Manifesto

Two thousand or so years ago, Roman "bread and circuses" - the gladiatorial arena - was all the rage. Thousands of people would sit on wooden benches to watch gladiators fight to the death, Christians being eaten by lions, and so on.

Christians came into power, then the gladiatorial arena went out of date, to be replaced eventually by the Inquisition...

In the 1700s...all the way up to the 1800s...in England hangings and beheadings took place in public for the entertainment of the people.

Today, we've got WWF, MMF....a whole alphabet of names of organizations that pit two (or more) men fighting against each other displaying the very opposite of sportsmanship, we've got hockey games that people attend, not to see the hockey but to see the fights...

Mankind's basic nature has not evolved at all in 2000 years, is the point I'm trying to make.

I's my contention that media - advertising in all its forms - is to blame. The advertising is aimed at the "Lowest common denominator" of citizens, who therefore presented with pap never feel the need to rise above it. And the higher citizens on the economic scale...they are overcome by this pap as well so that they de-evolve.

Of course the old belief that the "aristocracy" were somehow better than the poorer classes has been debunked. The "aristocracy" knew their manners, but in their behavior they were just as promiscuous and dishonest as the "lower class" were thought to be.

Religious institutions have done little to raise up people to civilization. Instead, they are taught that they are worthless sinners, who can do anything they want because as long as they repent at the end, all their sins will be forgiven.

I'm a humanist. I believe that humans - of all races, creeds, colors - can reach perfection - as long as they give up their creeds and embrace humanism - the idea that it is in oneself that one needs to look for success, not some outside entity.