How good is Norway's treatment of their mentally ill?

There is a bit of a question here though. Sort of relates to society. I have a feeling that there's significantly less insane folks in Norway then there are the states.

The book introduces itself as a "Copernican overturning" operating as a paradigm shift involving the rejection of the Eurocentric view of history, especially the division of history into the linear "ancient-medieval-modern" rubric. According to Spengler, the meaningful units for history are not epochs but whole cultures which evolve as organisms. He recognizes eight high cultures: Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican (Mayan/Aztec), Classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian, Western or "European-American." Cultures have a lifespan of about a thousand years. The final stage of each culture is, in his word use, a 'civilization'.

Spengler also presents the idea of Muslims, Jews and Christians, as well as their Persian and Semitic forebears, being Magian; Mediterranean cultures of the antiquity such as Ancient Greece and Rome being Apollonian; and the modern Westerners being Faustian.

Apollonian Civilisation is focused around Ancient Greece and Rome. Spengler saw its world view as being characterised by appreciation for the beauty of the human body, and a preference for the local and the present moment.

Magian Civilisation includes the Jews from about 400BC, early Christians and various Arabian religions up to and including Islam. Its world feeling revolved around the concept of world as cavern, epitomised by the domed Mosque, and a preoccupation with essence. Spengler saw the development of this civilisation as being distorted by a too influential presence of older cultures, the initial vigorous expansionary impulses of Islam being in part a reaction against this.

Faustian Civilisation began in Western Europe around the 10th century and according to Spengler such has been its expansionary power that by the 20th century it was covering the entire earth, with only a few Regions where Islam provides an alternative world view. The world feeling of Faustian civilisation is inspired by the concept of infinitely wide and profound space, the yearning towards distance and infinity.

Spengler divides the concepts of culture and civilization, the former focused inward and growing, the latter outward and merely expanding. However, he sees Civilization as the destiny of every Culture. The transition is not a matter of choice—it is not the conscious will of individuals, classes, or peoples that decides. Whereas Cultures are "things-becoming", Civilizations are the "thing-become." As the conclusion of a Culture's arc of growth, Civilizations are outwardly focused, and in that sense artificial or insincere. Civilizations are what Cultures become when they are no longer creative and growing. For example, Spengler points to the Greeks and Romans, saying that the imaginative Greek culture declined into wholly practical Roman civilization.

Decline is also evidenced by a formlessness of political institutions within a state. As the "proper" form dissolves, increasingly authoritarian leaders arise, signaling decline. The first step toward formlessness Spengler designates Napoleonism. A new leader assumes powers and creates a new state-structure without reference to "self-evident" bases for governance. The new régime is thus accidental rather than traditional and experienced, and relies not on a trained minority but on the chance of an adequate successor. Spengler argues that those states with continuous traditions of governance have been immensely more successful than those that have rejected tradition. Spengler posits a two-century or more transitional period between two states of decline: Napoleonism and Caesarism. The formlessness introduced by the first contributes to the rise of the latter.

Spengler predicts that permanent mass-conscription armies will be replaced by smaller professional volunteer armies. Army sizes will drop from millions to hundreds of thousands. However, the professional armies will not be for deterrence, but for waging war. Spengler states that they will precipitate wars upon which whole continents—India, China, South Africa, Russia, Islam—will be staked. The great powers will dispose of smaller states, which will come to be viewed merely as means to an end. This period in Civilizational decline he labels the period of Contending States.

Caesarism is essentially the death of the spirit that originally animated a nation and its institutions. It is marked by a government which is formless irrespective of its de jure constitutional structure. The antique forms are dead, despite the careful maintenance of the institutions; those institutions now have no meaning or weight. The only aspect of governance is the personal power exercised by the Caesar. This marks the beginning of the Imperial Age.

