civilization declined?

I must be getting old and turning into a pessimistic codger. Everything post-modern is becoming increasingly dreary to me. Perhaps these eyes are just finally losing the rosy tint and gaining access to the truth? Or perhaps I have weakened, allowing my resolve to crumble into forlorn despair. I see ever-encroaching signs of a decaying Western canon no matter where I look.

Let's see,

1. Worthless currency: Check
   
   
   
   
2. Private banks are Failed, Nationalized Check
   
   
   
3. Downturn more than a local trend? Computer science, the gem of modern technical advancement, is falling by the wayside in American high school, college, and industry. Check
   
   
   
4. Microsoft's Creative Destruction "Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator."
   
   iPad, an ongoing joke, as the Dynabook dream continues to elude and disappoint engineers and users alike:
   
   Check
   
   
   
   
5. Arts? THE BEST MOVIE EVER TRANSFORMERS!!!
   
   Check
   
   
   
6. Literature? Check
   
   
   
   
7. US Space Program Cancellations Age of Exploration… on hold… Check
   
   
   
8. Mindless, futile waring against other cultures? Check
   
   
   
   

9. "People cannot stand too much reality." – Carl Jung

   
   Too much Reality
   
   
   We use terms like "dystopian" as if it were counterbalance to some far-fetched Utopia, brought to you through glass screen.
   The Machine is Bleeding to Death
   
   
10. Paging through google searches of "abandoned city Detroit", I saw what I expected to see:
    
    
    Then finally I came across this:
    
    

SAIC/NASA videos on innovation

"I can't give you a charge number for this..." Story of our life ..


and a follow on Episode 2:

Programming Can Ruin Your Life

http://devizen.com/blog/2007/09/11/ruin/             “Programmers become obsessed with perfection. This is why they are constantly talking about rewrites. They cannot resist optimum solutions. Perfection requires tossing aside mediocre ideas in search of great ones. A good programmer would rather leave a problem temporarily unsolved than solve it poorly.

Remember your failure in the cave, young Skywalker.

amanFromMars

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If you are Positively Encouraged, AH, it is amazing what can be done if you extrapolate IT to the n degree. 8-) ........ and then some way further for the next time you think about IT.

Yes, I've been thinking a long time about IT!

You read like a poor man's Douglas Adams.

Poor we may be but our proud theories are not impoverished. This is the bazaar where we shall flourish.