Comments on: Agnosticism, evolutionism, and subjectivism are three characteristics of modernism

By: Ezra

Ezra — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 11:53:39 +0000

All a result of those four persons most influencing modern thought: Marx, Darwin, Einsten, Freud. The first three I agree with the listing, the last I am not sure about.

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 00:28:14 +0000

One problem with struggle is it only makes you stronger if it doesn’t kill you.

Another problem is if you get too strong then you have no struggle any more, and your descendants go soft.

If you have the same struggle century after century, you’re in a rut. The Fremen were in a rut. They had learned all Arrakis could teach them and they could not advance to a higher level because they couldn’t conceive of any other way of life. The Empire would have exterminated them sooner or later.

That’s the kind of struggle that kills you slow.

By: Gwern

Gwern — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 19:34:35 +0000

“He foresees that in conquering its environment, humanity has grown weak and complacent. Evolution has stalled without selection pressure; there is no Darwinian “survival of the fittest” to spur on the next stage of development. Only on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis have the weak been culled. Imposing himself as a kind of theological, environmentalist messiah, Atreides establishes a new galactic headquarters on Arrakis, with himself as the head of a reformed religion focused on ecological balance. Though humanity seeks peace and attempts to rule over its environment, Atreides believes that humanity needs struggle and should be subject to its environment, not a ruler over it. Thus, he sends the Freman out on a murderous jihad to slaughter and pillage the rest of the civilized universe in the name of improving the quality of the human stock.”

Did we read the same books?