Nonplussed can actually mean either "so surprised I don't know how to react" or "unperturbed"

Sadly, I don't think many sister-rapers play the banjo anymore.  It's mostly hipsters now.

I thought this was the opposite of nihilistic.  Unless you think "Shane" was nihilistic?

I chisel everything into the concrete in my driveway.

But not everyone has it in them to be a great artist.  I could saw away at my violin all the live-long day, but I'm not going to ever be a virtuoso violinist and I hesitate to believe that my time is better spent fruitlessly playing the oboe than it is attending a concert.  Almost all art is social - and most…

I guess I don't see it as particularly odd or unique to our culture.  Since ancient times, there have been events (musical and otherwise) where communities come together to enjoy individuals' artistic accomplishments.  I guess that's why I wonder what you mean by "do something" or "passive".  Why isn't it enough to…

I guess I'm just curious.  Are you arguing against the passive consumption of art?  Or are you really suggesting that seeing another person, say, playing the violin, is only valuable if it inspires you to begin learning the harpsichord?

What do you mean by "do something"?

No, I'm saying that the term is a relic from the past, when it was important to differentiate between the "types" of slavery: the legal kind inflicted on black people (which was vast, systematic and societal) and the semi-legal/illegal variety that mostly involved trafficking in white women and children for sex (which…

It got that term in the 19th century to distinguish it from the legalized race-based variety used in places like the American south.  Abolitionists attacked standard slavery and then they and other reformers pointed out that human trafficking was also occurring in places where slavery was nominally illegal and was…

I don't think it renders democracy an illusion, but I think it's a bit obvious that person who get's money from a zillion small donors is less "owned" than a person who gets a few enormous donations?  If the big donors pulled out, the candidate would be tanked and thus is more likely to be controlled by them.

Yeah and the rich and powerful will always find a way to exploit the poor and powerless.  I'm not so sanguine about legal drugs though.  I mean China went to war to stop the legal sale of opium by the British partly because of how addiction was affecting them.

Graveyard of Empires.

You date seven year olds?

But I think that the problem is the eradication of drugs in the sense that they are not being eradicated in a manner that keeps the vulnerable population safe.  A program is ineffective if it fails to take into account the practical situation, which includes the culture.

Probably Athenians would be easiest as they wrote the most about themselves.  So much of what we have about the Spartans is based on what other people said about them with little internal input.  The Corinthians would probably work too.

I don't know.  Look at the ancient Greeks versus the Romans.  Did Greek women contribute less to the survival of the community than Roman women?

Except our belief that pre-agricultural society was egalitarian is pretty much made up and based on nothing.

Are you really arguing that all art (such as acting) is the same and that it's impossible to differentiate between a skilled and unskilled performance?

Jesus Fucking Christ
My understanding was that the "write what you know" theory of writing is fairly modern.  Plus, it's kind of bunk.  Plenty of authors have produced brilliant work by using their little ole' imaginations and common sense to write about stuff that they don't know first hand.  Not everyone has to be…