It's Late, I'm Ranting.

[killbill]

At times it is scary how thin the veil of civilization is over society. It doesn't take much to reduce us to savagry. Do you think the things that arise from the convinience of civilization are a natural part of, hey wait, how do we define what we "should" do? hmm. okay maybe thats the root of our morality qualms and the systems that arise as a result of them. (religion) We are scared byu the idea of limitless possibilty so we place limits on ourselves, thats not to say murder isnt wrong, but the question of ethics is moot if you live in a society where people respect each other. Disrespect arises as a result of a combination of greed and prejudice. Makes me think about the current MTV generation, It seems that TV is the biggest tool in steering us away from whats really important in life, whatever happened to communities, we know celebrities better than our neibors these days. is it any wonder that consummersim is empty?, joy is sharing. thats why cynisism is so rampant and that is a viscous cycle. The problem is the widening gap between 1st and 3rd world countries, does no one care anymore? shouldnt efforts to bring aid to others be on the front page evryday? but alas human nature subconsiosly recognizes the need for competition and as a result is thrilled by the failures of others. And of course our morality leads us to pbelieve that those people are not as well off because they are somehow less deserving than us. So when it comes down to it every morality system is just a way of justifying why you deserve to live in luxery why everyone else gets screwed. please argue with me i relish it. read Brave New World. you won't regret it. anyway. drugs in our society serve a purpose and the government knows it. the problem is that the goverment has taken the puritan stand on drugs for so long that now they cant back down. i think that believing in any morality that is INDEPENDANT OF SITUATION is wrong. And who came up witht he impartial jury? does it make sense to have a panel of people who cant, at a fundamental level, understand the case because they have no similar expirience? It would seem that sugar is the opiate of the masses, it causes more laziness and cynisism. What i really dont understand is rich people. Once you have enough money to live the rest of your life comfortably and provide for any children, why work? the answer is power and i cant relate because i dont desire power, okay maybe i have silly fantasies about being some powerful dignitary just like evryone else but i dont REALLY want that kind of responsibility. Why do people crave to control others lives? what satisfaction does it bring? i really dont understand. especially since ive beem in positions of power before and seen how much people who are being lead behave like sheep. its like independant thought are not good....oh i guess that was an evolutionary advantage because loners dont survive very long but groups do. its fascinating to find out how much of our behavior stems from evolution. read The Moral Animal. very good book. but what decides who will be a leader and who wont? genes? and where are the evolutionary advantages of low self esteem? of depression? laughter?remorse? it would seem that our society has created an artificial environment in which our pathos can be acted out in every concievable permutation. But what has this environment produced? obese people serial killers dictators, yes men anger anger anger. and thats antother thing. The easier society makes our lives the less things of value we produce, all the greatest artists and geniuses and inventors were born of hard times. why is this? why does the human spirit blossom ever more powerfully the more you try to destroy it? it gives us a glimpse of what we could be possible of if we broke out of cycles of anger and power. what is the biggest representation of power? money. but thats anothor rant. and no Im not high right now. its a lot more fun to do the things you aren't good at. I think that i could get rich doing something i have a real knack for. but its so boring. Its like, sometimes its fun to eat things you dont like. you know? watch a show called FLCL it will change you... I dont think people realize how out of control the garbage situation is getting. we have too much, but that raises another point, we aren't really running out of room, A mind blowing example:
Texas is about
250,000 square miles
thats about
6,969,600,000,000square feet.
there are about
6,400,000,000 people on the planet
thats
1089 square feet for EACH PERSON just in the state of texas if everyone lived there.
the problem is the sheer inefficiency of our world. Products being shipped all over the place 24/7 there is uncountable rescources being wasted on stuff YOU DONT NEED. that shop locally stuff is more important than we thought. if everyone in the world tried to get by with less stuff that has to be shipped from somewhere else. well.... everyone should live the frugal life for a little while (as long as you can stand it) and see how it changes your ideas of what you NEED. there is a difference between thinking and Knowing. (as morpheus said) that is another problem. Things aren't real to us anymore, i watched an autopsy and i knew it was a dead body lying there but i couldnt get myself to believe it. Like really deep down we don't really believe the news, its not happening to us and so its just entertainment. If you think people watch the news to stay informed of whats going on in the world just look at the crappy ratings on those political channels like C-Span. we want happy meal on the go exciting in your face with commercials on the side news. its despicable how sex is taboo yet deplorable violence is shown to children. more puritan crap. The Christians keep ruining it for everybody. And you know what? their "purity" has produced the worst sexual predation, abomination and deviants in history. Look at the Japanese, their sexuality is repressed and it winds up coming out in wierd ways. I apologize if people are being shocked or offended by this. Word to the Wise, we hold innocence so dear precisely because of its total vulnerability. Seriously, Read Brave New World. I watched Pulp Fiction again and the Speech by samuel L. Jackson at the end really got to me. "I realized something today. Your the weak, and I'm The tyranny of Evil Men. But I'm trying real hard to be the shepard" I really try, and i really want to believe there is something more to life than this. I want to be a good person. But it is hard to be good in a world where the worst people are the richest and most powerfull. does power corrupt? no it is slightly different, power attracts the corruptible.

