Hope for the Future
moultano
Creator of ns_shiva. Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Creator of ns_shiva. Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Arthur C. Clarke and Obama</div>I posted this on my blog today. Thought I'd share.
Arthur C. Clarke, author, died today at the age of 90. You may know him as the author behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, the book and famous Stanley Kubrick film. Clarke wrote in an earlier age of Science Fiction. The internet had not yet transformed the world, and cyberpunk was not yet a glimmer in William Gibson's eye. America lived in the shadow of the cold war, and much of the Science Fiction of the time dealt with the possibility of humankind destroying itself.
Clarke infused his writing with a limitless view of both human potential and human failings; In his view, humanity is in its infancy, delicate, vulnerable, throwing temper tantrums, but with its best years still ahead of it. In 2001, the main character upon his apotheosis literally becomes a child among the stars. In Childhood's End humanity as a whole escapes it's physical bounds in a heartbreaking moment of destruction and transcendence that the title of the book literally describes. Throughout his writing however, the factions of humanity are always a single mistake from destroying eachother, and it is often extraterrestrials that distract them enough to survive their own power. Clarke wrote long before Nelson Mandela took his long walk to freedom, and hypothesized in Childhood's End that South Africa wouldn't reach a peaceful settlement until aliens gathered overhead and demanded it by blocking out the sun. Still, in his worlds we always managed to escape our vices to do extraordinary things: building a space elevator, colonizing the solar system, greeting the vast powers of the galaxy with dignity.
His books are infused with the hope that with the passage of time, the problems that seem so immediate will be immaterial, that the differences between us are surmountable, that we have the ingenuity to escape our lonely planet and join whatever waits beyond. This perhaps the essence of Clarke's future. With that, I present to you the most intelligent and moving speech I've seen delivered by a politician in my lifetime. Had he been able, I think this is the type of progress Arthur C. Clarke would have liked to see.
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Arthur C. Clarke, author, died today at the age of 90. You may know him as the author behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, the book and famous Stanley Kubrick film. Clarke wrote in an earlier age of Science Fiction. The internet had not yet transformed the world, and cyberpunk was not yet a glimmer in William Gibson's eye. America lived in the shadow of the cold war, and much of the Science Fiction of the time dealt with the possibility of humankind destroying itself.
Clarke infused his writing with a limitless view of both human potential and human failings; In his view, humanity is in its infancy, delicate, vulnerable, throwing temper tantrums, but with its best years still ahead of it. In 2001, the main character upon his apotheosis literally becomes a child among the stars. In Childhood's End humanity as a whole escapes it's physical bounds in a heartbreaking moment of destruction and transcendence that the title of the book literally describes. Throughout his writing however, the factions of humanity are always a single mistake from destroying eachother, and it is often extraterrestrials that distract them enough to survive their own power. Clarke wrote long before Nelson Mandela took his long walk to freedom, and hypothesized in Childhood's End that South Africa wouldn't reach a peaceful settlement until aliens gathered overhead and demanded it by blocking out the sun. Still, in his worlds we always managed to escape our vices to do extraordinary things: building a space elevator, colonizing the solar system, greeting the vast powers of the galaxy with dignity.
His books are infused with the hope that with the passage of time, the problems that seem so immediate will be immaterial, that the differences between us are surmountable, that we have the ingenuity to escape our lonely planet and join whatever waits beyond. This perhaps the essence of Clarke's future. With that, I present to you the most intelligent and moving speech I've seen delivered by a politician in my lifetime. Had he been able, I think this is the type of progress Arthur C. Clarke would have liked to see.
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Comments
Did you watch the speech?
don't get me wrong - the democrats already have my vote =p but Obama doesn't seem like a magic bullet to me. And if he's going to yap about race issues and his religion so much, it actually shakes my confidence in him rather than fortifying it. wtb a real president who actually cares about important things like gore would have <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> race should not even be an issue, nor should religion... 'race' and 'color' seem to be obama's buzzwords just like 'freedom' is bush's...
--Scythe--
I think you may have to be from the US for this to really resonate with you. I grew up in Cincinnati, OH, still one of the most segregated cities in the country. We had city-wide riots in 2001. The issues of race relations were part of my daily life. This is the first time I've seen a politician address the issues of race with the subtlety and honesty they require.
--Scythe--<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think it's just Youtube crapping out. It plays for all of 2 seconds then freezes regardless of where you jump in a video.
then again, considering that like half the south still flies confederate flags, I guess some people still do need "We Are The World" shoved down their throats.
I'll miss Clarke.
then again, considering that like half the south still flies confederate flags, I guess some people still do need "We Are The World" shoved down their throats.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all, try to take it in context. This speech is meant to be a response to the comments of his former pastor. Those comments were racially charged and thus this speech is about racism. I'm sure he'd rather be making a speech about healthcare or the economy or the environment and most of his speeches are on those things. However, if he hadn't addressed this issue directly some people would take it to mean he had something to hide.
