Posted on 04/04/2010 6:10:27 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
“I just now decided that I have to re-read Brave New World. I seem to recall that at about age 30 - which was considered the beginning of ‘over the hill’ age at that time, the members of the worker class were sent to a ‘hospital’ where they were comfortably medicated to death. Am I right? Never read Animal Farm - a gap in my education.”
Go for it!
You MUST read Animal Farm. I guarantee you WILL enjoy it. It is a MUST read.
http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.html
In fact, read it free on the above link. You will want to get it for yourself.
Here are reviews for it on Amazon
I would also highly recommend 1984.
Here’s part of one review:
...
The completely classic “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” is one we must keep in mind whenever politicians start using words as if they mean the reverse of what they do mean.
1984, too, has its beautifully classic lines. The main characters are all members of the Ingsoc Party (English Socialism). It is not until well into the book that we learn they are only some 15% of the population; the rest are proles. The proles are easily dismissed as insignificant: “They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect.” Use that line the next time someone tells you it’s not important to educate our entire population to the best of their capabilities.
When the main character, Winston Smith, attempts to placate his tormenter by saying “You are ruling over us for our own good,” he is scorned as “stupid, Winston, stupid.” The party big shot responds with one of the most chilling lines I have ever read: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Through the medium of conversations in the lunch room of the “Ministry of Truth,” Orwell is able to tell us much about the creation and preservation of a totalitarian state. One key is the control over language which the Party exercises: “Newspeak.” One of the people working on the Newspeak dictionary explains it to Winston: “You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting language down to the bone.” He brags that very soon “all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron—they’ll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.”
Putting these two in a single hardbound volume and adding a thoughtful introduction by Christopher Hitchens was a stroke of genius on the part of Harcourt Books. It will make it all the easier for professors of political science, literature, history, psychology . . . indeed, if it was not such a contradiction with regard to books so dedicated to liberty, I’d say make them required reading.
Barbara J. Frederick “auntb93
CLASSIC TRUTH!
It’s happening NOW - the evil in these books.
My pleasure. :)
Not what you said. You said this below:
Lots of 2-income families. When one can be paid to sit at home and take care of the chores and upkeep, that family is not is as big of a hurry to become a two-worker family as soon.
You clearly suggested that second income was strictly for fun/play money...That's bull sh*t and you know it.
Once again, you take away one income from a two income working family in today's America, and that family is screwed.
Unlike many of my co-workers, my assignments were 1 to 2 years. Solve a big problem, then move on. It has been necessary to get involved in business development, proposals, project management and dealing with customers on top of the normal requirements/design/implement/test/deploy/support cycle. I really like the .Net framework. I've written many applications using it. My bookshelf is full of references from the 1.0 release to the current 3.5. A few weeks ago, a local recruiter called with a need for a .Net engineer. I was ready with the skills, but fully booked doing the C++ port from Solaris.
Look at current job openings. Find something that interests you. Buy a few books and build the skills. Good luck!
BUMP
Looking for a job IS A JOB!
Good luck, everyone!!
Agreed. I was working hard to get off vacation. It's sad to have to use earned vacation that way, but it beats not being able to pay the bills. It rained the whole time as well, so I couldn't even go out to enjoy the time "off".
It is not bull sh*t, Econ 101. When you pay someone to stay at home and do nothing, it takes some incentive away from leaving the home to get a job. Simple economics you can not deny.
Not just for fun/play but when you get unemployment to compensate for part of the second income, it takes some incentive out of going back to work.
In CA you can work for $3.75k per month to get unemployment benefits of $2.5k per month tax equivalent (includes Fed. Stimulation, SS and state tax corrections).
To be blunt, you just don't understand what the current financial state of affairs are for working class two income families.
To be blunt, you don't understand Econ 101. When a person is paid to NOT work, it reduces the incentive to work.
> Do you have a homeless shelter picked out? A charity to lean on? A paid-off car you will live in? Give up your daughter to the state?
Only a real p**ck would pick on on a down-and-out unarmed man.
I would add, find local User Groups, and volunteer to do a presentation on some topic that few know about, User Groups are always looking for presenters.
When I was looking for a job about 10 years ago, that’s what I did, and it definitely helped me to land jobs.
Read the whole thread and then come back and tell me what a prick I am.
I read the thread.
Were you a bully in school or were you bullied?
May peace be upon you.
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