I have never before written on 9/11 and the events, “investigation” and circumstances surrounding this horrible tragedy. I have read hundreds of reports, articles and investigations regarding the evidence on 9/11 and the resulting coverup. That there was a coverup is without any question. That there is a tremendous number of coincidences beyond statistical improbability, planted and faked evidence, outright lies and fabrications is also without question. Continue reading »
I don’t “do” Christmas, which is one reason why you’ll find me online on this “holiday”. I don’t do any holiday to be exact. I’ve never equated the gods of consumerism and consumption (which is what occurs on every holiday) as being a part of my worldview. I personally find the herd mentality of Christmas, Easter, the 4th of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving rather ridiculous.
Let’s see, on “this” day (which strangely slides about sometimes according to convenience), we are “supposed” to celebrate something. What was it, exactly? The birth of Christ? The Resurrection? Our nations “independence”? However, on close inspection on any of these alleged “holidays”, guess what I find? Something else other then what I am supposed to know apparently.
On this particular holiday, Christ was most certainly not born. In fact, almost nothing about this day is provably true. But the consumer corporations would have you ignorant if they can help it. They started reminding us back in September as I recall, with pre-season “sales” on crap they were trying to unload on gullible people who should know better. You could always do like some people have started doing, they start getting in debt in July, or maybe even in January, taking advantage of the year end clearance and “after Xmas sales” to buy crap for the next celebration of lies and gluttony.
I didn’t want to ruin this for any of you, so I decided to wait. After all, it is your money and your debt. You make the bed you sleep in as they say. So enjoy it. Think of this as my stocking stuffer. A trite reminder of the endless gobbling up on the earth’s resources as represented by cut-down trees, gaudy baubles and trinkets, emblazoned with colorful lights and useless consumer junk piled around the base. Go ahead and over-stuff yourself on Christmas turkey or ham, swilled booze and arguments with your bleary-eyed inlaws. Enjoy it all – while it last.
Yes, I pretty much despise the herd mentality and general acceptance of holidays, does it show? Because I believe deep down inside that we really are all better then this. Why do we fall for these consumer scams, year after year, instead of simply boycotting them and denouncing them for what they really are?
The corporations are desperate to get you to buy, anything and everything that they produce. They insist that “consumer demand” requires it, when the truth is exactly the opposite. They are force feeding the people beyond their normal capacity to consume with abandon. This is the season of mass delusion and media manipulation, a season for corpulent consumption of constant constipation. You’re consuming too much. Wake up and smell the outhouse.
And this happens like regular clockwork around the calender. Xmas, Valentines, Easter, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Halloween, Veterans Day. Over and over again with eyes glazed asunder and pocketbooks in hand, the herd marches to the corporate drumbeat of “buy, buy, buy”. It is after all, on sale. What better time to “save” money.
How people can keep falling for this lie of “saving money” by spending it speaks volumes of their awareness of their plight. You are slaves people, destined to fatten yourselves at the corporate trough, and at expense of everyone and everything else including the planet you are rapidly destroying. You’re trudging in ever deepening circles, around the calendar of consumption and media manipulation, destined to lives of hardened arteries, consumer debt and callous indifference.
Does it matter? Damned right it does. While Americans are lying in their bloated stupor, the shock of their excesses and indifference hasn’t yet taken hold. Somewhere between that third helping of Christmas turkey and the pumpkin pie another twelve year old victim of the bogus “war on terror” dies. And during the night of inebriated semi-comatose sleep, another American bomb drops, destroying yet another family and another dream and an entire future.
Perhaps you’re dreams don’t include such things, but mine do. I dream of roadblocks and checkpoints, bombs and raids, gunfire and screaming people – in America. As the Bush Bootprint comes closer and closer here in America, my dreams are increasingly troubled by the gnawing knowledge that this is indeed, the goal of the global juggernaught. To destroy what really IS America, or what’s left of it.
