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Sorry old man, but civilizations can ONLY be built around
cities. The word "civil" in civilization loosely
means "citizen" in the Greek language. But citizen of
what? A city, of course. Therefore, the word civil does include the
"city concept." as developed by the early Greeks. Such cities managed to
develop a culture based on an advanced state of "society." A type of
science, laws, industry, and government emerged in these societies within each
city because it was to the advantage of the majority to secure their winnings
and growing comforts while also spreading the word "for civilizing their
peoples." As far as what lives around or develops around or in the many
water-areas of the world, one would have to explore each and every pond for
eternity to uncover. It's like Heisenberg said, "...if you know its speed
you can't know its location and vice-versa." We can't be at all the water
holes simultaneously. However, life did begin in the sea and ponds and
I'll give you that.
As far as "romantic love" goes, virtually few people had the time or
inclination to explore such obscure possibilities until the 1920's.
Man's chief occupation throughout the centuries has always been war or planning
for war. The women and children left behind had their hands full
just getting a meal or a place to sleep. There were a handful of
doctors, in the 1800's and back, but no medicines to speak of, and
the civilians who remained
behind had all they could do just living "hand to mouth." Where was
"romance" in such a harsh world? Romantic love? Can't you hear the
women laughing at the thought? It was no where. Only sex drove the
human race. True..mother's were "devoted" to most of their children
but that isn't "love." Love can only be a combination of devotion
and sex. I know Hamlet and his mother. A mother is devoted to her
children, but seldom, in those days--1800's and back--to the man she probably
never married or knew how to "marry." Few were educated. Like the
"average man" today, who can not afford to buy the "average home," the average
woman back then suffered a harsh existence and therefore had no "troth to
pledge." My relatives came from Ireland in 1847 and never did any of them
leave "love letters" behind, however they did leave three boxes of beautiful
epistolary letters about how they planned tomorrow's one meal--one meal with
rotting potatoes.
Today, one-half of the married people get divorced because they are no
longer "in love." Ask them what they mean by "in love" and they'll
stare at you and say something like, "you know...in
love...closeness...tenderness...intimacy...respect. They're all
gone. I simply don't "love him (or her)." Many males truly love
their wives but they also seem to have many "affairs." Sex, perhaps,
to each gender, means a different thing for women (to be suffered through) and
men (excitement longed for). Romantic love is quickly becoming a
process of serializing "marriage." Or, as many people on TV say, "marriage
is NOT the coming event. It is passé." But don't take my word
for it; just watch the movies and wild TV programs and see for yourself.
Then read "The Naked Ape" by Desmond
Morris.
Oh...I wrote a book in 1980 called "Affordable Housing for the Average
Man." There was none. I spent 2 years in the basement computer
center at LSU, Council of Economic Advisors to the President of the U.S.,
and talked with the professors about the conflicting information I was
developing about the value (purchasing power) of a dollar bill. It was a
joke. No one could follow or interpret the numbers provided by the
"Advisors" as to what a dollar could do at some instant in our history
(Heisenberg again). In order to complete the book on affordable housing I
had to relate the 1980 dollar to something in "buying power." But it was
not forthcoming from LSU's basement! We simply ended up reading old
newspaper food ads, and located all the food cost adverts and compared them
to 1980 prices. Developed an algorithm, and applied that to lumber prices
going back to 1950. It quickly became apparent that what was built on a
$4,000.00 lot in the suburbs of New Orleans for $20,000 (the Deville 2000) that
2000 square feet retailed for $10.00 per square foot but was unavailable in 1980
unless you wanted to pay $85,000 for it. So the "average man" could
not buy the average home." He could but two-thirds of it,
however. The monthly note on a $85,000 home is about $825.00 per
month. That does not include taxes. Yet, if that $825.00 per month
is the qualifying 25 percent of one's annual income (25% X $85,000 house
cost) one sees that it takes almost $22,000 net income to buy this $85,000
home. Bad news: only 7 percent of Americans made that kind of net
income!
I will be answering the other questions about the unemployment rate during
the Great Depression just as soon as I can. Let me say that I was shocked
to hear that people didn't know the unemployment rates during that wretched
period in American history. Maybe few today realize that the U.S. could
have actually collapsed during 1934 or that a civil war could have easily broken
out. But I'll get the accepted stats from LSU by tomorrow.
Blake
RBMooney
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 4:33
PM
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Auto Response
Seems Mr. Mooney stated his opinion. Negating a whole lot of facts.
Lets start with "Civilizations were built around
cities"
NO...People lived and formed around
water....!
OR this..Consider this: men and women didn't discover "romantic love" until the
1800's.
