tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post1368818571022082928..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Solar Power at the Coal MuseumJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-35673365623006020802017-04-08T08:50:35.297-04:002017-04-08T08:50:35.297-04:00Eh... I dunno. I'm not really feeling much iro...Eh... I dunno. I'm not really feeling much irony myself.<br /><br />I mean, would you think it was ironic to visit a whaling museum that ran off power produced by natural gas instead of whale oil? I sure wouldn't.<br /><br />Technologies become obsolete. That's not strange - that's the most normal thing in existence. It wasn't strange when our country was transitioning from steamboats to railroads, and our present transition from fossil fuels to renewables isn't strange either.<br /><br />People just tend to view the past as something "other" and foreign, eternally distinct from the present - and thus we find it startling when history repeats itself in utterly predictable ways. People feel anxious about traditional industries drying up and disappearing, but people have been lamenting exactly that kind of change since civilization began. But all they ever achieve by yearning for the dying past is suffering and woe.<br /><br /><i>John Henry said to his Captain,<br />"A man ain't nothin' but a man,<br />But before I'll let your steam drill beat me down,<br />I'll die with the hammer in my hand</i><br /><br />And die he did. And for what, I wonder? Why, other than senseless stubborn pride, would a man kill himself to win a battle in a war that had already been lost?G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com