Do you remember a time when ‘progress’ meant… you know… ACTUAL progress? Bill’s recent trip to the US Air Force museum in Dayton brought some shocking truths to light… and yet, that spark is not dead. What can we do to fan the flames of achievement? What can we build to match the magnificence of the B-70 Valkyrie?
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13 replies on “Progress”
We know that Man started in the Garden directly communing with God. We also know that at the End, Man unites to declare military war against the God of the universe. The trend of human “progress” is clear. We are in a dampened sine wave. Each successive crest is lower than the previous crest, and each successive trough is lower than the previous trough. This is wwhy it’s so crucial to ensure that your TRUE citizenship is in Heaven, through trusting in King Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice on the cross.
I remember seeing a tshirt about going outside as a video game. It said something like: graphics were great, fps was amazing, gameplay sucked, replayability nil.
One of Zo’s comments brought this little bit to mind…
knowledge is power
power corrupts
study hard, be evil
On Bill’s comments about Norway…
What is the percentage of Norway that isn’t Norwegians? A very homogeneous people tends to have fewer frictions. They will all have the same culture, same manners, similar thoughts, food tastes, clothing styles. It is easy to have a very stable society with those building blocks. America is very much the opposite, as Bill points out. Without the friction there will be less drive. There won’t be an upward pressure as people try to be better than their grandfather, who left his home searching for a better life for his kids. I think Bill made this point in a Firewall or Afterburner a while back, that America is genetically full of people that were willing to take chances, Europe is full of people that were not. Whether risk taking and adventure is genetic or not, I don’t know, but it seems culturally those that strive pass that attitude down to their kids. As hope for Europe, kids are naturally rebellious and some might never grow out of that. Generations are being born every decade full of people that come up with new ideas and decide to try for something. Africa with the various water needs, communication issues from distance and thievery destroying wired networks, and the corruption and constant war has produced some interesting solutions.
One story I read seemed to imply that Pyramids were made of a concrete type substance, pored into forms instead of blocks. On top of that we have examples from other places of large stones carved and moved into place (Stonehenge, Easter Island being two notable, with other similar examples) and pyramidal complexes, temples and towers across central America and Southeast Asia standing as examples of what people can do when their minds, and backs, are put toward something.
Bruce Lee was born in a Chinees hospital in San Franscico to parents from Hong Kong.
Bill hit on it tangentially. Our ultimate means of paying homage to our Creator is to use all of our abilities to their maximum power.
Zo hit on it, tangentially. As we’ve gotten more secular, as we’ve lost faith, we’re looking for a place to put our need to have faith. We’re substituting things like worship of an idealized, fix-all-our-problems-government, with belief in fraudulent “climate science”, Anthony Fauci, and what you guys said – technology. But it is technology in the name of achieving more power for the government, technology that can be manipulated for controlling the populace.
Like y’all said, the answer, …, rather “The Answer”, is right in front of us.
My mother said to me when I was in high school that humans are made for a challenge. It makes us want to meet the difficult things with courage and perseverance and have a sense of accomplishment. But now the culture has determined that it might hurt someone’s feelings to be presented with a challenge–what if they can’t achieve victory over that challenge, they say. But since we are made for a challenge, if there is not a real one that we come up against, we will make our own. And those are usually things with a bad end–trying to do drugs without dying from it, cheating in school without being called on it, shouting down opposing views without being thrown out of the room, starting a riot and burning down a store without going to jail. So here we are with two generations who have been protected from challenge, and the country is in failure mode with regard to real progress.
Brilliant!
Had the privilege of standing under the Valkyrie, simply beyond belief. Made a field trip to Dayton for the Hamfest, and stopped at Wright-Patterson on the way back. Astonishing how small the space capsules are, and how wispy thin the jumpsuits they wore are. But, this was in the early 80’s… Bill’s really onto something here. Also walked the deck of the Wisconsin in Norfolk, would like to meet Ryan on the New Jersey some day..
Speed: For many years technology was travelling super fast. I can’t wait to see the first battery powered bomber fly at 3 times the speed of sound for more than a couple thousand miles.
T-shirts: Unfortunately too many dunderheads wear these with the image of Che.
Excellent show guys. I hope the right leftists see it. They need their brains / consciences rattled.
I usually watch these episodes on rudetube, in order to help boost the reach of this site. From the heads-up email I know what’s coming up next and expect to see it, but occasionally y/t censors an episode. I have to come here to find out what was too subversive to be allowed any interweb oxygen. This one is extremely out of bounds for the woke overlords. I mean, really: God/personal responsibility/meritocracy/meaning/teamwork/national pride/etc.? They can’t have that, can they?
Not to offend you, D. Mitchell, but as far as ytub is concerned, here’s one for them. At a Gathering of Warbirds airshow many years ago I overheard a comment when the P-51 Mustangs flew over, referring to the roar of Rolls Royce Merlin engines: “If that don’t make your dick hard nothing will!”
One key element in “progress” is that in the early stages the developments are on a very steep upward curve as the limits of new technology are defined. Think of the start of airplanes, as mentioned. As those limits are reached it takes very new technologies to show new limits, and then growth again will be steep until the limits are discovered, slowing or flattening the rate of growth. As limits are reached, the incremental cost goes up as well. The trap is believing thr newest thing has no limits. As humans have demonstrated from the beginning, stagnation occurs until some new idea gains adherents who have the will, ambition, and resources to explore. Consider that mankind spent several hundred thousand years with little technological, philosophical, and artistic progress until the development of agriculture and shortly thereafter to villages, towns and cities. In just 5000 years look at the extraordinary developments. Our optimism drives us to explore and create. What we need and eventually will have is the drive to escape our current situation and explore the depths of our creatvity.
Fortunately many are willing to explore. Unfortunately the rest (dolts) are holding us back. ‘Eventually’ must be now.