(no subject)

[johnstonmr]

All the following is written by Harlan Ellison, not me. It's from an Interview he did with DETAILS magazine.

All the right-wingers keep screaming about how much liberal disposition there is on TV and radio and movies, which is bullshit. There's very little extremely liberal thinking done in any of these mediums. Christians constantly complain that someone is doing an anti-Christian thing. But nobody is allowed to say, "Hey, atheism might not be a bad idea." Freedom from religion is also guaranteed by the Constitution, not constantly having to listen to this crap and having our political agenda dictated by people who believe that people walked on water.

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There's nothing inherently wrong with technology, including electronic communication. But when you are able to get your rocks off immediately -- if someone pisses you off, and you just bam off e-mail -- you are indulging the worst aspect of the human psyche. It allows you to shoot your mouth off before you think. When I write a letter that's really angry, sometimes I let it sit for a day or two. When I get back to it, if I still feel that anger, I know it's okay to send it. It's important to remember that the Internet is not human communication, it's a simulacrum of human communication. When you have a colon and a parenthesis to show you're doing a smiley face -- this is interactive? Give me a break. This is dehumanizing.

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Q: There's a flat, grooved disk of gold in space right now, stuck to the side of Voyager , hurtling toward distant star systems with recordings of the laughter of children and music from different countries, a depiction of the carbon atom, and a map of the solar system. If you could send your own selection of information, what would you send?

A: I would send a self-activating hologram that would show a naked man, woman, and child walking toward you, with their hands open and extended, showing that they mean no harm, and that they are hiding nothing, and that we welcome congress with some other species. On the other hand, if I really gave a shit, I would figure out a universal warning that said Stay away from this planet, because these people are out of their goddamn minds!