Reading a really interesting book at the moment - although it could take a while being a rather heavy tome - called "Rise of the Creative Class" by Richard Florida.
In a nutshell, it investigates and studies how society has changed in the last 50 years - and most significantly in the last 10. The change from a factory based society where you went to where the jobs were to an innovative and creative based society where the jobs move to where the creative population is.
A bit like buying real estate - follow the artists and gays (creative).
It studies and discusses how the innovative/creative people in society - around 15% of workers in the western world at the core, and 30% if you include the fringe occupations - with the rest of the occupations made up of service and factory.
The most interesting factor is that those who are part of the core creative class are becoming (or have become) the new wealthy ... with service and factory (production line) falling further behind.
The increasing divide between the haves and have nots.
The creative/innovative either invent or work with what is, but manipulated/create to their advantage - whereas the service/factory tend do things by rote.".
I've been thinking about all this stuff. And I still haven't read the book, or researched it at all on the net. And I still think it's all a bit silly. So maybe I've completely missed the point. Maybe I should read the book? But I don't think I ever could as, as I've pointed out, it sounds so stupid.
It's sort of saying that all of a sudden the thinkers, the creative, the inventors will suddenly win in this new world.
So what happened ten thousand years ago when some person invented agriculture and started modern civilisation? By growing grain and veges on the one piece of land, and building a fence to keep in a few cows and pigs and chooks, they were able to build a permanent town. Some stayed working the soil, but others were able to do other things, like be nurses and doctors and teachers and bakers and soldiers. When the backward tribes who were still hunter/gatherers tried to steal the food of the farmers, the well fed soldiers killed the malnourished hunter/gatherers. Soon all the hunter/gatherers were killed off, or took up agriculture themselves. The farmers were the dominant people of the world and they spread all over the world. So the smart thinkers dominated over the skilled hunter/gatherers.
Then five thousand years ago some smart person found that by smelting copper and tin you made bronze. This allowed new stronger weapons and farm implements. The villages who had bronze soon dominated over the ones who didn't, and it was the start of the bronze age. The villages who had bronze were the dominant people in the world. So the smart thinkers dominated over the not so smart.
Then three thousand years ago some smart person smeltered some iron ore and coal into iron. Iron was far greater than bronze. The smart won again.
Then someone invented paper and ink. They were able to store information a lot better. Skills were passed down better than ever before. The smart won this time too.
Then some bloke in Britain invented the steam engine and started the industrial revolution. Britain was the dominant world power for centuries. The smart won.
So for ten thousand years the smart thinkers have won. And it would have happened before then too. The apes who left the safety of the trees to find food on the African grasslands also won, as the ones who stayed in the trees stayed as apes, but out on the much more dangerous plains they evolved into humans.
The smart thinkers have always won. Until now.
Now the very smartest people in society have less kids. Some of the smartest woman in the world have no kids. Their genes are lost forever. And with welfare for all, and more money for more kids, any woman can have as many kids as they like, and all the biggest loser men are all so very happy to help out in the whole kid producing process.
the concept does go a long way towards explaining what is happening in many parts of the world (riots etc) - the have nots are falling further behind, but do not necessarily have the ability the pull themselves up into this new era of "thinking outside the box".
Everyone who thinks they are hard done by, want what the haves have. So the rioters in London took what wasn't theirs. People in Africa are starving and fighting because they are having too many kids. They can never have what we have.
I dunno. I'm thinking as an athiest farmer thinks. This has been a good thread, and I'm mainly just trying to keep it going.
See ya's.