But don’t let the ghost of Christmas excuse you from helping yourself to another helping of turkey. There’s always tomorrow to get righteously and belatedly indignant, right? Keep telling yourself that as you struggle to balance your checkbook and the bills come due and the crap you bought already lies broken (before New Years).
We’re better then this. I’m certain of it. We’re not consumers, we’re people and we don’t have to participate in this global scam of corporate consumption and consumer manipulation. Not yet. Not until Bush decrees it and issues an executive order and “renditions” the terrorist who decry the Christmas scam for what it really is. Or bombs the hell out of anyone who dares objects.
Here’s what I’d like to see. If you suddenly find your conscience, tomorrow morning when you unwrap your presents do this: Carefully set aside your gifts unopened and unused. Wait a few days for the crazed crowds to die down during the after Christmas sales and return everything. Take that money and respectfully give it back to the person who bought you that gift. Tell them to pay off their credit card debts (or any other debts that they have) and stop being a part of the consumer cycle. Explain to them why. Forswear all future participation in being a manipulated consumer (not just on holidays, but every day). Teach someone else why you did this (preferably on Christmas morning).
See? It isn’t enough to just complain, but put this into practice. Start making a difference today. Starting with you.
I don’t think this topic has been adequately covered – and is of course subject to change as circumstances dictate and personal needs.
The issue of pre-collapse strategy is a difficult one, probably more so then either collapse or post-collapse strategy because under either of the latter two conditions – you’re not subject to the least amount of doubt regarding your present circumstances. You will be living this (if you survive) and you will have no doubts at all regarding what needs to be done.
Right now, little is being done by very few regarding pre-collapse strategy. Oh, there is a lot of talk, but not a lot of action. The problem stems from belief, faith and lack of knowledge (which are all really the same thing).
The present faith in the system is the only thing that has kept it propped up. A great deal of expenditure is being injected into the present system to keep this faith afloat. This only works because the people in general are exceedingly uninformed (and deliberately being kept that way). They believe what they are told, irregardless of facts. Facts are not interesting to them, football and beer are (among a million other distractions).
This is no accident and is often referred to as “bread and circuses”. Of course, keep the sheeple entertained as long as possible. Ceaser did the same thing – and it worked. For a while. But the Empire is a much bigger kingdom now and there are oh so many wonderful distractions going on.
But it won’t last forever. There is a window of opportunity that is not being efficiently utilized. This is caused by a lack of knowledge.
On the one hand, we have the widely held belief that things really won’t get “that bad”. On the other hand, we have the knowledge that they indeed could, have before and very probably will again.
Which would you rather chose? Belief or knowledge?
But getting this across to cognitive human beings is not easy. If they’re sober, especially at this time of the year, the land of good and plenty is a thought that never ends. But what happens when the candy is gone?
Because so many people subscribe to belief and not knowledge, they are dooming their own selves. And everyone around them. It cannot possibly be any other way. They are neither helping themselves or going to be a help to anyone else. This is a fatal characteristic that is also not being recognized.
They will be as dead weight is in a balloon that is trying to get aloft. Excessive baggage, dragging down on everyone around them. They are not paying any attention to the warning signs, not doing anything about it and not even showing the slightest bit of care and concern for their own future welfare. The land of good and plenty will never end. History means nothing to them and present facts and developing circumstances are meaningless.
They live in a land of fantasy, fatted calves who will be truly led to the slaughter. Theirs is a world of faith and belief, the “substance of things yet hope for and not seen”. Yet this faith is based upon what, exactly? Their hope is what, exactly?
Misconception. False indoctrination. Unfounded trust. Manipulated news. Irresponsible behavior. Worldwide resource depletion. Infinite resources. Technological “fix”. And on and on.
To the “faithful”, their ignorance is not a problem (for them). This is part of their “belief”. Our “fear mongering” is however, a problem. They don’t like it. So I suggest we “leave them to their delusions” as they are neither a help and will only be a hindrance to those who no longer have the same magazine subscriptions.