Despite having fought wars for democracy and rights during the period of Contending States, the populace can no longer be moved to use those rights. People cease to take part in elections, and the most-qualified people remove themselves from the political process. This marks the end of great politics. Only private history, private politics, and private ambitions rule at this point. The wars are private wars, "more fearful than any State wars because they are formless". The imperial peace involves private renunciation of war on the part of the immense majority, but conversely requires submission to that minority which has not renounced war. The world peace that began in a wish for universal reconciliation ends in passivity in the face of misfortune, as long as it only affects one's neighbor. In personal politics the struggle becomes not for principles but for executive power. Even popular revolutions are no exception: the methods of governing are not significantly altered, the position of the governed remains the same, and the strong few determined to rule remain atop the rest of humanity.

Democracy and plutocracy are equivalent in Spengler's argument. The "tragic comedy of the world-improvers and freedom-teachers" is that they are simply assisting money to be more effective. The principles of equality, natural rights, universal suffrage, and freedom of the press are all disguises for class war (the bourgeois against the aristocracy). Freedom, to Spengler, is a negative concept, simply entailing the repudiation of any tradition. In reality, freedom of the press requires money, and entails ownership, thus serving money at the end.

If only there was a group of people that addressed disturbances when somebody called them

ohwait

Just go over there and put it in their pooper.

This is in Serious because I'm genuinely unsure of what to do

Quote from: Meta Cognition on December 12, 2014, 07:40:52 PM

Quote from: TrussingDoor on December 12, 2014, 07:37:18 PM

it's like you want to be sad

>not being an ubermensch
>not advocating the flourishing of higher men
>following a dirty pinko commie

it's like you want to human culture to die

>implying syndicalism is communism
>implying overmen are real
>implying higher men can bring me true freedom

fuk u netchie you dont even cheat on ur spouse

Quote from: Meta Cognition on December 12, 2014, 07:34:12 PM

Nietzsche > Camus.

Existentialism forever.

Take a seat

Quote from: Meta Cognition on December 12, 2014, 06:54:25 PM

Quote from: KletzenbrotEssen on December 12, 2014, 06:50:23 PM

Because that would mean the writer would of had to play it to get this much info.

Well if I was going to write a satire piece on God of War then I would need to know more about some guy becoming a god

We will not be discussing the criminal levels of violence so common in computer games today. We will not be discussing how the creators of Halo have taken this to a new level, preying on children’s insecurities to offer than an outlet through the scope of a futuristic rifle. We will save the news reports of mental neurosis, obesity, suicide and even murder associated with the gaming lifestyle for another time. These are simply matters of public record, issues that a moral society will either grapple with or not if we care in the least about projecting those uniquely American values of justice and human decency into the future.

No, today let us pull back the layers of secrecy to reveal what Halo, one of this nation’s most controversial video games, is teaching young people about God and socialist revolution. Never before have we encountered something so unquestionably dangerous as this noxious fantasy scene of simian jack bootery and salacious jezebels conspiring to deliriously manipulate our fragile, lost teens who, in their heart of hearts, may be simply yearning for a warm embrace and a reason to live. Indeed, the story that follows will not be a pretty one.

Plot: Egged on by a half-naked female handler named Cortana, a chemically-enhanced warrior fights against a theocratic alliance called “The Covenant” descended from the heavens. Master Chief joins gangs and employs an arsenal of implausible weapons to viciously wipe out all the ancestors of “the Ark” in an effort to cement the power of a global government called the UNSC.

Setting: Massive structures of fascist design dot dangerous Asiatic landscapes. The hyper-real graphics are drawn with jarring fluorescent colors. This future world is on the cusp of the ultimate judgment, reminiscent of Biblical End Times. There is no grey area here. You’re either lock step with Master Chief’s agenda of anarchy or you die.

Soundtrack: Heavy metal slasher rock at ear-piercing levels.

Influence: For over a decade, this has been the most popular game on the planet. It has spawned children’s books, comic series, costume festivals, television shows, fan videos, spin-off games and a type of animated pornography known as Machinera. Along the way, it has sold over 100 million copies and has made its creators billions of dollars.

