Re: Not always joking, it seems

In article 
<d039bc79-e45e-4e34-b564-74d55eb5a974@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Willie.Mookie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> On Feb 15, 12:12 pm, Jette <bossl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > Wim Lewis wrote:
> >
> > > On-topic, how have SF stories dealt with random murderous
outbusrsts?
> >
> > Judge Dredd - people who suffered from something called "future shock"
> > would break out in spontaneous random violent attacks on those around
> > them.
> >
> > --
> > Jette Goldie
> >
je...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > livejournal.com/
> > ("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)
> 
> I was in Australia recently.  They have poker machines at every bar it
> seems. Pokies they're called affectionately.  They are Skinner
> machines designed to just give enough reward during play to bleed you
> dry.  You win on occasion.  But only so much, and in the end you
> lose.  Its called a reinforcement schedule to maximize revenue..
> 
> I was reflecting on what Skinner said about society being like a big
> Skinner machine you cannot escape. The whole of society becomes a
> large reinforcement schedule that promises rich rewards throughout but
> in reality, takes everything from you that you've got and play ends
> when you are broke.
> 
> The more efficient we become along this path, the bleaker things will
> be - and in the end, large populations of lucky and unlucky folk alike
> will have become desensitized to the messages used to fleece them - by
> and large those messages are the fabric that holds society together.
> At that point all hell will break loose.
> 
> We haven't seen nothing yet.
> 
> There are many new crimes and criminals waiting to happen.
> 
> I wonder what might have happened if the fellow had had the presence
> of mind to plan his escape, and then do it again?   The guy and his
> kid who outfitted his car with a sniper's nest and drove around the
> country killing people stopped the nation.  A handful of people like
> that would be the end of freedom and free movement.  Not only would we
> have guns removed from our possession, but we'd also find moving from
> one sector of a city to another would be like boarding a plane these
> days.
> 
> The standing armeis of police would themselves become a threat.  In
> Rio - there are off-duty police officers that cruise through the
> barrios killing kids that are homeless - sometimes after taunting them
> or robbing them or worse.  Them being police and all not much is
> done.  Their targets are chosen too - they are defenseless and have no
> one looking out for them.  Burdens on society.
> 
> I recall the streets of Beruit after the US embassy bombing during the
> Reagan administration.  People who travelled through the middle east
> wondered if this was a sea change for America?  I looked at the burned
> out skyscrapers and rubble strewn streets of Beruit - and saw that ALL
> cities some day would become equally uninhabitable.
> 
> This was well before 9/11.
> 
> The delicious thrill and joy of walking through the streets of
> Manhattan on a lovely spring day - or a relaxed Sunday brunch at a
> cafe in Paris in the summer - are things that my grand children will
> likely not enjoy - and its too bad.
> 
> Telerobotics may be favored over air-travel at some point - or even
> travel outside one's home - as a security measure.

Fairly basic to this letter is the concept that everyone has a gun.
This does apply in some countries besides America, but not many 
civilised ones.

-- 
my URL,
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mcardle