GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

26-04-2003, 12:25 PM

On Friday, in article

"Torsten Brinch" wrote:

On Fri, 06 Dec 2002 20:56:37 +0000 (GMT),
("David G. Bell") wrote:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it.

The Times didn't need hindsight to see what would come after, so why
should the farmers.

You are looking back, and seeing the prediction, and judging its truth
by the use of hindsight.

What evidence was there in 1996 that the prediction printed in The Times
was a prediction of such a horrifying economic disaster as had occurred?

Who made the prediction? Who was the person? What other economic
predictions have they made, and how often have they been correct?

I don't think that anyone would have argued that 1996 wasn't an
exceptional year, and I suggest that the idiots are the people who did
things like buying land on the basis of 1996 farm incomes. Were those
of us who took the money, and replaced old machinery, and invested it in
our businesses, so foolish?

I feel absolutely ****ing stupid to be still in farming now, watching my
assets bleed away to feed an uncaring population of beer-swilling,
ignorant, couch potatoes. I see people like you, who see a certain,
predictable, and comfortable world, and I want to tell you to get off
your fat arse and grow your own bloody food, instead of bitching about
complaints from the people you pauperise to keep yourself in your
bloated, overheated, soap-watching, comfort.

But you're only worth six feet of English soil, and as much more as you
may be taller than other men.

--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

"Let me get this straight. You're the KGB's core AI, but you're afraid
of a copyright infringement lawsuit over your translator semiotics?"
From "Lobsters" by Charles Stross.