One may ask why the story of Halo has never been told before. Could it be the enormous power that the entertainment industry wields over the public discourse? Could it be those billions of dollars that companies like Microsoft throw around Congress? Or could it be just one small cog in the grand scheme of things that international banking cartels use to sell us on the illusion of those frail dollars crumpled damply in our pockets?

A more immediate truth is that the game is extremely off-putting and complicated for adults. Its component “Xbox” shooting console is expensive. And even when one plays the game, it takes incredible effort to understand its larger meaning. Only those who become truly addicted to Halo discover its deepest, most hidden levels.

To get there, you traverse places with names like Blood Gulch, Valhalla, Tombstone and Warlock Wizards. You arm yourself with flamethrowers and plasma cannons, reticule booms and fusion cores. You join gangs of real-life players all across the world wide web and embark on quests to the screams of “Kill! Faster! Kill!” The scene is littered with the skulls of the dead, skulls that give you narcotic boosts of insane power as you tear the heads off your opponents and feast on their gory innards.

The woman Cortana hovers behind, whispering conspiracies in your ear. She uses her big-breasted flirtatiousness to trick you to take on suicidal missions. She may be little more than a cliché of the Cold War communist agent handling the “useful idiots” of the West, but she is extremely effective.

The more you play the game, the more dehumanized you become. You are simply a robot after all, a robot of bits and bytes manifested on a television screen. Compassion and love are cast aside. You have become a killing machine whose sole purpose in life is to crush religion into a bloody mound of puss and gristle for the sake of the End Times collective.

Is this truly the fate that awaits us? How can we so casually cast aside the wisdom of our Founding Fathers? They had a vision of freedom and faith that gave birth to the greatest nation this planet has ever known. Since the 1960s, we have seen our most sacred institutions destroyed in the name of “progress.” Radical sexuality, communism, drugs and inner city violence are the reprehensible results of liberalism’s assault on the primacy of patriotism and family values. Today let us consider how far these people will go to destroy those amongst us who cherish God’s plan for America and our inviolable responsibility to keep the world safe.

Halo is simply that first, furtive step on the long march to the American Armageddon. Yet if we educate ourselves and arm our homefronts with faith, there is always hope. You might even begin by giving your teen that warm, heartfelt hug he so desperately craves.

CHRISTIAN SYMBOLOGY OF HALO

Covenant: Represents the Evangelical Christians of America, those who hold sacred the Biblical covenant to live in harmony with the Gospels. They are depicted as monstrous and fanatical and children are forced to kill them.

Forerunners: These are the Gods who created the videogame. Employing deism to describe our Almighty is a backhanded way to insult the One True God of Christianity.

Halo: God’s Kingdom of Grace on earth that players try desperately to escape. What is outside this circle of saintly light? The answer is the emptiness of atheism and nihilism.

The Ark: In the Bible, Noah’s Ark is the protector of all forms of life yet here it means a star wars space satellite with the capacity to launch extinction. Without any doubt, this contradiction of imagery exposes the radical hatred of true American values in Halo.

Ontological Imperialism: Halo nags you to ponder the ultimate meaning of the game and thereby the ultimate meaning of your existence. In doing so, it is hijacking the traditional role of Christianity in a young person’s education. Sadly, the answer that Halo offers to this question is that you must live out your life in the here and now, destroying every remnant of the Christian faith and fomenting a New World Order in which everyone is godlike.

“God is dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” –Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science.

tbh i think these tend to be like horoscopes

they're designed to be agreeable so that everyone's at least satisfied, if not in total agreement

Your political views would probably leave you feeling most comfortable in the Galactic Empire. You think everything has its place in the universe, and the Empire is just the government needed to keep it all organized. You’re just looking for a simple, conservative life, and life is good under the Emperor. Why rock the boat?

Were you exposed to nuclear waste? I heard that they are doing some experiments with nukes by Arizona.