictions, played by people who "act_ meaning are not real - in this presentation have more humanity that the viewers - real people - of the series.
It is a rather trite observation, but it is a frequent one in Hollywood (or New York or whatever debauched zone this came from) But we get the message: We are vile, selfish beings too focused on our protection and survival to assure our survival. We are human, ut need to be something else, it seems.
The very fact that we can discuss this electronically from, for most of us, heated (or cooled) comfortable homes while having a cup of coffee or any of thousands of other beverage choices from around the world that we can get in a store from down the street at any time of the year, shows how lucky we are. Sometimes it's hard to remember that it took lots of cooperation, coordination and logistics to reach this point and that, if not maintained, it could easily disappear.
Episode was more woke nonsense from HBO. Why do they think hammering away at the gay agenda when they only represent 5% of the population is something the masses want? They probably had a field day dreaming up the Don’t Tread on Me survivalist as a gay purposely to needle those on the right. The odds of a far right conservative survivalist being gay is likely much lower: less than 1% if that.
When you are peddling empty stupid policies and people know that, then instilling fear, distrust, and hatred is the tool of choice.
Again, you and I are not responsible for the past, we’re responsible only for resisting the latest attempts to destroy our way of life. Everyday people in Thailand say how they would love to go to America. Our friends daughter who is a US citizen with a degree has said, no opportunity for women here and is headed to the US.
People are lemmings who buy into this woke stupidity.
I played the game (I’m a pretty cool old guy) and it was one of the best games I ever played. The romance between these guys was not in the game but the characters were. Can anyone make a show these days that doesn’t try to hit over the head with LBGT? Directors and writers should just make a show about entertainment and in this case, follow the game. I’m enjoying the show but I get the feeling we are being manipulated.
Oh thank goodness. I was thinking I meet need to withdraw my support of your future candidacy. 😉 And I see where you are coming from.about leadership but Pelosi was born in '40 and McConnell and Biden were born in '42 so are technically not boomers. Trump barely is having been born in '46. Clinton I concede is and he is a disgrace. I actually remember thinking when he was elected, finally my generation has a say. That did not last long though. Maybe that is when I realized you cannot go by the cover of the book so to speak. I was a Bush fan largely out of patriotism over 9/11 but I now see how misplaced that was. It was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security that created the situation where American citizens are considered terrorists. And the FBI and DoJ are able to place their thumbs on the electoral scale. As for everything else I am in complete agreement. As I have opined before the federal government is like the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors screaming "[F]eed me!!!!]. If this is not stopped I can try see a world where the citizen is assigned a job on the federal plantation while a feudal "elite" dictates terms and conditions for all. That is not what the forefathers lived and died for. But let's examine what has happened historically. At the inception of the nation economics were discussed. A national currency and a federal bank were rejected. We rocked along pretty well for awhile with a very limited federal government. If you have never read DavyCrockett's speech on the floor of the Senate with regard to giving funds to victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore you should. It is elegant. It also addresses federalism beautifully in terms of how what happens in DC affects the states and the individual citizen and why that matters. Then we had erosion of those values. We had lands to defend and Indians to crush (that is sarcasm, my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee) so of course monies had to be raised. That was largely accomished through tariffs. Arguably the beloved north had waged a tariff war against the demon south for decades (that is also sarcasm as I am a native of the deep south and the land of cotton was the economic backbone of the antebellum nation). Well we began to not rock along so well and the Civil War broke out. Up until this point a variety of currencies were used but gold was king. It was universally accepted. During the war "greenbacks" were issued, the Treasury Seal first appeared, legal tender notes were issued (these notes used fine-line engraving, intricate patterns, the Treasury seal, and engraved signatures), an Office of the Comptroller and National Currency Bureau were created, a national banking system was established and the Department of Treasury was authorized to oversee the notes and in1862 the first income tax was passed. The south was crushed and reconstructed with the help of carpetbaggers. The nation continued to develop its fiat currency. In 1867 the income tax was repealed and from 1868 until 1913 90% of all revenue came from taxes on liquor, beer, wine, and tobacco. But things were not rocking along seamlessly. There were panics and alas the rich struggled to get richer. The Golden Age was threatened. But "[T]he inherently fragile unit banking structure coupled with an inelastic currency for a crisis prone system. Finding a political solution was difficult, however, because it pitted the INTERESTS OF LARGE. ITY BSNKS AGAINST THOSE OF BANKS IN SMALLER CITIES AND RURAL AREAS." [emphasis added]. federalreservehistory.org/essays/federal-reserve-history The solution, if you can call it that, was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which established the nation's first central bank and established a national banking system. This established a system of Reserve banks in geographic districts. Of course those Reserve banks were regional but they were in cities. So much for the small town and rural banks. And NYC was established as the banking capitol of the nation. Also in 1913 the income tax was revived. 