Re: Not always joking, it seems

Willie.Mookie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On Feb 15, 7:00 pm, Edward McArdle <mcar...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> In article
>> <d039bc79-e45e-4e34-b564-74d55eb5a...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Willie.Moo...@[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.
>>
>
> I was imagining what might have happened in a Heinlein version of
> events - where all the kids packed side arms.  A guy rushes the stage
> with a shotgun, and 100 students take aim at him before he gets off a
> round.  He either stands down, or is turned into hamburger.  Either
> zero or one person dies - and that's the shooter's only choice.
>
> Of course in Heinlein's universe, they'd be arresting and hanging in
> the public square dope fiends.

Actually, according to the eyewitnesses no one knew what he was going to
do 
until he was already firing.  He didn't rant and rave, _then_ pull out a 
gun, threaten and then fire.  He walked in the door with the weapon ready 
and immediately opened fire.  Its unlikely anyone would have been able to 
return fire until he was reloading and by that point most of the
casualties 
have probably already been hit.

-- 
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