Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: "Probability Broach"

Some culture stuff...
Tom Brosz — (archived)

An armed society, like a libertarian one, is cultural as much as political.

I've been to a couple of places in America where ordinary people still routinely pack a revolver on their hip. Nobody around them seemed to care, and these guys aren't calling their enemies out every day for gunfights, either.

Heinlein said once that long ago in parts of America almost everyone carried a gun, and no one needed one. He was right. Jerry Pournelle talks about his rural school days where the kids routinely brought their rifles to school, parked them in the coatroom, and picked them up afterwards in case there was something worth eating spotted on the way home. My grandfather had a rifle parked in the corner of the porch. No grandchild or great grandchild ever touched it. My Dad taught me gun safety very young. Although I never grew to like hunting, I knew how the rifle worked, and how to treat it. To be sure, while rifles and shotguns were many, I never knew any relative who had a handgun.

Conservatives aren't what they used to be. Neither is America. I was watching cartoons with my son one Saturday morning. A high school boy was mooning over a girl in his class, and discussing taking her to the dance. He was black, she was white, and nobody gave a rat's ass. Was it that long ago that Kirk kissing Uhura made headlines? When I started paying attention, I noticed that aside from some cultural references, Saturday morning TV was utterly colorblind. "Mucha Lucha" has become a guilty pleasure of mine, I'm afraid.

Brandy played Cinderella in the latest take on Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical. Her fairy godmother was black, and the Prince was Phillipino. The Prince's father, the King, was white, and his mother, the Queen, was Whoopi Goldberg. The evil stepmother was Bernadette Peters, and one of her daughters was white, and one was black. Genetics meant even less in this movie than it does on Star Trek.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (96 posts)