What would the Post-Zed world look like, fashioned, as it will inevitably be, by ben's cruel hand?
Describe, if you can, that startling new dawn...
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
you're on form today, barry
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Evidently.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Lol
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
lol
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
ben doesn't really cut it as a topic in its own right. Not like Ringo, London or Benway.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
maybe this is it, ben. This thread is the end result of six years of internet posting. All that toil and care, the arguing, the weaving of landscapes and the painting of poetry. This is our gift to you: A couple of muted lols.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i think i'd enjoy bentopia. he'd place me into a position of power, like caligula and his horse
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
or Catherine the Great and her horse.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
or a man called Horse and his nipples?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Or my cousin who, now it's June, is doing horse.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
we're all doing horse these days, nathan.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
if this thread was in the Olympics, it would win the (hi ho) Silver...
I'll get my coat if someone can call me a horse drawn carriage...
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: i think i'd enjoy bentopia. he'd place me into a position of power, like caligula and his horse
Vikram - would you change your name to Inchytatus?
ETA - fact fans - Caligula was a nick name - meaning 'little boots' that Caligula acquired because when he was an infant he spent a lot of time in army camps with his dad, dressed in a full uniform - how cute!
[ 06.06.2007, 06:04: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: What would the Post-Zed world look like, fashioned, as it will inevitably be, by ben's cruel hand?
Describe, if you can, that startling new dawn...
I think Bentopia would have a hard time existing as much of the ben vision is defined by being in opposition to the status quo, so bentopia would be a world in constant crisis, continuously trying to re-invent itself to be precisely what it is not. The dominiant cultural form becomes euro-art-horror movies, so people who like euro-art-horror are idiot cattle, and the cultural template has to change again. Actually, as I write this, I think maybe Bentopia wouldn't be so bad - it might even be the kind of place Aristotle would have dreamed about where the dominant stereotypes of behaviour are precisely the ones people are not able to fall back on; with their assumptions obliterated people would have no choice but to carve out identities that are exclusively their own, rather than based on prescriptive modes of behaviour. So. Yes, Aristotle would like it, but I probably wouldn't because I like dressing as a metaller. Also, you probably need systems and codes of behaviour that are perpetually reinforced by popular storytelling and semiotics and things in order to really get anything done.
[ 06.06.2007, 06:05: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
it would be a cross between Erewhon, Atlantis and Milton Keynes?
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
no nazis allowed
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: it would be a cross between Erewhon, Atlantis and Milton Keynes?
That's what I was thinking, except without the Erewhon and Atlantis bits.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I think it would be a paradise filed with giant fruits and Eloi.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
If anyone's wondering, I've been in contact with the NSPCC and according to amendment 00.015 it is ok to punch that kid.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
nice work. Not the face though. I couldn't punch a kid in the face. But maybe really hard in the stomach so he doubles over and starts weeping.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
actually, I could punch that kid in the face.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I'd quite like to do some wrestling moves, like pic him up and lift him above my head spin him round a few times and then just throw him as far as I could. You could do it because he'd be quite light. Or you could do the same thing with a midget that annoyed you for example.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: I'd quite like to do some wrestling moves, like pic him up and lift him above my head spin him round a few times and then just throw him as far as I could. You could do it because he'd be quite light. Or you could do the same thing with a midget that annoyed you for example.
Midgets are much denser than children. More muscle mass, see? You can throw a kid quite far.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
could you have a midget Galileo Thermometer using a range of different sized midgets/small people and a swimming pool?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by doc d: could you have a midget Galileo Thermometer using a range of different sized midgets/small people and a swimming pool?
Not in bentopia, you couldn't. That would be unethical.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
oh. see. science is wasted in bentopia. i hate bentopia.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
but there would be a floating world full of scientists that you could live in, doc...
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
where? where is this world? i'm wondering whether to bite the bullet and go back to the lab.
(after kicking a hole in the speaker and pulling the plug)
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Actually, as I write this, I think maybe Bentopia wouldn't be so bad - it might even be the kind of place Aristotle would have dreamed about where the dominant stereotypes of behaviour are precisely the ones people are not able to fall back on; with their assumptions obliterated people would have no choice but to carve out identities that are exclusively their own, rather than based on prescriptive modes of behaviour.
By sick coincidence I'm currently trying to read Plato's Republic. I say 'trying to read' as it's one of those books where you can physically look at all the words contained in a dozen succeeding pages before you're brought up short by the depressing thought that you haven't understood much more than one line out of five hundred.
From what I can make out, Plato seems to advocate banning all poetry (fine) apart from self-aggrandising tosh (so, basically, Jay-Z and Fiddy and that sort of thing) and army training consisting of a good balance of gymnastics and music - which I imagine would result in ninjas high-kicking to the sound of that Propellerheads track from The Matrix.
There's some good, nasty stuff about how a just society can only really fuction if it's run by a wise few (as opposed to 'the many' which he disparages pretty frequently) and how successful societies need a 'noble lie' to animate them and give the guardians of that society something around which to unite. In our own society, for example, the dominant (noble?) lie seems to be something about 'choice' - it's certainly the word that crops up most frequently in speeches by leaders from Thatcher, through Blair, to Cameron and Brown.
As I say, I don't really feel I'm grasping a lot of it, but Plato's compulsion to question all assumptions - and the assumptions that underpin those assumptions - is probably somethng to be admired. I can certainly understand why the Athenians felt the need to execute his forbear, Socrates.
Anyway, you seem to know what you're talking about, Thorn - I hereby appoint you my Minister of Thinking.
[ 07.06.2007, 04:05: Message edited by: ben ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Fuck it. I actually meant Socrates, not Aristotle. I don't even know what Aristotle done. Socrates was the one that kept asking irritating questions to chip away at people's assumptions. What an embarassing error.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
O wait - according to The Wicked Paedo, Aristotle thought along the same lines, and gets lumped into the same club as Plato and Socrates. Phew! I reckon I should get away with that blunder as long as no-one reads my other posts (I think you could be in luck, Nathan - ed)
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I wonder if modern Greeks are ever ashamed of themselves when compared to their ancestors? 3000 years ago they had the greatest thinkers who had ever lived on their team. They invented civilisation. Their philosophy pretty much defined the Western world, and many of their writings are still relevant today. Nowadays what do they offer the planet? Kebabs that sit in your gut like liquid clay, liver-melting Ouzo, and grinning immigrant criminals. From the calm dignity of the thinkers in their togas, to the blunt savagery of the bullying landlord with checked jacket stretched across his massive shoulders in 3000 years. A true Greek tragedy.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: grinning immigrant criminals
I tried Googling for an image of Snorton to juxtapose with this comment and, as well as finding that his design website now has a 'werewolf' theme, I discovered to my dismay that the author pages of his 'Panzer Ace' site are blocked by my employer's monitoring software. I wonder which category they come under:
Pornographic?
Offensive?
Miscellaneous inappropriate?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: I wonder if modern Greeks are ever ashamed of themselves when compared to their ancestors?
Like some kind of fallen-hero football fans of the classical world, most Greeks still bang on about their glorious past as thought they had actually lived there.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
in fact the next time a Greek person says to you that they are the fathers of modern thought, you are officially allowed to slap them in the throat.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: By sick coincidence I'm currently trying to read Plato's Republic.
As soon as you finish that you should read The Fable of the Bees. If you haven't already.
