Jonesy

Instead of paying individual attention to 'celebrities', shouldn't we pay individual attention to politicians? Yes. So why don't we? Is it because celebrities are robots, installed by governments to make us pay attention to the wrong things? Yes.

Celebs are government-installed robots.

Ptech

I disagree with the statement that celebs are govt created.

Many celebs are anti-govt, or at least anti the government we have now.

Which is not to say that certain celebrity-related activities tend to distact the populace from more important considerations. Like what their military is doing, for instance, or the status of the US Treasury Plundered.

Vicariously I

I agree.

We created celebrities.

__________________
"It's hard to face reality when you're busy living in the American Dream."

Vicariously I

Jonesy

Ok, how about this theory:

It is completely unnatural for families to live apart. Over hundreds of thousands of years (roughly), families stuck together, for protection. Suddenly, in the United States, families move apart... as early as possible. Why?

Because it is what the government wants. They have brainwashed people into wanting it themselves. Why? Because it is cheaper when families stick together. When they live individually, they must make more money... money the government taxes. The government then has more money to spend.

Ptech

I see your point Jonesy--we have been constantly manipulated for decades now. Anti-social policies are instituted that weaken family and social ties.

Drug policy does that by encouraging family members to turn each other in to the authorities. Brother testifying against brother, neighbor against neighbor is very corrosive for our society.

Manipulating public cognizance is surely a dark art when used to destroy society.

Jonesy

It can actually be fairly amusing. There are groups of ultra-quasi-scientists who are taken seriously. They seem to be under the impression humans are birds. They keep devising theories like 'empty nest' and 'failure to launch'. I guess there is some personal disorder going on, because unlike sea turtles, we don't lay eggs and then leave the hatchlings to instantly fend for themselves. Just a heads-up... for those mentally disabled individuals... humans are not birds.

The human family unit is far-better than the human-individual unit. Which is why we used it in nature. We stopped using it around the time high-speed travel became an option (100 years ago or so). People started exploring their new options, not understanding it would lead to something awful. Here we are today, with all kinds of ridiculous nonsense, flawed-theories, scientists who think humans are birds and people who take these scientists seriously, people who resist this awful new-way (correctly resist as per-instinct) yet are shunned by everyone and treated like dirt, excessive wastes of resources, massive-depression and other brain-damage due to going directly against what has become a deeply ingrained part of our nature, people in general are weaker (strength in numbers), more selfish, less organized, obsessed with money, etc. etc..

Hopefully people wake up soon and realize the family unit was used for good reason, in nature, and can and should be used for even better reason in society.

Jonesy

I should clarify. What I mean by a family unit, in society, is something like 24 people per-standard family. 8 children, 8 parents, 8 parents of the parents (elderly). This would be closer to optimal, as different members could have different roles: some make money while others contribute to the family in other ways. And, of course, it would be even safer than a normal family of four.

These numbers would also work well architecturally. Let's say you created a donut structure. In the donut-hole is the 'backyard', equally accessible by all members of the family. The donut itself is the home-structure. It could be divided into private sections, like a duplex is two homes in one. Space could further be optimized and cost could further be reduced by building a single family-kitchen.

I arrived at the number 24 after analyzing how a family unit would function in modern society, with 'marriage' included. It is based on 2 parents having only two children.

Ptech

IMO, what you describe is an instinctual behavior, probably genetic type behavior, and not a rational process.

Jonesy

Maybe families hate each other as a coping mechanism? Since you were about 5, your family informed you of something tragic - you have no choice but to leave your family as soon as possible. One hell of a rejection. The worst part comes from the fact there is no good reason for you to leave. As a child, you develop the 'i have to leave my family and go out on my own' complex, causing you to dislike your family, and have problems with them, because doing so makes it easier to split. The more you love your family, the less you want to leave.

Why do families split? Because it is 'normal', 'today'. The thinking is base. It shows the level of extreme-selfishness (in the short-term nature of the thinking), likely brought on by several generations of the family-fracturing philosophy.

The family model works tremendously well for several main reasons, including:

1. Economics - it is cheaper for families to live together.

2. Trust - families trust each other more than they trust anyone else.

3. Teamwork - because you spend at least, roughly, 18 years together, you are already experts at working together. If continued throughout a life-time, nothing else can compete with this level of experience. Additionally, families have more in common with themselves than with anyone else. Plus they know each other and themselves better than anyone else possibly could.

4. Dependence - families can depend on one another more than they can depend on others.

5. Continuity - we will always have families, or at least until we morph into sea-turtles.

These are only ways it works for the families themselves. There are many ways it also helps society, which I will not delve into at the moment.

I'm doubting too many current families would be capable of returning to the family-model. Once they have split, coming back together is probably not worth the effort. At the very least, it would likely require many sessions of therapy. But, any new families could easily go the family-way.

Of course, family is not for everyone. Some people are awful, family or not. Ideally, things would be balanced between the way they are now and the family way.