The rest of us, the very few, have to start making Pre-Collapse Plans and Strategies. We know that if we do not help ourselves and make our own preparations, then we will wind up like everyone else. Victims of whatever circumstances that occur.
We know that these circumstances can be horrific, vicious and very, very deadly. We’ve already seen the factual evidence and don’t need any further confirmation. We’ve seen the victims, read the stories and have even witnessed first hand what it means to be suddenly on your own, with nothing but your wits, skills and ability to keep you alive in the face of overwhelming adversity.
But we are not interested in waiting for a global Katrina like disaster to come our way, not before developing our pre-collapse planning and strategy.
So, what does this entail? In actuality, it’s a big list encompassing who, what, where, when and how. The “why” is already understood.
(this discussion is posted on the Sustainable Living & Common Sense board. Registration required).
Decades of study have demonstrated that the Biblical Apocalypse is a fabrication of the modern myth makers. But humankind doesn’t need ancient text to fortell the coming apocalypse. It’s already here. Worldwide indicators are now revealing the plight of the human race.
Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century. This is not the doom-laden talk of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading scientists from 95 countries who will today publish a detailed assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new millennium.
15 of the 24 ecosystems vital for life on earth have been seriously degraded or used unsustainably. In 40 years, the population doubled from 3 billion to 6 billion. This exactly corresponds with the abundance and exploitation of cheap energy, massive crop production and global distribution systems.
“The bottom line of this assessment is that we are spending earth’s natural capital, putting such strain on the natural functions of earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted,”
Yet that is exactly what is happening throughout the developed world. No seriously dedicated effort to reducing the human impact and population levels (outside of China) is being considered or implemented.
Slow degradation is one thing but sudden and irreversible decline is another. The report identifies half a dozen potential “tipping points” that could abruptly change things for the worse, with little hope of recovery on a human timescale.
“Human timescale” means extinction of the human race. These tipping points are New Diseases, Alien Species, Algal Blooms, Coral Reef Collapse, Fishing Stocks, Climate Change.
“But the assessment shows that over the next 50 years, the risk is not of some global environmental collapse, but rather a risk of many local and regional collapses in particular ecosystem services. We already see those collapses occurring – fisheries stocks collapsing, dead zones in the sea, land degradation undermining crop production, species extinctions,”
Now, mix in the loss of cheap petroleum energy, you know, that black gold that made the world’s economy increase by a factor of six. Still think you’re going to survive this?
There is plenty of evidence of “population decline” in developing countries. Economists are concerned, since any slowdown of the economy is considered a bad thing. ZERO consideration is given to the fact that the energy that is required to sustain these populations and feed them is being rapidly depleted. Nor does the massive degradation and exploitation of the environment seem to matter. For the economist, it’s just a number “game” – they do not take the population sustainability or environmental degradation question seriously.
There is a serious and fatal flaw with this viewpoint, because economic growth is based on the principle of unlimited resources, which must be extracted, refined, processed, packaged and distributed by dwindling supplies cheap energy, which itself must be extracted, refined, processed, packaged and distrubuted – all in support of the global billions of humans now on planet earth, who in turn demand even more extraction, refined, processed, packaged and distributed products, goods and services. It’s an endless loop in a world of finite resources and only possible because of cheap petroleum.
It is already evident that economists are driving the world to complete ruin. But so are non-economists, globalist, capitalist, mega-corporations and small businesses. Everyone is guilty, everyone is responsible. If you’re a consumer (who isn’t?) then you’re a part of the problem. But nothing of significance is being done about it as we edge closer and closer to the abyss.
Precious time is being wasted, time which is utterly unrecoverable. If you’re waiting for someone else to save you, forget it. It’s not going to happen. You are nothing more then an economic unit of profit to the money changers who have glazed eyes fixed upon the “bottom line” and you’re about to be short-changed. The only survivors that are going to exist in a world of depleted resources are going to be those that are very, very lucky – and those that helped themselves, now, while there is still a moment of time left to do so.
