Utopia, Dystopia - Let's call the whole thing off

[TahoeBlue]

Maybe Vonnegut had it right with his first novel  "Player Piano" :



Player Piano, author Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, was published in 1952. It is a dystopia of automation and capitalism, describing the dereliction they cause in the quality of life. The story takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers. This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class—the engineers and managers who keep society running—and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society have been replaced by machines. The book uses irony and sentimentality, which were to become a hallmark developed further in later works

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/sipos2.html
Player Piano paints a future America where a technocratic oligarchy has established a corporate command economy and cradle-to-grave socialism. The leaders think they've created a utopia but the proles disagree.

One big problem is that advancing technology makes more people useless every day. Retraining is no answer; even engineers are being replaced by computers. Society has become a player piano, creating flawless music without aid of human hands. However, this Darwinism is not untempered. The useless do not go homeless and hungry. On the contrary, everyone's basic needs are met: pre-fabricated homes, washers, TV, even national health care. And twelve years of free education, which is pretty pointless, as most people graduate to idleness.


Then there is Jack London's "The iron Heel" :



http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1164

The Oligarchy are the largest monopoly trusts (or robber barons) who manage to squeeze out the middle class by bankrupting most small to mid-sized business as well as reducing all farmers to effective serfdom. This Oligarchy maintains power through a "labor caste" and the Mercenaries.

Labor in essential industries like steel and rail are elevated and given decent wages, housing, and education. Indeed, the tragic turn in the novel (and Jack London's core warning to his contemporaries) is the treachery of these favored unions which break with the other unions and side with the Oligarchy.

Further, a second, military caste is formed: the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries are officially the army of the US but are in fact in the employ of the Oligarchs.

Ebook Online at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1164

[Dok]

Ive been giving a lot of thought to Dystopian Game shows, kind of like you find inside, the Running man. Just look at how the Prime Time game shows are evolving to more and more dangerous shows. How long will it be before you have survivor as a real survivor show? As the times we live in get more and more desperate people will eventually get to the point that they will do anything if the price is right. Say 10 contestants thrown on an Island, the prize is 1 million dollars. Your family is on the streets, your kids are hungry. The objective is last man standing. No food, no nothing, pure survivor, except every one starts off on the edge of the Island and at the middle is 1 knife.

Just look at some of what we have today. I have seem that old MXC show on Spike, its an old game show from Japan where the people do crazy feats. Well the show has evolved to the US and its called Wipeout today, Total Wipeout in Brittian, and not to sure what the Australian version is called. There is even a version in a South American country, not to sure which one.

But in Wipeout, the contestants compete for $50,000.00, that's a lot of money. And the whole point is to go through 3 rounds of testing to get to the end, and compete with the other finalists, and who ever has the best time wins. Now if you have never seen this show, its on ABC on Tuesdays, I think.  But you can find it all over the Internet. The real purpose of this show is for pure entertainment value, for the watcher.

One of the obstacles is called "Sucker Punch", and its literally a wall of boxing gloves that keep hitting you until you fall off into a pool of mud.



Ya its funny, these people are doing this on their own freewill and all. But what if they weren't? These types of shows have progressed to more and more violence. Now granted that all these people volunteer for this show, but I'm sure the day is coming when soon that will change. And really how will we know? It reminds me of a test done in France. France's Game of Death featured contestants that would electrocute others for wrong answers. And they did it. One lady kept going until the guy was supposed killed because the audience kept cheering her on. Now granted this was a Psychological experiment, but it shows just how easily people will succumb to this stuff.

What if we take convicted murders sentenced to death and have them compete for their freedom. We are already primed for this, and i bet it would be a big hit, lots of ratings and revenue. You could use the same layout as Wipeout, but instead of padding everything, leave the padding off.They are sentenced to Death after all, and if they win here is a free ticket out. Whats wrong with that? We are just a step away from it. And as the times get worse and worse, you can make the game shows more crazy and dangerous, come on who couldn't use $50,000.00.

What's next, a hunter show where the person tries to saty alive with hunters chasing him? He gets so much money for every hour he stays alive? Who wouldnt want to watch that?

[Satyagraha]

A little something for the teenagers...

The Hunger Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games

The Hunger Games is a young-adult science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. It was originally published on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic.[1] It is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy.[2] It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once stood. This is where a powerful government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol's power.

Collins says that the idea for The Hunger Games came from channel surfing on the T.V. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the Iraq War. The two blended together and the idea of children fighting each other to the death was formed. The Greek myth of Theseus also served as inspiration for the book, with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus.[3] Her father's service in the Vietnam War helped her understand how it feels to fear the loss of a loved one.

