Hello, Bob;

08 Aug 04 11:34, Bob Lawrence wrote to Robert Bull:

 BL>  Exactly. Everyone says that war is wicked, but they think it means
 BL> the act itself - shooting the enemy, relying on your mates, raping the
 BL> women, etc. That's the *good* part that men really like! The wicked
 BL> part is what they come home with...

And what they leave behind, the destruction of cultures and ways of life, 
social structures, health services, the means of productive work or even 
agriculture.

 BL>  Yes. The only safe position is a minimalist government which tries
 BL> to maximise freedom of choice. If a government stuffs the economy

We had enough of that with Mrs. Thatcher  :-(  but it isn't much different 
under Mr. Blair...  :-(

 BL> obviously useless at it. What they should do is constantly revise Law
 BL> to see what they can *remove* to increase individual freedom of
 BL> choice... and that would probably mean the State and big business
 BL> should get the hell out of it.

We need ways of stopping bullies or Big Money running the place for 
themselves...

 BL>  A classic example of the Nanny State is here in New South Wales
 BL> where they are talking about imposing a curfew on young drivers
 BL> becasue they keep killing themselves at night. The kids themselves
 BL> desire nothing more than a driving licence, they are obviously happy
 BL> to take the tiny risk of being killed by their inexperience on the
 BL> road at night... but the Nanny State knows best. Like hell they do.

I think they introduced a section on driving on motorways into our driving 
test, which seems to be a good idea.  As for after dark, why was that so 
much more dangerous?

 BL>  Life is dangerous. The only time you are ever truly safe in life, is
 BL> when you die! Do they want to turn us into zombies, or what?

Somtow Sucharitkul wrote a series of stories in the "Inquestor Universe" 
where planetary governments had tried something like that in order to have 
happy-happy citizens.  The purpose of the Inquestors was to seek out 
Utopias - in order to destroy them.

 BL>  I adopt the principle that life is short, and if an author writes
 BL> crap for himself alone, then *he* can read it. The only

It was of its time; I find lots of 19th century stuff hard going because of 
the length of the sentences.

 BL> the Lord of the Rings) but Melville lost me around page ten. Turgid is
 BL> the word... (or turded).

The first 15 or s chapters (they're all short) is a sort of light 
introduction.  It's a very strange book, not a conventional narrative, with 
all those digressions on the natural history of the whale, the colour 
white, and so on.

 BL>  Our rotten local library! Even if Nix is Australian, that's no
 BL> excuse not to stock his new books.

:-(

 BL>  I finished Neal Stephenson's CONFUSION (with plenty of nautical

Does sound good...  I really should look out for it.  Oh, well, darker 
evenings will be coming soon...

     Regards,

              Robert.

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