Stopping this man-made apocalypse isn’t even an option. Surviving it is. What are YOU going to do about it?
State Population Estimates in 2005 [emphasis mine]
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 22, 2005; 6:06 AM
Population estimates in 2005 and percent change from 2004 in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the entire United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau:
State 2005 Population Percent Change
Ala. 4,557,808 0.7
Alaska 663,661 0.9
Ariz. 5,939,292 3.5
Ark. 2,779,154 1.1
Calif. 36,132,147 0.8
Colo. 4,665,177 1.4
Conn. 3,510,297 0.3
Del. 843,524 1.6
D.C. 550,521 -0.7
Fla. 17,789,864 2.3
Ga. 9,072,576 1.7
Hawaii 1,275,194 1.0
Idaho 1,429,096 2.4
Ill. 12,763,371 0.4
Ind. 6,271,973 0.7
Iowa 2,966,334 0.5
Kan. 2,744,687 0.4
Ky. 4,173,405 0.8
La. 4,523,628 0.4
Maine 1,321,505 0.5
Md. 5,600,388 0.7
Mass. 6,398,743 -0.1
Mich. 10,120,860 0.2
Minn. 5,132,799 0.7
Miss. 2,921,088 0.7
Mo. 5,800,310 0.7
Mont. 935,670 0.9
Neb. 1,758,787 0.6
Nev. 2,414,807 3.5
N.H. 1,309,940 0.8
N.J. 8,717,925 0.4
N.M. 1,928,384 1.3
N.Y. 19,254,630 -0.1
N.C. 8,683,242 1.7
N.D. 636,677 0.1
Ohio 11,464,042 0.1
Okla. 3,547,884 0.7
Ore. 3,641,056 1.4
Pa. 12,429,616 0.3
R.I. 1,076,189 -0.3
S.C. 4,255,083 1.4
S.D. 775,933 0.7
Tenn. 5,962,959 1.2
Texas 22,859,968 1.7
Utah 2,469,585 2.0
Vt. 623,050 0.3
Va. 7,567,465 1.2
Wash. 6,287,759 1.3
W.Va. 1,816,856 0.2
Wis. 5,536,201 0.6
Wyo. 509,294 0.7
Nation 296,410,404 0.9Source: U.S. Census Bureau
I figure the huge jumps in California and Texas are due to border crossings (those that they counted).
Low population density states, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska represent large geographical areas and very low population ratios.
There are a few other low population states, but they are much smaller geographically and surrounded by much higher population density states.
Something not so obvious, the total is 296,410,404 counted persons, which is off by a guestimate factor of 20% or more. There is NO WAY that 300 million counted persons can be fed post crash. And this only represents the United States. What about Mexico with it’s teeming millions? Canada?
I suggest that you think on this factual number long and hard. Our devestated environment cannot possibly support this number of people without petroleum. Not even close. Maybe 3 – 10 million. Maybe.
Die off. Soon to be a fact of life. Starvation. Rioting. War. Pillage. Plunder. Population overshoot. It’s a fact.
Natural selection is about to make itself known. It’s called survival of the fittest, meanest, baddest and most ruthless. If you’re not making preparations, I suggest you do.
I have been having one those highly interesting and evolving conversation online with Steve Welch, of Complex Systems Research, Inc. Steve works for Phil Zimmermann (inventor of Pretty Good Privacy). Steve has been very helpful regarding some questions I had.
Steve’s real boss (in his own words), is Dr. Penelope Boston. She’s a microbiologist at New Mexico Tech, whom Steve assists with Mars-related research.
Steve got a chance to view the blog / bulletin board and our conversation briefly covered a few of the topics. What I really hope to share with this blog post is Steve’s final comments, but I suggest you read the whole thing, since Steve is one of the very bright people in the world and it’s a pleasure to listen.
In My Not So Humble Opinion, your Board Introduction monologue doesn’t seem to be reflected in the board postings that I saw. You talk about being different from the survivalist BB’s, and I guess you are, but the basic premise you espouse seems to be that the end of civilization is coming. Soon. Period.