110 years ago. But there was still that pesky gold issue. People distrustful of federal government tended to hoard it. Then there was another panic followed by WWI and as always Wars are good for business. Then heaven help us the Federal Reserve failed in its mission and the Great Depression occured. The greenback collapsed. Times were grave for many but some lucky ones still had gold. Even small amounts. The hero of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then seized all gold bullion and coins via Executive Order 6102 in April 1933. Owners were compensated at below market rates. A new, much higher, official rate for gold was established as part of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Thus enriching the federal government. Now for those of you who are going to lament the suffering during the Depression please understand that the enrichment of the federal government by nationalizing the gold of the citizenry did nothing to alleviate that and most likely increased the suffering of small stakeholders whose gold was seized, I mean nationalized. But at least we were on the gold standard. All that gold was safely stored in Ft. Knox guaranteeing all those greenbacks.
And many survived the Depression which ended largely as a result of WWII (and there is some nasty speculation about dear old FDRs advance knowledge about Pearl Harbor but that is a different story) but as always, war is good for business. We rocked along until the 1970s when Richard Nixon removed the US from the gold standard, thus establishing the greenback as a true fiat currency. Which is why in the modern era the Fed can fire up the printing presses at will. To enable reckless spending at Congress' will and the President's whim. And then to fix things the Fed can raise interest rates allegedly to disincentivize spending. ( Which works for me but Congress has not received the memo.) Which leaves the federal government spending in the area of $250 billion a quarter to service its $32,000,000,000,000 debt. But hey, how about reparations? I hear it is the newest thing on Disney, so it must be a good idea.
I would be more inclined to watch this show if I didn’t know the writer intentionally made the two men gay. Really? I am extremely tolerant but even the most tolerant of us get fed up. The more it’s intentionally inserted the more I feel such resentment.
The Last of Us is a good story about relationships and the human condition. So far it reminds me of Station Eleven. My hope is it finishes as positively as that one did.
Sorry. The show is dismal. Episode 1 was fairly riveting if typical by-the-numbers end-of-the world genre stuff. Episode 2 was uninteresting - at best. But Episode 3 was unrelentingly saccharine. Gay or straight I don't want to watch an hour-long Hallmark tear-jerker in the middle of a zombie apocalypse show. Perhaps episode 3 was marginally more interesting because the characters were gay (loved Nick Offerman as Bill - a great character). But that's it. Overall terrible writing, terrible direction and terrible storytelling. I'm out.
The rose-tinted view of Malaysian 'kampong' (village) life was amusing. Oddly, global immigration seems to only move one way - from places like that to more developed areas. No one that grows up in KL (Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia) is trying to live in rural Pahang (east coast mostly agricultural area). Plenty of vice versa though. No one that grows up in the USA is trying to relocate to Mali.
Good piece, although I think there could have been a short mention of how co-operation can be abused, and how that is a part of the relationship between co-operation and trust. And how a breakdown of trust leads to hurt, which can lead to a rejection of *all* co-operation, not just the person who abused it. This co-operate first approach in the face of the possibility of abuse is driven by courage, which recently seems to be failing us. To our detriment.
The third episode was touching and blah blah blah, but it’s a zombie show. I don’t read romance novels and I don’t watch the Hallmark network. I don’t have an issue with gay characters, but I do have an issue with a love story injected into an adventure story. I don’t watch tv to be educated. I watch it to be entertained.
Not sure that I'd agree that the decline in organised religion is responsible for the collapse in co-operation. In my experience, the religious look down their noses at the rest of us and try to force us into their world: witness Roe vs Wade
"Until well into the nineteenth century, this was the usual state of all human societies. People were forced to trust each other and forge social bonds to survive a dangerous world."
