Diurnal and Nocturnal; Log-Blog #05; Friday, September 14, 2007

(blogging a blog in this blogosphere; or logging a log in this journalsphere)

Activities during yesterday carried over into the Friday area

Late yesterday, I started to work on the aesth-, esth- unit and as I was looking in a dictionary, I came across the word lagneuomania, meaning "A mental disorder characterized by lustful, sadistic, lewd, and lecherous actions" which led me into a similar topic of a -lagnia unit of the Greek-Latin element meaning, "lust, lustful, lecherous; salaciousness", etc.

The unit may not be a pleasant subject for some users; however, this is a dictionary and with such a significant number of words related to the topic, people have a right to know what they mean in as tasteful a process as possible.

After further research into the what is available in this Word Info dictionary, I came up with the following related "sex, sexism, sexual lust, sexual deviation" word-unit links: aphrodi-; -cest-; eroto-; lagneuo-; -lagnia; masochism; porno-; Sadism-; satyr-; sex-; sodom-; whore.

Much more work is required to complete the aesth-, esth- unit of "feeling, sensation" words and today I will be striving to complete as many of the words in this group as I can.

More information about H.G. Wells and his predictions

On Monday, of this week, I introduced an article from the September-October, 2007, issue of The Futurist titled: "Anticipations: The Remarkable Forecasts of H.G. Wells" by Paul Crabtree, pages 40-46. Today, I will be adding some more of H.G. Wells "forecasts".

"In 1901, H.G. Wells looked to the century ahead and predicted suburbia, flying machines, American superpower status, and moving sidewalks, but he had a few misses, too."

Today, Mr. Wells predictions about "social stratification"

In the third chapter, Mr Wells described the expected development of four recognizable but not totally distinct classes of people in twentieth-century society.
First, he anticipated that the continuing growth of a relatively wealthy part of society would be composed of non-managerial property owners and investors which he referred to as "irresponsible" wealth.
Secondly, in a very dystopian fashion, Mr Wells predicted that there would be an existence of a persistent underclass made up of the poor, the "uneducable", or those who would be unemployed as a result of technological changes.
This underclass was seen by Mr. Wells to be "heavily criminal, immoral, and parasitic on the rest of society."
A third social class was envisioned to be the only truly productive class, was expected to be made up of those individuals who would have the intellectual capacity and personal character suited to the needs of the scientific and technical age; that is, technicians, engineers, and scientific personnel, as well as certain professions; such as, doctors and soldiers.
His fourth class was expected to consist of those "non-productive but active men who are engaged in organization, promotion, advertisement, and trade."
He listed these active people as, "the business managers, public and private, the political organizers, brokers, commission-agents, the varying grades of financier, the gamblers pure and simple, and the great body of their clerks, typewriters, and assistants."

An analysis of H.G. Wells "social stratification" forecasts indicates that his viewpoints about minorities and human potentials were inaccurate

The four classes of society that Mr. Wells delineates; such as, the "irresponsible" wealthy, the poor underclass, the technicians and professionals, and the managers can indeed be said to exist today in the United States, as well as, in all of the other developed countries of the world.
The prediction became accurate in that Mr. Wells described these classes as not being totally distinct, but as blurring into one another.
He stated that none of the classes, except the technical and professional, would have any productive role in a scientific and technological society.
The contradictions in this view are seen in that it has been common for technical and professional people to have inherited wealth, be business managers, promoters, etc., and vise versa.
Despite his insistence that merit would eventually come to prevail over privilege in the modern world, he seems to have carelessly and tastelessly dismissed the potential of African, Asian, Irish, Jewish, and other ethnic groups who have made significant contributions to the advancements of modern societies.

Another chapter of predictions will be included in a future journal.