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Old 11-10-2010, 04:52 PM
 
Location: Sango, TN
24,869 posts, read 24,294,338 times
Reputation: 8672

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Quote:
Originally Posted by TCMaster View Post
What would an ideal American society look like? I'm talking jobs, families, culture, etc. Would it be like the 50's where the man worked, the women stayed home, and everyone had tons of kids? Or would it be more contemporary, where the men stay home, raising the adopted chinese/african/etc child, while the women brought home the bacon? Or something dramatically different?
Easy.

A society with endless resources.

Any society with endless resources would be the most perfect you could get to. When we can get away from "I have to do this" for work, and people can do what they want, meaning they can do art, work on cars, sit around and be fat and lazy, whatever they want.

Robots to do all manual labor, matter conversion to make whatever it is you want from base atoms like carbon.

That would be the ideal for any civilization.
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Old 11-10-2010, 06:18 PM
 
Location: Near Manito
20,170 posts, read 24,238,374 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis1979 View Post
Easy.

A society with endless resources.

Any society with endless resources would be the most perfect you could get to. When we can get away from "I have to do this" for work, and people can do what they want, meaning they can do art, work on cars, sit around and be fat and lazy, whatever they want.

Robots to do all manual labor, matter conversion to make whatever it is you want from base atoms like carbon.

That would be the ideal for any civilization.
Wow, Memphis. Gotta call you on this. Fat? Lazy? Robots?

Sounds like a recipe for a short life with an explosive and really painful coronary at about age 27....

Life needs challenges -- including stuff we don't want to do but learn to value. Life is change. And the only way to change is to exert oneself in facing up to things that are hard and initially unpleasant. Winning through to a realization that one's perspective was often what made something unpleasant, rather than any intrinsic downside in the chore (which is an illusory concept, anyway!!!)...that's how people achieve happiness.

Sorry. Meant to offer two cents, and I ended up chipping in a nickel.
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Old 11-10-2010, 06:23 PM
 
Location: Sango, TN
24,869 posts, read 24,294,338 times
Reputation: 8672
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeledaf View Post
Wow, Memphis. Gotta call you on this. Fat? Lazy? Robots?

Sounds like a recipe for a short life with an explosive and really painful coronary at about age 27....

Life needs challenges -- including stuff we don't want to do but learn to value. Life is change. And the only way to change is to exert oneself in facing up to things that are hard and initially unpleasant. Winning through to a realization that one's perspective was often what made something unpleasant, rather than any intrinsic downside in the chore (which is an illusory concept, anyway!!!)...that's how people achieve happiness.

Sorry. Meant to offer two cents, and I ended up chipping in a nickel.
I wouldn't sit around, I'd find things that interested me and do them.

But lets face facts, most of society is happy being fat, dumb, and happy.
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Old 11-10-2010, 06:32 PM
 
Location: Near Manito
20,170 posts, read 24,238,374 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis1979 View Post
I wouldn't sit around, I'd find things that interested me and do them.

But lets face facts, most of society is happy being fat, dumb, and happy.
True dat. But that's why us lean mean smart types rule.
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Old 11-11-2010, 03:20 PM
 
Location: Portlandia "burbs"
10,229 posts, read 16,239,642 times
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More traditional family units where one parent (doesn't matter if it's the mom or dad) could stay home and nurture basic needs for the house and family.

School returning to BASIC teachings and knowing their place in society, which is NOT sticking their noses where they don't belong in family affairs. Also, I think more restrictions and structure in schools need to return.

Economically, back to the 50's when life was affordable and the cost of living was well-balanced. Homes and cars have never been "cheap", but The Dream was more attainable.

The return of taking responsibility for one's own actions. No myriads of excuses, no bleeding-heart politics, no fear of administering punitivie consequences (ass in prison for a heinous crime and STAY there!).

And I think all of us would love the absence of all the illegal drugs and its consequences. It's always been around, but. . . .

On 'the other side' of things:

The 50's also provided the change in teen culture, and this is decade when kids began to rebel. But it was only enough to keep things interesting. I'm glad to have grown in the 60's. It changed radically from start to finish and innocence was dying rapidly by the end of it. It was still a good time but everything started to change: The economy began to suffer, families began to feel the strain, and the US tasted unrest with the Vietnam war. The drug culture ~ in spite of the great music inspired by it ~ really was the gateway for the drug problem ever since.