I am a baby boomer and even in my generation we grew up with strong family ties and friends. Community was important. Today younger people are growing up in an increasingly alienated world of iPhones, iPads, Computers and Social Media. Twitter and TikTok are replacing human personal interactions talking face to face. Forgive me I know the old adage things change but is this really for the betterment of society and the human race? I don't think so. Fact is we need other people to survive and that involves a degree of trust.
No mo woke BS propaganda. Stop trying to normalize the abnormal.
Ah, yes! "Brokeback Apocalypse". Only HBO could imagine this as the next offering in the zombie apocalypse genre.
My fave paragraph from this "article" is the one with the oh-so-expected snark that the characters - Hollywood fictions, played by people who "act_ meaning are not real - in this presentation have more humanity that the viewers - real people - of the series.
It is a rather trite observation, but it is a frequent one in Hollywood (or New York or whatever debauched zone this came from) But we get the message: We are vile, selfish beings too focused on our protection and survival to assure our survival. We are human, ut need to be something else, it seems.
The very fact that we can discuss this electronically from, for most of us, heated (or cooled) comfortable homes while having a cup of coffee or any of thousands of other beverage choices from around the world that we can get in a store from down the street at any time of the year, shows how lucky we are. Sometimes it's hard to remember that it took lots of cooperation, coordination and logistics to reach this point and that, if not maintained, it could easily disappear.
Episode was more woke nonsense from HBO. Why do they think hammering away at the gay agenda when they only represent 5% of the population is something the masses want? They probably had a field day dreaming up the Don’t Tread on Me survivalist as a gay purposely to needle those on the right. The odds of a far right conservative survivalist being gay is likely much lower: less than 1% if that.
Why are we talking about one episode of a tv show? Asking for a friend...
When you are peddling empty stupid policies and people know that, then instilling fear, distrust, and hatred is the tool of choice.
Again, you and I are not responsible for the past, we’re responsible only for resisting the latest attempts to destroy our way of life. Everyday people in Thailand say how they would love to go to America. Our friends daughter who is a US citizen with a degree has said, no opportunity for women here and is headed to the US.
People are lemmings who buy into this woke stupidity.
I played the game (I’m a pretty cool old guy) and it was one of the best games I ever played. The romance between these guys was not in the game but the characters were. Can anyone make a show these days that doesn’t try to hit over the head with LBGT? Directors and writers should just make a show about entertainment and in this case, follow the game. I’m enjoying the show but I get the feeling we are being manipulated.
Just be glad they weren’t trans.
Oh thank goodness. I was thinking I meet need to withdraw my support of your future candidacy. 😉 And I see where you are coming from.about leadership but Pelosi was born in '40 and McConnell and Biden were born in '42 so are technically not boomers. Trump barely is having been born in '46. Clinton I concede is and he is a disgrace. I actually remember thinking when he was elected, finally my generation has a say. That did not last long though. Maybe that is when I realized you cannot go by the cover of the book so to speak. I was a Bush fan largely out of patriotism over 9/11 but I now see how misplaced that was. It was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security that created the situation where American citizens are considered terrorists. And the FBI and DoJ are able to place their thumbs on the electoral scale. As for everything else I am in complete agreement. As I have opined before the federal government is like the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors screaming "[F]eed me!!!!]. If this is not stopped I can try see a world where the citizen is assigned a job on the federal plantation while a feudal "elite" dictates terms and conditions for all. That is not what the forefathers lived and died for. But let's examine what has happened historically. At the inception of the nation economics were discussed. A national currency and a federal bank were rejected. We rocked along pretty well for awhile with a very limited federal government. If you have never read DavyCrockett's speech on the floor of the Senate with regard to giving funds to victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore you should. It is elegant. It also addresses federalism beautifully in terms of how what happens in DC affects the states and the individual citizen and why that matters. Then we had erosion of those values. We had lands to defend and Indians to crush (that is sarcasm, my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee) so of course monies had to be raised. That was largely accomished through tariffs. Arguably the beloved north had waged a tariff war against the demon south for decades (that is also sarcasm as I am a native of the deep south and the