The book has been released as a paperback and also an audiobook, which was read by Carolyn McCormick. The Hunger Games has an initial print of 200,000 - increased twice from an original 50,000. Since its initial release, the novel has been translated into 26 different languages and rights have been sold in 38 countries. The book received mostly positive reviews from major reviewers and authors, such as Stephen King. Hunger Games is the first novel in a trilogy, followed by Catching Fire, published September 1, 2009,[4] and Mockingjay, published August 24, 2010.[5]

Plot

The Hunger Games takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich region Appalachia.[7]

As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected at random and forced to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised event in which the participants, or "tributes", must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena until only one remains. The story follows fatherless 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also participating from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a boy whom Katniss knows from school and who once saved her life by giving her bread when her family was starving.
Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol, where they meet the other tributes and are publicly displayed to the Capitol audience. During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his long-time unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss believes this to be a ploy to gain audience support for the Games, which can be crucial for survival, as audience members are permitted to send gifts to favored tributes during the Games. The Games begin with eleven of the 24 tributes dying in the first day, while Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and outdoor skills to survive. As the games continue, the tribute death toll increases, but both Katniss and Peeta are able to evade death.

Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta's beloved image in the minds of the audience as "star-crossed lovers", a rule change is announced midway through the games, stating that two tributes from the same district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches for Peeta and finds him wounded. She nurses him back to health and acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the audience and, consequently, gifts from her sponsors. When the couple are finally the last two tributes, the Gamemakers suddenly reverse the rule change and try to force them into a dramatic finale where one must kill the other to win. Instead, they both threaten suicide by means of poisonous berries in hope that the Gamemakers would rather have two winners than none. It works, and both Katniss and Peeta are declared winners of the 74th Hunger Games.

Though she survives the ordeal in the arena and is treated to a hero's welcome in the Capitol, Katniss is warned that she has now become a political target after having defied her society's authoritarian leaders so publicly. Afterwards, Peeta is heartbroken to learn that their relationship was at least partially a calculated ploy to garner sympathy from the audience, although Katniss remains unsure of her own feelings.

http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023521/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303044556&sr=8-1
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #41 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) (as of 4/17/11)

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But wait! There's more....

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The Hunger Games (2012)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/
A young girl joins a survival contest in order to save her community in a dystopian future.

Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Suzanne Collins (based on the novel by), Billy Ray (screenplay)
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth

Status: Pre-production
Comments: Eyeing a late spring/summer start date
Updated: 25 January 2011

[Dok]

LIST OF DYSTOPIAN NOVELS:
http://www.squidoo.com/best-dystopian-novels

1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
When the Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Island by Aldous Huxley
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James DeMille
The Giver by Lois Lowry
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
The Shape of Things to Come H.G. Wells
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
After by Francine Prose
That Hideous Strength C.S. Lewis
Fast Eddie, King of the Bees by Robert Arellano
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Running Man by Stephen King as Richard Bachman
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
324: A Novel by Thomas Disch
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Utopia X by Scott Wilson
The Goodness Gene by Sonia Levitin
The Postman by David Brin
Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
The World Inside by Robert Silverberg
Time Out of Joint Philip K. Dick
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Kallocain by Karin Boye
A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle
Dystopia: Collected Stories by Richard Christian Matheson
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Astuer
Iron Heel by Jack London
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov.
The Children of Men by P.D James
A World Out of Time Larry Niven
The Long Walk by Stephen King as Richard Bachman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Count Zero by William Gibson
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Domination by S.M. Stirling
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Utopia X by Scott Wilson

[TahoeBlue]

Bump for all the "lay-offs" Cisco/Lockheed....

http://www.thesocialperiodical.com/culture/player-piano/

Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, published in 1952, is a witty satire laden with metaphor and sentimentality. Set in a near-future dystopian society where automation and disparaged capitalism have drawn thick lines in the sand between a small wealthy elite of engineers and managers and the unemployed masses.

Inspired by Aldous Huxley’s, A Brave New World, the increasing automation of skilled labor and the rhetoric of GE and other major Corporations of post-World War II America, Vonnegut asks the reader how we can truly define peace, prosperity, progress, and positive quality of life. He asks what the price of human dignity is and questions the ethics of abolishing labor against the will of the people.

[ekimdrachir]

Bump

[TahoeBlue]

"The Gamesters of Triskelion" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast January 5, 1968


... the Providers are "all-hearing and all-seeing", Kirk announces that he will make a wager that the Providers can not refuse. He is suddenly transported below ground to a chamber "1000 meters below the earth" filled with odd machinery. He finds a domed table in the center of the room; inside are three disembodied brains that glow from within. ... The brains speak, identifying themselves as the Providers, ancient beings of pure intellect that pass their time gambling between one another, wagering sums of "quatloos" over the outcomes of the contests...

http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

July 26 , 2011

Credit Suisse - up to 2,000 Job Cuts Possible

July 25 , 2011

RIM Research in Motion - 2,000

July 23 , 2011

Update: NASA - Estimate 2,000 Layoffs Friday

July 18 , 2011

Navistar - 200 Contractors

Update: Cisco - 6,500
Report: Borders Group - All Stores Closing - 10,700 Jobs


July 21 , 2011
Update: Connecticut - 1,500 Layoff Notices in the Past Week

July 14 , 2011
Report: UBS - 5,000 Layoffs | Credit Suisse - 1,000 Layoffs

July 11 , 2011
Navy - Plans on 3,000 Layoffs

June 30 , 2011
Update: Lloyds Banking - 15,000

[m]

Nice book list.  Idea - Alex Jones Book Club??

