: One of the erroneous assumptions underlying this kind of thinking is that technological advancement is synonymous with "progress", a fabricated axiom of the corporate state that I believe will eventually be responsible for killing every living thing on the planet but not before the more astute among us BEG for death because life is so empty, poisonous, and misereable. So why is technological advancement not necessarily considered "progress?" Perhaps the development of coal power plants and gas-powered vehicles? The fact that people are slowing killing themselves during their daily commutes to work or wherever? That same type of technological advancement can reverse those mistakes though. We now have the technology to produce power without polluting our environment, and with furter progress those methods will improve and become more efficient. I don't think we would ever have come close to our present level of technology if somebody stopped the development of coal power or the car because they pollute.
: What offends me even more is that no consideration is given to the fact that much of the USA's "progess" comes at the expense of the other nations it is being compared against, AND that our technologies and US based multinationals are used to subjegate these other nations even further. Its not so much that we are "lucky" as it is that we have no scrupals.
America has succeeded because it was founded and still thrives on the idea of freedom for everyone. The United States was the first nation of its kind when the Constitution was written and slowly the world has been copying our system. No system is perfect, and you could certainly make a case that the American people have lost their power to Corporate America, but I think it's a bunch of B.S. When the people unite behind a common cause, change does happen.
: Thirdly, I have to question the value of technological efforts that are not geared toward freeing people from meaningless, shallow, 9 to 5 clock punching labor and I've come to feel great disdain for nations that endeavor to do exactly the opposite.....such as the USA.
What about the way the Internet (and where did the Internet come from again? ahhh, yes, the U.S.!) is changing the way people work and creating entire new careers that didn't exist a few years ago? There are families who operate entire businesses based on e-commerce out of their homes. I think it's the American Dream at its best =)
None.