land of cotton was the economic backbone of the antebellum nation). Well we began to not rock along so well and the Civil War broke out. Up until this point a variety of currencies were used but gold was king. It was universally accepted. During the war "greenbacks" were issued, the Treasury Seal first appeared, legal tender notes were issued (these notes used fine-line engraving, intricate patterns, the Treasury seal, and engraved signatures), an Office of the Comptroller and National Currency Bureau were created, a national banking system was established and the Department of Treasury was authorized to oversee the notes and in1862 the first income tax was passed. The south was crushed and reconstructed with the help of carpetbaggers. The nation continued to develop its fiat currency. In 1867 the income tax was repealed and from 1868 until 1913 90% of all revenue came from taxes on liquor, beer, wine, and tobacco. But things were not rocking along seamlessly. There were panics and alas the rich struggled to get richer. The Golden Age was threatened. But "[T]he inherently fragile unit banking structure coupled with an inelastic currency for a crisis prone system. Finding a political solution was difficult, however, because it pitted the INTERESTS OF LARGE. ITY BSNKS AGAINST THOSE OF BANKS IN SMALLER CITIES AND RURAL AREAS." [emphasis added]. federalreservehistory.org/essays/federal-reserve-history The solution, if you can call it that, was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which established the nation's first central bank and established a national banking system. This established a system of Reserve banks in geographic districts. Of course those Reserve banks were regional but they were in cities. So much for the small town and rural banks. And NYC was established as the banking capitol of the nation. Also in 1913 the income tax was revived. 110 years ago. But there was still that pesky gold issue. People distrustful of federal government tended to hoard it. Then there was another panic followed by WWI and as always Wars are good for business. Then heaven help us the Federal Reserve failed in its mission and the Great Depression occured. The greenback collapsed. Times were grave for many but some lucky ones still had gold. Even small amounts. The hero of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then seized all gold bullion and coins via Executive Order 6102 in April 1933. Owners were compensated at below market rates. A new, much higher, official rate for gold was established as part of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Thus enriching the federal government. Now for those of you who are going to lament the suffering during the Depression please understand that the enrichment of the federal government by nationalizing the gold of the citizenry did nothing to alleviate that and most likely increased the suffering of small stakeholders whose gold was seized, I mean nationalized. But at least we were on the gold standard. All that gold was safely stored in Ft. Knox guaranteeing all those greenbacks.
And many survived the Depression which ended largely as a result of WWII (and there is some nasty speculation about dear old FDRs advance knowledge about Pearl Harbor but that is a different story) but as always, war is good for business. We rocked along until the 1970s when Richard Nixon removed the US from the gold standard, thus establishing the greenback as a true fiat currency. Which is why in the modern era the Fed can fire up the printing presses at will. To enable reckless spending at Congress' will and the President's whim. And then to fix things the Fed can raise interest rates allegedly to disincentivize spending. ( Which works for me but Congress has not received the memo.) Which leaves the federal government spending in the area of $250 billion a quarter to service its $32,000,000,000,000 debt. But hey, how about reparations? I hear it is the newest thing on Disney, so it must be a good idea.
I would be more inclined to watch this show if I didn’t know the writer intentionally made the two men gay. Really? I am extremely tolerant but even the most tolerant of us get fed up. The more it’s intentionally inserted the more I feel such resentment.
The Last of Us is a good story about relationships and the human condition. So far it reminds me of Station Eleven. My hope is it finishes as positively as that one did.
Sorry. The show is dismal. Episode 1 was fairly riveting if typical by-the-numbers end-of-the world genre stuff. Episode 2 was uninteresting - at best. But Episode 3 was unrelentingly saccharine. Gay or straight I don't want to watch an hour-long Hallmark tear-jerker in the middle of a zombie apocalypse show. Perhaps episode 3 was marginally more interesting because the characters were gay (loved Nick Offerman as Bill - a great character). But that's it. Overall terrible writing, terrible direction and terrible storytelling. I'm out.
The rose-tinted view of Malaysian 'kampong' (village) life was amusing. Oddly, global immigration seems to only move one way - from places like that to more developed areas. No one that grows up in KL (Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia) is trying to live in rural Pahang (east coast mostly agricultural area). Plenty of vice versa though. No one that grows up in the USA is trying to relocate to Mali.