That is, you are not saying that “the end of civilization is probably coming, and here’s what we have to do to stop it from coming”. I guess there is some of: “The end of civilization is coming and here’s what we have to do to survive and rebuild”, but this contradicts your Board Introduction, doesn’t it?).
Your comments on the bulletin board are appreciated. The focus seems to get lost in the domain name and the board’s intention. The introduction was an attempt to get people thinking on the bigger picture (as I recall, haven’t looked at it in a while) [Note: I’ve since taken a close look at the board intro and it’s actually right on target imo, but I am intimately familiar with the board and perhaps this is not so evident to someone else]. Like anything, the personalities involved tend to create “migration”. I actively discourage “survival” talk by the way, plenty of other places to do that.
No, we’re not survivalists in the classic sense, although I am quite versed in this. I loathe the lifestyle to be honest, it’s hopeless, depressing and ugly.
But what do you do when you’re civilization is collapsing? You adapt… or you die.
The Good Doctor Boston and I have been dealing with even further out comments since the late seventies when she and I were two of the co- founders of The Case for Mars.
I am not familiar with this. Is this Terra-forming or human habitation? I suppose we could always go wreck something else. 🙂
We (Case for Mars) got started because we were interested in Terra-forming as a scientific problem, and the Viking findings gave us hope. That is, it turns out that Mars might be a possible candidate for Terra-forming. Once we started looking at that problem in the fresh light of the Viking Lander findings, we diverted most of our efforts into manned scientific exploration/habitation, since as you say, if we are going to wreck someplace else, we better study it before we do. We put on five or six international conferences in the eighties and early nineties (not bad for a bunch of rabble rousing graduate students, if I don’t say so myself), and I think we were largely responsible for getting NASA to turn its eye back toward human space exploration beyond low earth orbit. Not to dismiss your snide remark there–all our conferences had ethics tracks and we always tried to involve people who had well reasoned arguments against Terra-forming and even those who were against manned planetary exploration on the grounds of planetary quarantine issues.
You will have gathered that I’m not a big fan of our present civilization. Oh, I enjoy the toys like anyone, but civilization is very destructive (on all counts). I truly enjoyed my college course in astronomy (hey, I got an “A”) and like science, but there seems to be a very big gap between the application of science and technological advancements and how we treat each other and the planet that we live on.
No argument here from me. As you will see, I’m pretty ambivalent about the human race, myself…
Anyway, this all seems pretty negative and depressing to me, in spite of your Board Introduction protests to the contrary that you want to be an antidote or a relief from the negative and depressing survivalist web sites you have seen. You doth protest too much?
It is indeed hard to discover that mankind has pretty much screwed the pooch and not be negative about it. A dose of reality is difficult to digest.
I have tried to just “forget about it” all, but it doesn’t work. You have to go back to pretending it isn’t happening, which is what most people are doing, but that’s their choice. For me, it’s hypocritical to do that.
Well, I certainly don’t deny I am a hypocrite. Sometimes that’s the only way I can handle reality.
It’s also “hopeless” when you know the end of the “state of denial” that is ever-present in the world. I’m persuaded that the future isn’t what everyone thinks it is, hopes it is and pretends it is – and only by acceptance and acknowledgment of that “fact”, can we hope to have any input in how it all turns out.
I simply refuse to be a bump on a log in the flotsam of life, drifting downstream without my active participation. But I limit (indeed) what I’m willing to participate in. Not all things are edifying, worthwhile and truly productive. Most things aren’t. Nor are they sustainable. They require the exploiting of humans, resources and all things in-between.