 

For those who don't know: instead of bookmarking - go to File/save as and save it to your computer in case you lose internet or the database gets corrupted somehow.

then burn it to a cd or whatever....

[Dok]

omg... 

The Execution Factor: It was designed as propaganda to deter would-be criminals. Instead interviews on death row have become China's new TV hit


With her silk scarves and immaculate make-up, Ding Yu looks every inch the modern television presenter. Indeed, for the past five years she has hosted a hugely successful prime-time show in China which has a devoted following of 40 million viewers every Saturday night.
But while in Britain the weekend evening entertainment will be The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing, Ms Ding’s show features harrowing – some would say voyeuristic – footage of prisoners confessing their crimes and begging forgiveness before being led away to their executions.

The scenes are recorded sometimes minutes before the prisoners are put to death, or in other cases when only days of their life remain.

The glamorous Ms Ding conducts face-to-face interviews with the prisoners, who have often committed especially gruesome crimes. Her subjects sit in handcuffs and leg chains, guarded by warders. She warms up with anodyne questions about favourite films or music, but then hectors the prisoners about the violent details of their crimes and eventually wrings apologies out of them.
She promises to relay final messages to family members, who are usually not allowed to visit them on death row. The cameras keep rolling as the condemned say a farewell message and are led away to be killed by firing squad or lethal injection.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109756/The-Execution-Factor-Interviews-death-row-Chinas-new-TV-hit.html#ixzz1oBSNFiuZ

[TahoeBlue]

Every indication is that the need for human labor is being seriously reduced in the "New "Jobless" Economy"

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/robots-automation-to-blame-for-8216jobless-economic-recovery-economists/5537
Robots, automation to blame for ‘jobless’ economic recovery: economists
By Joe McKendrick | November 14, 2012,


The economy may go through boom and bust cycles on a regular basis, but don’t expect job growth to be part of the upswings any more. Future recoveries from recession will likely be “jobless” because technological advances now enable troubled firms to shed middle-income jobs in favor of machines and automation. If these jobs are not recouped during subsequent economic recovery, future recoveries may well remain jobless.

That’s the dour view of economists Henry Siu (University of British Columbia) and Nir Jaimovich (Duke University), who point out in a recent article that “a jobless recovery is not simply an ‘economy-wide‘ delay in firms hiring again. Instead, it can be traced to a lack of recovery in a subset of occupations; those that focus on routine or repetitive tasks that are increasingly being performed by machines.”
...

http://www.joblesseconomy.net/
The Jobless Economy Network
Personal and Economic Success in the New Economy
Create Your Own Work Life Balance and Lifetime Security

http://www.joblesseconomy.net/Files/few_words_about_economy.htm
A Few Words About Jobs And The Economy
Vic Napier

Economic Myths and Fairy Tales

Just as people caught up in the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution knew their economy had been turned upside down and had no idea what might happen next, neither do we. No one really knows what is going on with the economy. Economists in academia who we have traditionally depended upon to unravel economic mysteries and predict future trends can't seem to agree on what's happening. While some argue that we are on the verge of an economic Golden Age due to the increasing technical educational of the American work force, others claim that we are facing the same kind of demographically induced calamity that crushed the Japanese economy in the mid 1990's.
 
Maybe in another fifty or one hundred years historians will assign a name to the revolution now occurring around us. Although to our eyes the modern economy is a chaotic and unpredictable place, historians of the future will see how our present upheaval merges nicely into the streams of time.

A lot of people who should really know better don't seem to be aware that basic precepts and standards that applied to economics or employment a few years ago no longer exist. Indeed, employment counselors often tell their new clients that "there's a place in the job market for everyone", at the same time that the numbers of long term unemployed is higher than it ever has been and continues to grow.

Just figuring unemployment is challenging. So challenging, in fact, that government statisticians often use six different formulas to figure the state unemployment rate. One of the middle numbers is usually given to newspapers and the public as the "official" unemployment rate. The government isn't trying to hide anything; it's just that there is no easy way to define unemployment. And if there isn't a good way to define unemployment, it's impossible to put a number on how many people are unemployed. Click here to read all about it.
...

[John_Back_From_The_Club_O]

I'll bet 10,000 quatloos on the resistance!  Can you 'FEEL' the resistance NWO?

[Ambriel]

Logans Run, remember that one?
Flash Gordon too.