Somewhere, the wind is blowing.

[Bon]

Heh, I don't know if I have the time to discuss/debate this right now. But, you raise some interesting points I feel.

Couple of things for you:

Re: consumerism, go and read some of Bruce Dawe's poems... extremely cynical, bitter, amusing, shocking, real. From the top of my head: Enter so much without knocking, Televistas, Americanized. Can't recall anymore unfortunately.

I don't think honesty with everyone will get you too far these days. It's human nature to be at the top or dominate, at least make sure they don't feel inferior. So, they compete. Your honesty will soon be taken advantage of someone not so honest, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Not to say don't be honest to the people who are sincere, but don't be honest to the people you know for sure aren't sincere. You will get walked over time and time again.

Look at other animals, why is it not looked down on when they fight or struggle to be the dominant one? Why are we so much better than other animals? Sure, we have a conscience and an imagination that sets us apart from other animals, but we still do very much what our instincts tell us to do. You said morals are just a way of justifying the way we act, so what gives?

I don't see why wanting money is such a bad thing, it's just a medium of exchange, otherwise we would have to rely on the barter system of a double coincidence of wants - we have to hope that the person we want something off wants what we have. Money is just an accepted exchange medium which holds value and power so we can get food, water, shelter, etc. then after that we seek out more things. It's pretty much an accepted fact that we will never be happy with what we have, we will always want more, demands are said to be unlimited and economies are supposedly set up to satisfy as many demands as possible while moving their productivity frontier production outwards and/or operating as it's maximum level. Working at the maximum levels means no resources being invested to move it outwards, not working at maximum levels means resources can/are being invested to move it outwards.

[Marku]

guys u write too much. lol but i get the idea of what ur saying. If human kind doesnt sort itself out we will get ourselves wiped out or end up something like from the matrix. lol.

personaly i dont like money, it just encourages greed/corruption. If sumone came up with a better system i could see the world becoming a better place for all. Doing things we want to do and not just for money.

[timmeh!]

Prior to the second world war the Nazi's were looking for a drug that would placate a 'prone to revolution' populace, but keep them willing employees who work hard. The Nazi's came up with the prototype of what is now called valium and then morphed into prozac and other opiate based drugs later on. After the second world war the Russians carried on the search. There's shocking figures of the number of people addicted to prescription opiate based drugs in first world countries - good news for the pharmaceutical companies! Why make marijuana illegal? because it's a weed, it grows freely, costs next to nothing to get a decent crop, needs no pesticides, and strangely enough costs very little to distil it into a variety of drugs that do the same thing as what the pharmaceutucal companies sell at extortionate rates for the substitutes.

The irony is the Americans came up with the best drug possible - as Killbill mentioned it's TV. TV has all the mental effects of heroin. Tunnel vision, a calm mind, nothing worries you while your on it, it drops the heart rate. Then there's the effects you get when not watching it, there's a real addiction there for a lot of people.

If your interested in the history of how we arrived here, Howard Marks books are a good place to start.

If you really want to go 'way out and crazy' and see what's really going on in your community or town or city/district, or planet - watch as little TV as possible. It'll be the next revolution in our lifetime - the non-tv watchers....

The effects for commerce and consumerism will be catastrophic

[Kwajman]

I didn't have a TV until I was 14 and it really was very enlightening. I remember very clearly the first show I saw, the original Star Trek. I knew right off TV wasn't something I had to have in my life. About the only thing I watch now is some sports, the History Channel, and a few drama's. I get more done in a weekend than most people get done in a month. Of course, now I'm addicted to MAP.

[killbill]

It is all so scary and sad. I wrote that stuff pretty late and I get all psudo-philossphocal. I don't claim to know what I'm talking about. the first step towards wisdom is to accept that you know nothing. I try to avoid religion because it elicits such a knee-jerk response from people and you can't argue logically or rationally with them. What saddens me is the way people subconsiously use ignorance to protect themselves from the weight of the world. Some things I don't get: When having an argument, why do people find it nessecary to take your examples out of context so they can turn them on you? it proves nothing. Why do people have such a hard time with metacognition, i swear this is why addiction and religion are so out of control in our society. why do people prefer polar opposites to compromise?, in the words of the great Bill Watterson "A good compromise leaves everybody mad" an example is the bi-partisan system. What is up witht he people who dont "get" art? I meet these people all the time, they dont like painting, sculpture, poetry, books, the only thing close is the music they listen to. And I apologize but a lot of music is very shallow these days. You can just feel the difference between a song with a real message and "slap the bitch after i git high" by puff dog. And why do they sterilize the lethal injection needle? Anyway. I like Nietzsche and Descartes and All the Greek guys. Anyone read any thoeretical physics? Some mind blowing stuff about reality. Of course you can say that that is just our perception of reality and has no bearing on us but i disagree. I probably shouldn't have the TV on all the time, it really is mind numbing, i mostly watch anime and the history channel. Do you think it matters whether or not we live in the "real" real world? I mean its been proven how maleable memory is and how two people might see the same situation differently.
And Im Spent

[killbill]

God smote me so many times that i've built up a tolerance