For myself, in recent years, I’ve become an incredible Pollyanna when it comes to the end of civilization. Or maybe in my less lucid moments, “Candide” about this subject (“Candide: or Optimism”, a play by the French philosopher Voltaire in the mid seventeen hundreds. Maybe a bit obscure reference, but Leonard Burnstein made a musical Broadway show of this in the sixties that I just love.) As Professor Pangloss said, “it is simply the best of all possible worlds!”. After all, this is a world where the cold war and the Mutual Assured Madness, err Destruction inevitable end of civilization was prevented by a moron former actor who ramped up the arms race to such an extent that it bankrupted and destroyed the Soviet Union and ultimately eliminated it as an enemy. Saved by a side effect of a bad idea, that is.
I’m not saying that the end of civilization won’t come, mind you, I’m just saying that we’ve *accidentally* overcome much more dangerous threats than running out of oil, seems to me. Rather than accept the inevitability of collapse, Phil Zimmermann and a lot of people like him have chosen to fight against it and speak out. I chose to help Phil, myself, as an “amplifier” of my effort. It seems like the best use of my effort. Or at least the best I can come up with.
This is true. But humankind never had to deal with the massive population overshoot we have today, and the loss of cheap energy, and the changing climate, and the interconnectedness of a modern “dependent” society, and the collapsing ecosystem, and the changing thermohaline, and the species destruction, and the global pollution and on and on.
Again, no argument here. However, in human history, we have locally exceeded the carrying capacity of our planet, and have maintained our exponential growth by expanding our territory. I have a vague and poorly thought out hope (can’t claim it is a theory or even a thought…) that once we start expanding out into space, that expansion urge will be somehow satisfied, and the inhabitants of this planet will come to a peaceful compromise and start living within this planet’s capacity to sustain.
Needless to say, “we’ve never been here before” (thankfully) and hopefully, it won’t happen again. But we just might not survive it like we think. It’s a house of dominoes, or better put, a house of cards, a stiff breeze will blow it all down rather easily. And we keep building it higher and higher, refusing to acknowledge some very simple facts. Man is a product of his environment, the one that man keeps destroying as fast as he can. When his environment fails, what happens to man?
I am not familiar with what Phil or others are saying regarding speaking out, so cannot even comment.
We’ll come back to this in a future conversation.
I’m not a fan of our present civilization, not because I’m a Luddite (I’m not) or because I simply hate “x” (take your pick), but because it’s fundamentally flawed at it’s very core. Living like a virus, consuming all available resources is just plain stupid. Humans overwhelm everything in their path and then move on. For how long? We’re fast finding out.
Being involved in the space program, I can only imagine how the scientist and researchers envision our techno-future. I’m a fan of sci-fi by the way and have read a great many of the better ones (Heinlein, Assimov, Bear, etc.). I do not know if it is man’s destiny to reach the stars, but I seriously doubt he is conscientious enough to do so. He’s pretty much mucked up the planet he lives on now and he’ll take that voracious appetite with him into space. What’s the point then?
Well, I have this theory on what the point is. It involves the evolution of the human race, and again is the topic for a future conversation.
Of course, I am a bit schizophrenic or at least hypocritical about my vision of the future–there is a dark side to my Pollyanna personality. During the dark, bad moods, I truly despair for the future of Humanity as the local (planetary) vanguard of sentient life.
I can emphasize with this. Wine sometimes helps… (I drink rarely, but on these moments… I do the “smart” thing and consume a depressant.)
Sadly, my only drug is caffeine…
Like many Americans, 9/11 was a wake-up moment for me. Before 9/11, I had been developing this depressing idea that love and compassion for humanity and truth and knowledge was a perversion in a really profound sense.
I pretty much knew it was all over when I saw the towers come crashing down.
After all, we are the crowning achievement of 3.5 billion years of evolution.
Some “achievement”. I mean really. What have we done that is better, then say a dolphin? He lives in his natural environment, taking only what he needs, returning his life energy back into the very environment that sustains him. He doesn’t overpopulate, pollute or attempt to “horde” anything. It’s probably a great life.
The last billion years or so of this evolution (or however long it’s been since the development of sexual reproduction) has been driven by natural selection, the primary drivers there are “kill or be killed”, and “fuck or die out”. So, what we are is the ultimate killing and fucking organisms. These brains we evolved and this incredible cognitive consciousness with which we as humans possess are just what we evolved to survive and compete. So, we are in a very real sense “designed” for violence and jealousy.