So I don't think any era was 'perfect'.
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Old 11-21-2010, 11:23 PM
 
110 posts, read 96,883 times
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I think the traditional family better.Men work outside, women do housework at home
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Old 11-22-2010, 09:30 AM
 
Location: Kent, Ohio
3,429 posts, read 2,715,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TCMaster View Post
What would an ideal American society look like? I'm talking jobs, families, culture, etc. Would it be like the 50's where the man worked, the women stayed home, and everyone had tons of kids? Or would it be more contemporary, where the men stay home, raising the adopted chinese/african/etc child, while the women brought home the bacon? Or something dramatically different?
Jobs: Like everything else I'm going to suggest here, job would be linked to a different set of cultural values, and an educational system that encourages people to find and pursue their true interests and talents. Robots can (and probably soon will) start to take over a great many dirty, nasty, boring, unskilled jobs, so for economic health we will need to have more people placing higher value on creative, unique human skills. This may require the smart design of a "Game layer on top of the world." We also need to abandon our ridiculous laws that oppress sex-workers, but that's another deep debate. Basically, the world of erotic entertainment should be a benefit to society, not buried in the shadows of the criminal underworld. Our prudish and overly-conservative attitutes currently suppress a great deal of our creative potential that, in an ideal society, would be available to solve global problems.

Families: A major theme in any good society has to be a respect for diversity, and this needs to include erotic lifestyle diversity. In a society that does not oppress our erotic lives, polyamory and other forms of responsible non-monogamy, along with "hot monogamy" would become extremely common. Children would benefit from this for a variety of reasons. Family life would be different for most people than it is today, but overall the bonds of family life would be relatively healthy and stable (compared to the crisis level of trouble we have today).

Culture: The keys to a healthy, productive culture are (1) respect for diversity and (2) respect for individual liberty. We pay lip service to these ideas today, but in an ideal society we would truly believe in these things and act accordingly. Of course we also need the sort of social cohesion than comes from shared values and consensus, but ironically our respect for diversity and our devotion to protecting individual liberties could provide the core of the shared consensus that provides social cohesion. Social cohesion could also improve if we are willing to explore the objective rational and biological bases for morality. And, BTW, nudity would no longner be shameful or illegal.
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Old 11-22-2010, 09:32 AM
 
Location: Charlotte county, Florida
4,196 posts, read 6,386,054 times
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There are simply too many people with too many varying ideas for a ideal society to exsist.
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Old 11-22-2010, 09:35 AM
 
2,994 posts, read 5,745,514 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TCMaster View Post
What would an ideal American society look like? I'm talking jobs, families, culture, etc. Would it be like the 50's where the man worked, the women stayed home, and everyone had tons of kids? Or would it be more contemporary, where the men stay home, raising the adopted chinese/african/etc child, while the women brought home the bacon? Or something dramatically different?
Certainly the 1950's type of family structure combined with distinctively Christian values, morals, and ethics ; isnt this sort of what our Founding Fathers had in mind for a civil and well functioning subsequent American society (?) . If the Founding Fathers came back tomorrow, i dont think theyd want to call this their home anymore -- the foundational dissent in recent decades has been shocking. Secular Humanism and Post Modernism has come with a huge price.
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Old 11-22-2010, 11:39 AM
 
Location: Sinking in the Great Salt Lake
13,139 posts, read 22,715,399 times
Reputation: 14115
Quote:
Originally Posted by TCMaster View Post
What would an ideal American society look like? I'm talking jobs, families, culture, etc. Would it be like the 50's where the man worked, the women stayed home, and everyone had tons of kids? Or would it be more contemporary, where the men stay home, raising the adopted chinese/african/etc child, while the women brought home the bacon? Or something dramatically different?
I can't say it enough, but that "ideal" 1950's world never existed outside of television.

There is no such thing as a perfect world; you would have more success trying to walk to the moon. The best we can do is to create an environment where the most people possible have the greatest opportunities possible to excel in life.

We do a lousy job at that, even. But the weak link isn't the government, it's the citizens. They fail to be independent and responsible for their own destinies in great enough numbers. Too many willingly give up freedoms in exchange for promises of comfort and safety from people who don't have their best interests in mind. That is why our country is on the slow slide to hell.
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