GameBanshee Forums

penguin_king wrote:mosquitos and i guess, shoot them in the face

.. with [url="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article5908535.ece"]lasers!![/url]

Weapons of Mosquito Destruction, hey? I heard Iraq had a few of those...

Don't we have lasers for bears and wolfs too?

fable wrote:Come to think of it, the Netherlands has one of the largest religious tv networks in Europe, perhaps #1. And as I recall, they got help getting it off the ground from some rich evangelist in the US. Though it's only returning the favor, since the fervent triumphalism of Dutch Baptists in the 17th century greatly influenced English Puritans, who in turn at least partially responsible for much of the religious intolerance and language now floating around, here.

Heh, sorry I didn't reply sooner. I was a bit bummed out after spending the entire evening interviewing people who were interested in renting my place here in Utrecht.

Fable, I've always thought of it as funny how quick you are to relate the Dutch to their history. I think in practice you'll find few cultures who are less aware of their own. For having been around for such a long time, we have no real sense of historical or cultural identity. Whatever cultural identity we have today has been stomped into us by the commercial industries with beer hats and soccer shirts. For example, as far as festivities go, you can't really tell the difference between our Queensday and a victory of the Dutch soccer team; the streets will look the same. Compared to a country as young as Norway where every girl who can afford to has and is proud to own their own hand sown national costume, I find that very interesting.

It wasn't just centuries of Christian dogma that took care of that lack of historical identity. Throughout all social classes, pillarisation divided the Netherlands into different religious section up until the late 50's. If you were brought up in a certain place, you were likely to be of a local religion, went to a specific church, got the TV magazine of your gnostic preference and got your meat slabs at the butcher that supported the local Christian organization that you (had to be) part of.

That this has never been all bad is because these early organisations and companies either distanciated from their slowly dissolving pillars over the years, or provided such an important service to society that we can only be thankful they were around all those years ago. The organizations and companies today that date back that far were all part of one Christian pillar or another. That's why I have no idea which television company you refer to, Fable. The majority of them were founded as Christian ones.

My favourite example of their lasting, pivotal function in society is a low-profile gay support organisation called De Kringen that was founded by the Protestant church after an investigation on suicides within certain religious circles. This organization doesn't go after popular gay rights or social issues, they just help individuals come to terms with themselves, their family and friends. Few people know how old the organization is, where its origins lie or how much more integral it has been than certain well known social/political movements.