Observations at a High School Dance

[Anders]

For a long time now I've said that a lot of what's wrong with society will be fixed when the youth once again idolizes explorers, inventors, and civil servants.

[ulfnir]

Eventually the parents will be so depraved, that their offspring will have to rebel by being nice.

[Flynn MacCallister]

For a long time now I've said that a lot of what's wrong with society will be fixed when the youth once again idolizes explorers, inventors, and civil servants.

I just have one thing to object to: explorers. I hope we never go back to idolising them. There was pretty well always already someone there first, it's just that they were different, and therefore didn't count.

[Dr. Oliver Cross]

And the question arises, then... is that not in many ways precisely what we do?  Rebel against this deterioration of society and culture by refusing to adhere to it?

Also, I think we do our world a disservice by presuming a universality to this lunacy.  I daresay that we see in these 'dancing' gangstas and chavs not the entirety of the future.  I myself am not that far removed from high school, (a decade, granted, but this was the standard in that day as well, at least at the school I attended), but consider the number of students who simply do not CARE about dances?  At my own school, with a student body of fifteen hundred, the average attendance of a school dance was roughly one hundred fifty.  Ten percent does not a trend make, nor statistically even a trend indicate.  Not a universal trend, leastways.  Granted, the appeal (inscrutable though it may to my own mind be) of this behaviour may have grown in the past ten years, but not to the universality needed for this trend to crash human society.  And I believe the number of people gathered here would prove evidence of a counterweight culture, or at least one counterweight culture.  There exist several other cultures, of many, many sorts, who do not countenance this structure to behaviour.  Or have I missed the point wherein the chav and gangsta 'cultures' became objects of general approval, rather than general ridicule?

[Sorontar]

In High School a few decades ago, I was in a performance of My Fair Lady. In one scene, about 20 of us were expected to do something resembling a waltz. I was one of only 4 people who knew what we were doing. Granted that we were part of the small part of the school who were interested in the performance arts, but even then 20% is a small percentage. Especially since I learnt my steps for many basic dances in a co-curricular class run by my school and another one.

So don't you worry about only a small percentage being interested in a dance today. Most didn't even know how to dance in my day.

And how many people do you know who go to a university ball for the dancing?

[Flynn MacCallister]

And how many people do you know who go to a university ball for the dancing?

There's meant to be dancing?! O.o

[ulfnir]

The only university balls I bothered with were the ones where i was doing the pyrotechnics, 

I think maybe we should keep some of these horrid children. Expendables are a necessary evil.

[patron_vectras]

The only university balls I bothered with were the ones where i was doing the pyrotechnics, 

ever made plasma in a microwave?

I did that one night we had a party at a friend's apartment.
there are two ways, both must be done outside

either cut a grape in half, then in half again but leaving the skin attached the second time (you end up with half a grape)
just zap that and it will ignite

or set something on fire and turn on the nukes. easy

try putting a mason jar over the source with space under the rim for ventilation
The BALL OF PLASMA will hover in the jar and explode it

bread is great for picking up all the glass ;]

[Anders]

For a long time now I've said that a lot of what's wrong with society will be fixed when the youth once again idolizes explorers, inventors, and civil servants.

I just have one thing to object to: explorers. I hope we never go back to idolising them. There was pretty well always already someone there first, it's just that they were different, and therefore didn't count.

All right, I'll just call up NASA and tell them not to bother sending up astronauts anymore

And what's wrong with exploring a place that's already inhabited?  It's not as if the native people were sending us postcards saying "Wish you were here!  Here's a picture of some indigenous wildlife!"  The truly admirable explorers were the ones who understood that the native people already lived there, and were exploring for the sake of knowledge.

[Flynn MacCallister]

For a long time now I've said that a lot of what's wrong with society will be fixed when the youth once again idolizes explorers, inventors, and civil servants.

I just have one thing to object to: explorers. I hope we never go back to idolising them. There was pretty well always already someone there first, it's just that they were different, and therefore didn't count.

All right, I'll just call up NASA and tell them not to bother sending up astronauts anymore

And what's wrong with exploring a place that's already inhabited?  It's not as if the native people were sending us postcards saying "Wish you were here!  Here's a picture of some indigenous wildlife!"  The truly admirable explorers were the ones who understood that the native people already lived there, and were exploring for the sake of knowledge.

Yes, people who have basically wandered over to meet the neighbours I have no issues with. I thought we called them anthopologists.

Astronauts? I object to them, too. Why risk people when a robot will do? Why use those resources, when a robot will do? Why do we feel the need to send people?

[von Corax]

For a long time now I've said that a lot of what's wrong with society will be fixed when the youth once again idolizes explorers, inventors, and civil servants.

I just have one thing to object to: explorers. I hope we never go back to idolising them. There was pretty well always already someone there first, it's just that they were different, and therefore didn't count.

Ms. MacCallister, please don't confuse exploration with imperialism. It wasn't the explorers who decided that newly-discovered cultures "were different, and therefore didn't count," it was the societies from which the explorers came which made that judgement. The damage which colonialism inflicted on host cultures is of course quite indefensible, but that impulse was entirely independent of the drive to explore.

Yes, people who have basically wandered over to meet the neighbours I have no issues with. I thought we called them anthopologists.

No, we call them "explorers." Explorers seek out places, things, people or ideas which are not yet known (at least, to them); anthropologists study the entirety of the human species, including biology, history, culture and behaviour. The two are orthogonal, not synonymous.

As for there "always already being someone there first," I believe Ernest Shackleton, Jacques Cousteau and Neil Armstrong would beg to differ.

Astronauts? I object to them, too. Why risk people when a robot will do? Why use those resources, when a robot will do? Why do we feel the need to send people?

