(Provoked by the drip-drip-drip of bad news in the present.)
The trial of Putin by his own people was followed by the hasty retirements of other autocrats.
The World Refugee Fund enabled prosperous communities in, for instance, Italy, England, and California that enriched their host nations and sent reconstruction funds back to, for instance, Syria and Ukraine.
Chinese students led a political transformation that resulted in democracy and admiration for minorities. Tibet, Xinjiang, and Southern Mongolia became fully autonomous, then partner nations in the Eastasian Union – China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Uyghurstan, and United Mongolia.
Similar waves of student-inspired national rethinking led to the Anatolian Union – Turkey, Kurdistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan – and the Levantine Union – Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. These federations gloried in their diversity of religion, language, culture, musci, and costume.
In the Anatolian Union, the philosophy of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan came to be applied, with for instance equal numbers of women and men at all levels of government from local upward. Communes like the Israeli kibbutzim, and similar to earlier farming villages, became popular in the Arab-majority parts of the Levantine Union. They typically have their archaeologists, hence the renewal of excavation and knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern societies.
The Jakarta All-Islam Conference resulted in agreement on a body of doctrines acceptable to all sects. Flogging, execution, honor killing, and female genital mutilation were recognized as hateful to God.
African nations pioneered the replacement of punitive imprisonment by rehabilitation, the age limit on imprisonment, and the restoration of voting rights to prisoners.
Codes of regulation, improved in the European Union and coalescing into an international standard, put an end to the dumping of sewage into waterways, fire-prone and earthquake-prone buildings, exploitative labor, and all tax havens. It’s strange to remember that business used to be anti-regulation from fear of costs, so obvious is it now that healthy and longer-lived people are a better market.
Exploitation of ambiguities in legal documents led to the requirement that most be drafted also in the explicit language, Esperanto.
Legal and regulated drugs caused the collapse of organized crime.
After the sea-level rise of the middle twenty-first century, during which all coastal cities and other settlements not on hilly sites had to be abandoned, no more buildings or roads were constructed in coastal habitats.
The spread of vertical farming, re-wilding, and cultured meat brought the disappearance of monoculture farming and animal slaughter, and the return of ninety percent of land surface to nature.
The stabilization of climate and population enabled removal of all remaing species from the endangered list, except for Home sapiens, still capable of self-destructive actions.
Cars were largely replaced by pedal-powered vehicles with fairings and dynamo-recharged batteries.
With most food grown locally, including on roofs and in street-side planters, there bas come to be less traffic between cities and countries.
And leathergrass, the tough turf first found growing wild in Iran and improved by crossing with seaside grasses used in Florida so as to be resistant to wheeled vehicles, has replaced all tarmac and most other outdoor hard surfaces. If you trip and fall, you now don’t hurt yourself.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
The question is whether or not the fetus is an individual, or a part of the mother. If it is just a part of the mother, then you and Guy are correct. It should be up to the woman to decide what to do with her body.
My thought is that the fetus is NOT a part of the woman. My reasoning is that it has its own personality. I understand your point that it does not have self realization until at least 2 years old. My first memory was from when I was 3 years old, but I’m sure I did have my own personality. There are cranky babies, happy babies, babies that sleep well, babies that need to be rocked to sleep, and babies that only like certain foods. So we are all unique individuals, regardless of our degree of self awareness, or whether we are inside or outside of the womb. Therefore I believe that the fetus should have the God given rights of life at the moment of conception.
I disagree that anti abortion stuff comes from religions. As I alluded to in my last post, the U.S. form of government was crafted to protect our God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some of our founding fathers were atheists and agnostics so they didn’t believe our rights came from a “god” yet they still recognized those rights as being good for the new nation’s citizens.
In reference to your comment about mass shootings, I contend that mass shootings are misnamed. They should be called mass murders. Most gun owners are mass shooters. They shoot at gun ranges or other targets in the woods. Irresponsible and evil gun owners are murderers and mass murderers. I personally wish that every gun was dropped to the bottom of the deepest ocean, but that won’t happen. The goodness of guns is that it prevents tyranny. Most citizens of Hong Kong did not own guns, and you see what happened to them.
