h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Man, I like the way you put that.

And I liked the way you said this;
"having a radically different view of the world than the people around you requires confidence, perseverance and a degree of moral courage."
Some times that bonding thing in a group of people is about safety, I think. Different thinking can put you outside the 'herd' and that can feel risky.
So I think lots of people take on the views of others, even if it can be different to their own experience of things, to remain safe.

In a way humans must have as much of a herding instinct as some animals. Think the same things, do the same things and run with the pack and you might not get picked off by the lions.
One small fish on it's own can be easily eaten by a predator, a massive shoal of fish gives that one fish a higher chance of survival.
I think the assasinations of people who stand out alone, enforces this idea in our minds.
I wonder if this is also part of our shock and outrage concerning 911. It showed us that there was no safety in numbers, no safety in the grouping together , minding our own business, and performing the mudane.
I suppose it showed us that even if we don't stand up and speak our truths out loud we still remain a target. Which must feel a little un nerving..or it might help us to think that speaking our truths is no more risky than following the herd.

?????

Look at Bobby Sands. A person most people have never heard of, a terrorist in a jail cell (the place for all terrorists). He went on hunger strike because of the way he, and his fellow inmates were treated by the british government. Did he change the world?

There are streets named after him in middle eastern countries. He inspired, rightly or wrongly, many people.

Look at Galleleo, De Vinci, or Ray Kroc, each responsible for causing change in the world around us.

Has the invention and evolution of the airplane changed the lives of people in the third world? Of course it has, and it still is bringing about change. No longer are the people who visit these places just rich adventurers, or armies looking to colonise, now they are tourists, bringing in extra money to help keep these economies afloat, or aid workers to help feed the hungry.

Someone dies from hunger strike. Now was this done to have a road named after him, or was it to free Ireland from British rule?

Personally my mind is never persuaded to think differently when violence , bombs and weapons are involved. and that's the violence from all parties involved.

I still believe that the areoplane just changed travel, not the world
People still go hungry. Apart from food deliveries areoplanes deliver other things too.
Perhaps one world changing event that an areoplane bought was the atom bomb, but then I suppose you could say that that was just another way of delivery death, which hasn't changed for mankind since we crawled out of the caves.
We seem to do the same things, but on a bigger scale.
so I suppose the areoplane just lets us do what we've always done only faster and bigger.
To my way of thinking, tourism as a countries main gross product is very poor quality way of establishing economic security.

When I think about worlds changing I think about them changing for the better on a larger scale.

Replacing hatred with love, death with life, pain with joy. That kind of thing. You know?

In that case the world has never changed, there was love and hatred a 10,000 years ago, there was pain and joy 100,000 years ago, and there has always been life and death. These things will still exist in 10,000 years time.

To think in such terms is to say the only way to bring about change is to kill every living animal on the planet.

The world has changed, peoples attitudes have changed, in some places this has been slower than others. The example of the airplane was just an example. If it wasn't here would our lives be any different?

You bet it would.

Bobby Sands was used because of two reasons, one) he showed a modern society that peaceful means can make a difference (although people quickly forgot this again); and two) his strike caused people to become sympathetic to his cause, increasing funding for terrorism, and making him to be remembered as an anti british martyr

My point. You can only chnage yourself not the world.

Dying to fund terrorism to make things stay the same? Not my idea of fun.

Energy is hard to define, but atoms are physical quantities made up of other stuff and each elemental atom has it's own mass and is different in the number of subatomic particles. Thus, with enough enegy you can change one atom into another. Alchemists would be happy to know that, but the energy required is way too much to be feasable, ans atoms like to be atoms and not other atoms. So the no. of atoms can change, and that's what fuels the stars, but the overall energy stays the same.

Thank you
Don't atoms vibrate to create matter?

To Funkanic: it was Talk Talk-"Life's What You Make It",from the
1986 album "The Colour of Spring".

good good people it seems that a collective conciousness is in work here, i feel there is a collective conciousness today in the world today , as when you can feel it when a big event happens like the twin towers or (sadly to say) when the world cup is on and england still have a chance of winning, they never do and the happy vibe that was about before drops dramatically when they are kickedout the league, now if that isn't collective conciousness i don't know what is,yes there must be good with the bad in the universe because you feel it inside and it's not a case of trying to be good or bad but keeping a balance, because that's what i feel the universe is made of, a lot of things balancing each other out through energy transfer....with what we eat then take out of our bodys to the oxygen we breathe and to me posting this message,it's all relevant.

must dash FUNKANIC

Yes we're all connnected. via the internet and via something else
We all rely on each other ,one way or another.
We're all dependent on each other, one way or another.
Every creature, plant herb, tree that becomes extinct, because of carelessness, has an affect on us, one way or another.

And I'd like to smoke whatever you're smoking,man

Crushed peppermint leaves, corn starch, dish water that had plates with beans on it washed up in. Dog hairs (Terrier!)

No I lie
I'm just naturally dazed

Thank God, I thought you were serious.Peppermint leaves-yuck!

Hey. They're minty fresh !

And they're natural, unless they're not.