I would hazard an uneducated guess that a virus or a bacteria is the ultimate killing and fucking organism – but I understand your point. Humans don’t “fit” in this natural order of things, not worth a tinkers damn. Something is fundamentally wrong with us, it’s pretty damned evident. Evolutionary selection (or whatever) seeded us with “greed”, (avarice?) which created violence and jealousy. Terrible stuff. But did this happen as a result of our environment? I don’t know, but I doubt it, only because I am not aware of these faults in any other species.
So the development of cognitive consciousness has some pretty serious side affects. Doesn’t say much for us as a species, does it? We have singularly failed to address this issue despite all of our so-called “advancement” and have instead, only made it worse and more efficient with our technology and our ability to practice violence and death and jealousy on a global scale. Oh, what fun we are!
As I said, love and compassion for anyone other than an individual human’s immediate family (or, more precisely, since we are social animals, one’s community or clan), is, if anything a betrayal or perversion of our “purpose”. That’s a pretty big bug in a 3.5 billion year product development cycle, I’d say. 😉
A fundamental flaw indeed.
A depressing enough idea, you think? Well, after 9/11, it got even worse for me. In the days and weeks after 9/11 I came to the realization that I was really a pacifist. I could not participate in or support any violent retribution or revenge or vengeance or punishment–whatever you want to call it. I just had to opt out of the hatred and violence track completely.
Do you get mad then? At least get mad at those who did this. Because they betrayed you, me, everyone.
Well, yes and no, because to get angry at them is to get angry at ourselves. The betrayal was in all of us. This attitude of refusing to blame others for 9/11 (or rather for insisting on sharing the blame) is infuriating to many of my close friends, I know. Sorry if it angers you, too–as I said, I just had to opt out of the hatred thing–it’s the only way I could handle it. (It might have been different if I had been there in NYC or if I had lost someone close at the hands of the terrorists, but I wasn’t and I didn’t.)
With that realization came the even more depressing realization that this opts me and my tendencies toward peace love and understanding out of the evolution picture or even survival picture, too. At least in theory, I refuse to use violence to defend myself, even against a violent attack (maybe there are no pacifists in the foxhole, as it were, but if I am given an opportunity to think, I will hesitate, and try to think of a way out without violence–this is a non-survival trait, I’m afraid. Sigh…
This is a great observation. You are indeed “obsolete” and out of the natural order of things. Even the natural world reveals this of course. Pacifism is permitted to exist only when there is an abundance (time of peace).
Yes, and I am struggling to imagine and promote and perhaps help create a world in which that is not the case. That is, a world where pacifism is “permitted to exist” as you say. Actually, I want more than that–I dream of a world where pacifism is the “natural” way…
In fact, the killers and haters will ultimately prevail always over the loving and compassionate. That is natural evolution in the very real sense. Anything else is a perversion of the natural order–the way the universe works. As such, I am a pervert, and in this case, the penalty for perversion is death.
A depressing thought, indeed… So, I can’t accept a picture of the future that involves the collapse of civilization, because that future cannot include me. If it does happen, I’ll try to live on my considerable wits as long as possible, but I don’t see that as being very long. In my mind, only an expanding civilization can support the perversions that I believe in: Love and Compassion for our fellow sentient beings and what I feel is the only alternative to natural selection, a replacement of the survival urge with the urge to understand and explore the universe–curiosity.
I would only disagree that expansion is necessary, we’ve “gone forth and multiplied’ plenty. But you bring up a good point – what humans are allegedly trying to do is counter-act the natural order of things. This might not be possible. Billions of years of evolutionary development isn’t so easily overcome – and you still have the natural order to contend with. How can it be any other way?