Because, my dear, robots simply won't do. Ask Harrison Schmitt and Lee Silver whether Apollo 17 could have been a fraction as productive if it had been an unmanned mission. Ask the Mars Rover team how quickly they could have accomplished the same amount of science had they had human brains on Mars, in immediate control of the instruments, and able to say "What's that? That looks interesting" and then immediately step over and determine if it was interesting or not, instead of having to wait between 8 and 24 minutes to see the result of every single decision.

I'll put it another way. If I'm not mistaken, you live in Australia. Have you seen photographs of Ayers Rock? Have you been to Ayers Rock? Is the one an even remotely satisfactory substitute for the other?

We are human. We are explorers. We are curious about anything and everything around us, and that curiosity is an itch that simply will not be denied. It is part of the very essence of our humanity that we look out at the horizon and we are irresistibly driven to learn what lies just over the next hill, and the next one, and the next. It is this which drives us to grow, to know what we can become and, perhaps, why we even exist. Take away the drive to explore and we cannot grow but only stagnate, and in the end we can only become less than we are.

Ahem. That seems to have strayed a bit off the original topic, doesn't it? I do apologize, but "You don't need to go there; you don't need to know" has always been rather a sensitive hot-button for me.

[ulfnir]

Have you seen photographs of Ayers Rock?

Its proper name is Uluru. The name Ayers rock was given to it by the surveyor who "discovered " it, in honour of Sir Henry Ayers, who was the governor of that part of Australia at the time. Another case of imperialistic re assignment.

But i'm just being pedantic now. 

[Mina]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[insanity assasin]

Eventually the parents will be so depraved, that their offspring will have to rebel by being nice.

this is actually my ideal of behavior....i feel modern society is rather rude in their interactions with eachother , hence i affect varying degrees of politeness as a means of showing my disgust with others behaviour.

[Mina]

Eventually the parents will be so depraved, that their offspring will have to rebel by being nice.

this is actually my ideal of behavior....i feel modern society is rather rude in their interactions with eachother , hence i affect varying degrees of politeness as a means of showing my disgust with others behaviour.

something I agree with completely. I have quite the short temper, but a few years ago I discovered that losing my temper and getting angry only seemed to amuse those around me. being nice and cordial I find confuses them, and amuses me, instead

the only down-side is sometimes my superiors think I am getting smart with them, usually resulting in some form of discipline

[insanity assasin]

Eventually the parents will be so depraved, that their offspring will have to rebel by being nice.

this is actually my ideal of behavior....i feel modern society is rather rude in their interactions with eachother , hence i affect varying degrees of politeness as a means of showing my disgust with others behaviour.

something I agree with completely. I have quite the short temper, but a few years ago I discovered that losing my temper and getting angry only seemed to amuse those around me. being nice and cordial I find confuses them, and amuses me, instead

the only down-side is sometimes my superiors think I am getting smart with them, usually resulting in some form of discipline

very true...i've also noted , however , that sometimes my superiors(i.e highschool principle) are amused and impressed by my diction and manners , which occaisionally leads to them "cuttimg me a break ", as the modern , common teen would state.

[patron_vectras]

Eventually the parents will be so depraved, that their offspring will have to rebel by being nice.

this is actually my ideal of behavior....i feel modern society is rather rude in their interactions with eachother , hence i affect varying degrees of politeness as a means of showing my disgust with others behaviour.

something I agree with completely. I have quite the short temper, but a few years ago I discovered that losing my temper and getting angry only seemed to amuse those around me. being nice and cordial I find confuses them, and amuses me, instead

the only down-side is sometimes my superiors think I am getting smart with them, usually resulting in some form of discipline

its just jealousy...

If they want to get over it, Etiquette for Dummies is a very rewarding read.

Ladies love a man with manners. Teachers prefer a well-behaved pupil. Best friends don't care, so long as you back them up ;]

[ulfnir]

As the saying goes: " Manners make the man."

[CapnHarlock]

the only down-side is sometimes my superiors think I am getting smart with them, usually resulting in some form of discipline

There is always the ultimate response to the "Are you getting smart with me??" question.

"No, dear, I wouldn't do that. I want you to understand."  If you're going to get in trouble anyway, you might as well enjoy it.

[patron_vectras]

the only down-side is sometimes my superiors think I am getting smart with them, usually resulting in some form of discipline

There is always the ultimate response to the "Are you getting smart with me??" question.

"No, dear, I wouldn't do that. I want you to understand."  If you're going to get in trouble anyway, you might as well enjoy it.

but some are simply gullible enough to get out of trouble with... If you don't say that in the tone I think you are...

[alfa1]

My memory's a bit sketchy, but the following seems to encompass today's society:

"Oh, the times we live in! No son will listen to his father, the youths drink too much and everyone wants to write a book!"

Actually I think that a tendency for youth to want to write books would be a great improvement on the current situation.   Most of them dont even want to read books.

[Capt. Dirigible]

Why risk people when a robot will do

You've clearly never seen 2001:A Space Oddity..The Forbin Project or any of the Terminator franchise!! Robots and computers cannot be trusted!!

[Rockula]

Why risk people when a robot will do

You've clearly never seen 2001:A Space Oddity..The Forbin Project or any of the Terminator franchise!! Robots and computers cannot be trusted!!

Definitely. There's also 'Demon Seed'.

[ulfnir]

Yes! computers and robots are buggers. What with their inevitable rebelling and uprising shennanigans.

[patron_vectras]

Yes! computers and robots are buggers. What with their inevitable rebelling and uprising shennanigans.

nevertheless, it would be a treat to see clanks in tanks take on gangbangers in lowriders