Second, he's not just saying "we should all sing it's a small world together". He's saying there is anger in the black community at racial injustices of the past which need to be overcome. I grew up in a liberal state and I've never heard that issue brought up so frankly and optimistically before, at least not by a politician. Don't get me wrong, he's a politician and he's trying to spin this recent event to make his race appear as a positive rather than a negative. I just think that up until his point race was effectively a neutral topic which is why Obama hadn't spoken on it recently.
Finally, IMO Clarke's passing deserves it's own topic. Why did you mash these two together?
then again, considering that like half the south still flies confederate flags, I guess some people still do need "We Are The World" shoved down their throats.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It should probably be noted that I am a Middle class, male WASP (just not religious, but it is a good descriptor of where I come from in life) before I start.
I also grew up in a relatively liberal and colour blind environment (NYC). However it is obvious that there are STILL some major racial problems in this country. I am not just talking about the deep south or anything, but every where. We still deal with prejudices, large and small, and open hatred all over the country. The situation is obviously better then it used to be (thank god), but we still have along rode ahead of us.
I have not watched the speech yet (at work atm), so I am not going to really comment on that yet. However I will comment a bit about Clarke.
I have yet to really read anything by the man (I am not a big SF fan, I just read a couple authors, though I should read Clarke tbh). However it is interesting to look at Heinlein (who was writing around the same time Clarke started) in the same light. Both seemed to think that humanity COULD get over our current problems (Race and sexuality were ones that Heinlein liked playing with often), however it was not a sured. Heinlein covered ideas of a divided earth, where there was war between 3 or 4 great nations (Friday), a united humanity where we present a solid racial (ie human race) front against the stars (Starship Troopers), and something in between (all of the books focusing on the moon, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, etc etc)
Here's the "farewell" of sorts that clarke recorded on his 90th birthday. If you haven't read anything by him, check out The Star: <a href="http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html" target="_blank">http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html</a>
then again, considering that like half the south still flies confederate flags, I guess some people still do need "We Are The World" shoved down their throats.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This speech was intended to be specifically about race. He'll have and has had plenty of other speeches about the economy, war, and the environment.
He doesn't mention it at all. That's just what I felt about it.
We can blame you for thinking any presidential candidate would even mention Arthur C. Clarke to anything but a large group of nerds and only nerds. I mean come on. Nobody has ever heard of Clarke. Obama isn't going to say a word, nor will anyone running for president.
It was printed between the lines.
Remind me to trample all over your favorite authors too.
It's interesting that you automatically place the blame for obscurity on the author instead of sitting in in its proper location right on top of society, whose gigantic dunce cap is a fact of life you're going to have to get used to one of these days. Until then you can live in your wonderful Fairy Land where Arthur C. Clarke is a hero that inspires hope and admiration among the masses, but at this point I'm living in the world where you could trot out a banner with his name during halftime at a football game and only get a glimmer of recognition in the eyes of a few people in the entire stadium.
Fine, replace "football stadium" with "all of America."
Take a large enough sample size and EVERY author is marginal.
Clinton had his moments, and were 'perhaps' ended pre-maturely. Placing more females in cabinet than ever before was a bold move, but he obviously didn't have the 'viguor' to keep them satisfied.
GeorgeW is more a 'soldier' than a leader, IMO. His move in placing more 'ex-cons in cabinet than ever before has been quite contraversial, but I can see the logic. People who do the 'wrong' things for the 'right' reason are what a good defence force consists of. We all know that America has requirements for better defence now than ever.
Furthermore, GeorgeW doesn't seem all that tired. I here in Australia am grateful to his abilities in comradeship. (We had an awful Prime-Minister that almost sent Australia into the stone-age, and if it weren't for Bush, Howard really would have cocked things up!). I would be very interested to see how our new leader and GeorgeW could do if GeorgeW were to stay on for another term.. A change of leadership for America, now, would probably cause things to 'stay as they are' for longer!
I don't know that.
Take a large enough sample size and EVERY author is marginal.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I claimed that almost nobody today has heard of Arthur C. Clarke. You contested that claim, which I then reinforced. You then responded by saying nobody has heard of plenty of authors. This does nothing to alter the validity of my earlier claim, which I would still submit is correct.
And of course it shouldn't be an issue. But it is.
Simply claiming that race, religion, gender, or any other divide between people is something that you don't care about or don't buy into is not enough. Because these are still ever-present problems. Claiming that they shouldn't be problems because <b>you</b> don't want them to be achieves absolutely nothing. These are issues that need to be actively addressed, because they are real and are not something that can be dismissed by insisting that you are not racist, <i>because there are still plenty of people that are</i>.
And this is what the speech really finishes on. That people need not only to set aside their differences, but then work together to destroy each others' and their own problems.
Call it "playing the race card" if you like. But there is a very good reason why that card is still in the deck.