Diogo Ribeiro

Police in Birmingham are evacuating large parts of the city centre. Earlier they issued a warning they had received intelligence suggesting a threat to the area. "Our response needs to be proportionate in the action we're taking and in informing the public," a spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said. Police are now closing down the Birmingham Broad street entertainment zone and asking people to go home. A statement will be released shortly. "It's quite tense," said BBC journalist Toby Brown. "An air of urgency has been injected into the proceedings. Many people obviously don't know where to go." No vehicles were being allowed to be moved, he added, while helicopters had been hovering overhead since around 2000 BST. Birmingham resident Kenneth Kelsall told the BBC: "There is a lot of confusion, there appears to be no chance of anyone moving back into the city - but people are remaining quiet." Source Uh oh....

Well, sometimes I do that as well. Other times I have some Ritalin near me >_>

But assuming what we will do has been scripted, why does it conflict with freedom? If you know you will make a decision in the future... Doesn't this mean you had the freedom to make such a decision, the free will to make it in the first place? Knowing what the future holds doesn't necessarily interfere with your choice and freedom unless you or anyone else plans to interfere with it.

...I don't think what I wrote was particularly insightful. Or great. I think I'm rather prone to ramble on, but lack the necessary coherence, intelligence and articulate speech to make it something interesting :/

I'd dumb. :ph34r:

Pretty good stuff :D

I think that may vary. It's more of a parallel of real societies. Virtual societies don't have from the onset a goal based around, as you say, necessity or immediate gain but they may have. A group may form to produce something - a community-based hub, all of them with certain aspects, built around one or other function. Gaming clans are an example of a society which entails a gathering of likeminded individuals who carry out virtual activities based around fun or competition (or both). Hierarchies can also be created, even, as well as rules. And it seems they are similar to real societies with the exception that they are built around systems and ideas as virtual as themselves (though you can no doubt attribute, or derive real ideas and values to/from them). Survival gains a faux meaning there, in terms of physical, real survival that is. People here follow the rules (well, most anyway) because I think they want to belong to this particular society, or group. Same applies to other virtual groups they may belong to. Is it to gain relevancy, or some shred of individuality trough collectivism, making yourself present/useful/validated and therefore trying to outline your individualism? People who do not succumb, obey to, or follow social standards or laws that would be considered as oppressive or regulating probably would not bother to register here and suffer scrutiny from other members as well as moderators. But isn't it said there's something in the human race that appreciates control? Man wants to be judged; if God did not exist, then there would need to be something else created to keep him in check. Without control and observation, what defines men? Or their exploits, or lives? If there is no one to judge you, or to label your deeds, then how do we find self-worth in ourselves? If we feel this need, doesn't that make a search for true individualism a contradiction? I think I'm getting a fever from typing the above.

Well one day I woke up and these people told me to be nice to the government. If I kept quiet they'd give me candy... And I've whored myself out ever since. Seriously I can't tell you why I am a part of it. That position was expected of me long before I was born and handed down to me before I could even think. Currently I am a part of society because I don't know why I am a part of it. It's suggested that something like survival is considerably greater when man manages to belong to a group or organization (though I think the aspect of subsistence is changed... it remains the same at its core, but the survival achieved trough hunting in large groups has been replaced by survival trough association with large groups which can bring social prestige, status, etc.). But I'm missing one important thing, the reason as to why its believed this is required rather than optional.

Nice rack.

I'm ignorant of the teachings of Buddhism, but escaping the 'same entity' idea for a minute, what makes us individuals? Supposedly individuality maintains the ideas of individual freedom, and the importance of the self. But can we truly be individuals under those aspects? It always seems to be true individualism is a rare (if not impossible) thing to achieve when in the context of man as a social animal, 'condemend' to accept or at least live with social conventions and rules. In fact, importance of the self seems to suggest that it is the opposing end of the concept of society, or collectivism... Is true individualism only achieved by purging society and more importantly society's control over the self? Help a poor retard understand life!

.Nevermind then. I vote MacGuyver and retreat to my hell hole.

Me or you, for that matter. Or anyone else.

And what precisely makes me an individual?

Wouldn't wanting to change be somewhat different than desiring to change? I think to desire something is to crave something, whereas to want something is more in tune with fulfilling a requirement, a moderate or even modest wish to find or achieve something. Also, one could argue that all change carries a sense of loss, and in that perspective a suffering of sorts.

But how good is the movie?

It's like one of those Elseworlds (DC's version of Marvel's "What If?", which shows alternate situations and characters, like a medieval Batman or a commie Superman), and Batman just gone up and became a Viking.

Linky

I already am a level 55 Goblin Assassin :cool:

Nature of the social beast with a mind of its own. No one budges, no one cares, merry go round of idealism. My point is better than yours because morality is a bore as long as its not my own. As long as I can replace the impact and worth of death with side issues; replace the loss of life with hollow numbers, pointless statistics, abstract myself from victims so I can promote my own ideals; I can sleep better. Who cares for lives that never were, never became, dreams left unfulfilled, paths never taken, when its so much convenient to me to reduce it all to a number and conjure reasons that satisfy my ego? Its easier to keep killing than stop doing it; much easier to hate than to love. Welcome welcome hypocrits smiling. Your words are as murderous as bullets and bombs.

Yeah, Rexitiumolinctitus aka G00k Fish went loco. And Killzig aka MacGuyver was funny, and he also went postal. But just the whole deal kickboxed my brain

zomg my brain gains +10 INT!