Your comment on cars was interesting but out of admiration and respect for Guy I don’t comment about global warming on his website.
Surely the fetus does have rights as it is part of the woman who has rights and doesn’t develop rights in itself until born?It all depends on what you believe animates humans, and presumably other animals too,some kind of spirit or just biological forces…. I’d go for a bit of both myself!Now I have no memory of being a human prior to about 2 years and I believe that that is average although some claim memories about being in the womb but they also claim past life memories too so should be taken with a large pinch of salt.I hold that most of this anti abortion stuff comes from religions set up by men who where ment to be celibate namely the Roman Catholic Church although in the USA it has spread with much enthusiasm among evangelical Protestants.I don’t know what the third major branch of Christianity, the Orthodox Church (or churches) think about it.It seems strange in the USA they want to protect the the unborn but allow mass shootings and car killings daily?Cars even worse as they are killing the planet too.
I understand the argument that a female has a right to determine what she does with her body, The woman owns her body, but the fetus is a different being that also has rights. Allowing only women to vote on abortion is akin to saying only slaveowners should vote on slavery.
That leads to another question. Why is it wrong to own a slave and give orders to that person, yet it is good for government to pass laws telling others what they can and cannot do?
America’s founding fathers insisted that a government must be moral to be considered good and righteous. The slaveowner takes away the God given rights of freedom, whereas, a moral government is an extension of God, not man. A moral government exists to promote God given rights of life, liberty, and happiness. Many of the founding fathers were atheists or agnostics but they still understood Aristotle’s concept that the good in things is that which leads to happiness.
Augmentatiion: I hear a lot about women’s rights, but what about the rights of fetuses? They are the most vulnerable of us all, and over half of them are females.
We can discuss, but it’s not up to us, as males, to decide.
I hear a lot about women’s rights but what about the fetus’ rights?
Yes, and women are universally treated with full respect and equality. Men have learned to never impregnate any woman who doesn’t want to be impregnated. And every man who does impregnate a woman who agrees to it, takes his full share of responsibility for raising the child. Utopia, indeed!
That’s a beautiful vision of Utopia. I would add the following.
The mass vaccination experiments have ended, joining the ranks of past medical failures such as blood letting and shock therapy.
The brutal slaughter of fetuses and the cruelty of capital punishment have been forever banned.
There are no more big cities where people are stacked atop one another in APARTments. Everyone owns a house and their own plot of land that they care for and make beautiful.
Children play outside all day unattended. There are hiking trails and playgrounds within walking distance of every house.
The free market system has spread to all nations. There is an abundance of food and water so there is no need for locks on doors or wars.
Cultural differences and traditions are respected and celebrated.
Health care costs are paid by individuals making the costs reasonable once again. Knowing they have to prevent expensive illness, everyone exercises daily and does not over consume.
The elderly are respected for their wisdom and are cared for by family members or friends.
Everyone has jobs that they love. There is ample time for family and hobbies.
Space travel has been perfected and humans spread throughout the universe.
Poland became the first country to rule that only women may propose or vote on laws as to how women use their bodies.
That was wonderful to read. And all of it could happen. The great mystery is why humans tend to act at cross purposes to their own desired outcome.
Good outdoor lighting practices allow everyone to see the Milky Way from their back yards and to attune their monthly rhythms to the waxing and waning of the Moon. Schoolchildren are shown historical pictures of “light pollution” as part of their ecology classes.
Excellent addition to the utopian list – and nudging the blog gently back toward astronomy!
A dream to see cars replaced probably the biggest killing machines on the planet probably just beating firearms in the USA! I’d love to see the car industry banned from advertising and product placements and environmentally friendly Prince Charles brought to book over recently knighting racing car driver Sir Louis Hamilton.Of course none of it is going to happen they might replace petroleum cars with electric ones which are just as deadly to walking humans and wildlife,steal as much space and will drain the world’s resources in their manufacturing.Democracy?No it’s a motocracy!
Guy, your ‘History of a Good Future’ feels like it will be verified by our successive generations. Thank you for a longed for creative dip into the developing future. My work over the past 42 years is in 35 countries and I have been delighted to see that there is a new vision people are beginning to feel and share of a common thread of life even though it is individually expressed