trying to register in this forum?

[nikos]

Every day there are many requests to "join the forum"
most of them are by up-to-no-good bots so I just remove them

if you want to join the forum and you are a human, please send an email to get activated using this form
www.zabkat.com/contact.htm
please don't forget to add your forum username

[otlaolap]

Thanks for monitoring this. Your forum has always been a high-value, high-density place for reading and research. If you just would bring back Kilmatead . . .

[johngalt]

One does not simply bring back a Kilmatead by one's lonesome self. Forces of nature should never be trifled with.

That being said, though - I do wish he'd come back....

[FrizzleFry]

he is missed

[Tuxman]

Well, at least discussing here has become easier for most mere humans (not including me). You’ll need so much less knowledge of ancient philosophers.

[IneedHelp]

I wish Kilmatead was still alive, everything was more entertaining around here back then. The Covid tests blog post thread would've stretched a dozen pages.

[Robert2]

Recently found in a Peanuts strip…
Sally’s History Report:
"Ancient Greece had no TV, but they had lots of philosophers. I personally would not want to sit all evening watching a philosopher."

[nikos]

I personally would not want to sit all evening watching a philosopher

very indicative of our modern condition. They have turned us all into TV watching idiots and we're happy about it!
The spirit of ancient Greece (at least the myth of it) is that everyone should think and understand everything himself
tough!

[Robert2]

As I keep hearing about the Wonderful World Of Netflix, a philosophical question invariably comes to my mind: is there life before death?

[johngalt]

I personally would not want to sit all evening watching a philosopher

very indicative of our modern condition. They have turned us all into TV watching idiots and we're happy about it!
The spirit of ancient Greece (at least the myth of it) is that everyone should think and understand everything himself
tough!

That was eloquently stated - I was trying to come up with a way of saying that without (invariably) sounding like 1) an old codger, or 2) snobbish, but that is pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

Oh, and that it is a sad, sad fact that this is what the world has come to.

There is a phrase that is popular here in the US (and I suspect variants of it are popular all over the world - thanks, governments!) that is perfectly representative of this PoV of people today - "I 'let the people smarter than me make the decisions."

[Robert2]

On the same topic, here is from today’s newsletter by The Washington Post:

At the beginning of the covid-19 lockdown, bawdy optimists predicted that young couples cooped up in their homes might turn to *adult activities* to fill their days, leading to a bumper crop of chubby, cheerful pandemic souvenirs.
Alas, those predictions did not come to pass.
The only buns in the oven turned out to be sourdough. Americans preferred watching Netflix, killing houseplants and “languishing” to knockin’ boots between Zoom calls. And rather than kicking off a baby boom, columnist Catherine Rampell explains, we’re in a bust — 2020 saw the fewest babies born in America in 42 years, with birthrates declining “for every racial and ethnic group, and nearly every age group.”