Wow....
Dan Fahey
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 5:20
PM
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Auto Response
Blake,
In your response to Beth, you assert that in
1934 "a little over 40 percent of Americans voted for the Communist
Party in the USA." I don't know your source, but first, there was no
national election in 1934 - national elections were held in 1932 and 1936.
In 1932 Roosevelt ran against Hoover. The communist candidate in that
election was William Z. Foster and he only got two tenths of one percent
(.2%) of the vote or 81,872 out of nearly 40 million. When 1936 rolled
around, Roosevelt ran against Alfred Landon. The communist candidate was
Earl Browder and he only got 80,171 votes out of some 45 million votes cast
- still, a little less than two tenths of one percent of the
total.
Dick Tunison
Edmond, OK
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003
1:10 PM
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Auto
Response
Beth--you're either too young or wrongfully directed. You
should thank your lucky stars that you weren't in any war or even minor
skirmishes. You could be dead or have returned home to finish
your life out with major disabling injuries.
Do you think our Military themselves "declared war" on weak
enemies for some blithe reason? Of course we made many
mistakes. We vote a President into office. We trust him.
Our only resource to remove any President is the ballot box. We're a
lot more civilized than the majority of countries.
Other countries are run by psychopathic dictators and there are many
of them existing today. Have you considered that innocent
people and countries were and are being invaded by Fascistic and
Totalitarian countries? How do you propose to stop evil from
spreading and "acquiring" these weaker countries? The United States
has never "acquired" another country. We influenced them, of
course, since we fought to free them and spent trillions of dollars doing
so.
Germany was our enemy but now we're partners. Germany finances
much of America's debt. So does another one-time enemy, Japan.
I'm sorry you don't understand man's thousands of years of warring
struggles but they're a fact.
Consider this: men and women didn't discover "romantic love" until
the 1800's. Some people say that was a mistake since they
believe "IT" doesn't exist; merely an infatuation of the mind.
Most marriages were arranged. We once lived in caves.
Thankfully, some men and women had a better idea. A more civilized
way for managing their dangerous environment. Eventually, man
journey a long way and saw that there was always a better
way.
Civilizations are built around cites--enormous and very complex
cities--that are highly organized and protected. Policemen alone can
never provide national security as effectively as a nation's Armed
Forces. As I write this even Israel is watching with alarm an
internal warring struggle between civilized people inside her own country
and a growing uncivilized Mafia also made up of Israeli citizens!
Russia has the same problem but in spades! We have drug and criminal
activities that require newer prisons for the "people who can't or won't
understand" that a country cannot survive without order
and discipline. We're still not out of the woods. Arthur
Koestler said, "as long as there's one man on the road and 10 in the bush
the guy on the road better be damn careful."
Remember 1934 and how a little over 40 percent of Americans voted for
the Communist Party in the U.S. Americans were starving,
without jobs, lacked any means of getting a job, had large hungry
families, and were not eligible for any medical care or
medicines. I used to go to the front door and hand a family of
5 poorly dressed a wrapping prepared by my mother that contained 5 peanut
butter sandwiches. Of the 5 one was the mother. The father was
out holding a place in some employment line waiting for an injury inside
the gates of the company to free-up one job! That's how you (my
parents) contributed to keeping the "city" alive, civilized. We knew
instinctively that "there but for thee go I."
According to the Greeks, who defined and planned their cities on the
most civilized desires of their and philosophers, each family was
instructed on how to secure a place to live and food to eat on a
regular basis. This solution to natural disorganization among
"tribes" and wandering classes was the responsibility of the managers
of that city. They kept their world "civilized" and kept
the enemy out! But, alas, all is prologue. Leaders vary
in skill and motives. However, the Greek concept of something so
obvious as "civil centers" or an idea of civilization spread around the
world by their great military leaders. The latter men brought these
ideas of "civil" and "cities" together. Without one you can't have
the other. We see that every day in Iraq. These
civilizing ideas are the ideas and thoughts of some of the greatest
men who ever lived--enormously selfless philosophers all of
them. Yet they voted often for "defensive war" by taking the
offense. Only an idiot would tip his hand prior to
battle.
Blake Mooney
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Auto Response
> Really for what? So you can have a venue to kill
other people?
> You lack respect for your trade..
>
>
----- Original Message -----
> From: <bethcullom@yahoo.com>
>
>
> > If you can read this, thank a teacher.
> >
If you are a pacifist who hasn't been murdered or enslaved yet, thank
a
> soldier.
> > Happy Holidays. Hooah! Semper
Fi.
> >
> > I will be sporadically checking my e-mail
for awhile.
> >
>
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