I’m not smart enough to think of a way to get there from here, unfortunately, although I have a germ of an idea…
Steve brings up a very valid point. The natural order of things isn’t changeable like we presume. Like everything else mankind does, mankind presumes far too much in a feeble and misguided attempt to control everything, even his own basic makeup. While I personally loathe violence, I do recognize the point Steve made – “survival of the fittest” is and always has been a “natural truth”, even in men.
Can the “survival urge” be replaced? We’re going to soon find out – but it’s already evident that no, we’re not ready for this, not yet, maybe not ever. We’ve been thoroughly domesticated (see domesticated man article Part I and Part II) but we’re still natural human beings that will instantly turn to the survival urge the moment we are endangered. In fact, I would say that the survival urge is what breeds our curiosity. Mankind’s quest to change his environment is a survival instinct, the end result which is what we have today.
I feel that some of us can rise above that. I have a different definition of curiosity than you do, I suspect. You seem to equate or associate changing our environment with understanding the universe. For me, curiosity is the quest to understand the universe. The urge to *change* our environment is something completely different, and related (as you say) to Natural Selection. Unfortunately, the understanding I promote enables the more evolutionarily fit among us to more effectively manipulate the environment, aka, mucking up the planet.
And now we are paying the price of that instinct. Somewhere along the line, we forgot some very basic truth, or maybe we never really learned them. You don’t muck up the nest you live in. Maybe ancient man really didn’t think about it like I presume. There was always a world of grand abundance available a little farther down the road. But now that we have reached the end of that highway of destruction, it’s high time we acknowledged some things, finally, and forever before we take it to the stars.
Yes, agreed, but more than that “simple” and pure lesson (Don’t muck up your nest!), we need to subvert the subvert 3.5 billion years of Natural Selection (kill or be killed, fuck or die out). I think we as a species now have the capability to subvert that “natural” order. This will be the subject of the continuation of this dialog.
Or, as we say…
…to be continued…
I for one, am looking forward to Steve’s comments, particularly his theory regarding subverting the natural order and the evolution of mankind. Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did.
The following was written by Lonewolf – a board administrator and main contributor to the Sustainable Living & Common Sense forums.
Shaking the Muse’s cage (aka ‘talking to myself’ – again):
Contemporary Hopes that kill (no particular order)
Hope that the oil flows continuously faster and faster, so that my ‘ toys’ and whims become ever cheaper (‘life’ easier) with time.
Hope that Life is convenient and without conflict at the personal level – (all the rest are just on TV anyway, I have a ‘fresh’ battery in remote if ‘needed’.)
Hope that by doing the same thing(s) over and over, I will eventually achieve the results that I expect (wish, want). Continue reading »
There is an ongoing thread on the bulletin board regarding future plans and strategies.
I am not currently seeking anything along the lines of an eco-village. I have always thought that my set-up would lend itself to a small multi-family living arrangement.
I like the idea of an ecovillage, but I can easily envision other social / living structures that are much different. I am certain that this is not the only way to approach present and future living (as an alternative to the insanity we have today). Continue reading »
I’m seeing a lot of bad advice on the Net regarding future plans and preparations for collapse and post-collapse scenarios. I am somewhat surprised by all of this so-called “advice” because it flies in the face of common sense and utterly fails to take into account natural systems.
One of these issues that I’m seeing is the concept of priorities and importance regarding the essentials of life. Few people seem to even know what the essentials of life even are, they assume that these essentials will always be available and provided by someone other then themselves.
One of these primary essentials is food. Civilizations are built upon the need to produce food to support their populations. This is the main purpose of civilization. The extraction of raw materials, manufacturing of goods, transportation, electricity, commerce, international trade, national boundaries, demographics, distribution of cities and the populations themselves are all related to the production of food. Continue reading »
Well, here it is folks. We knew it was coming and now they have just announced it. You and everyone else you know is now considered a terrorist.
“counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation,”
The States ever-present stupidity in “protecting” us has morphed into even more police-state tactics and surveillance of the common peons. Please bear in mind that this is just a “test” – so fight back. Let these jack booted thugs know exactly what you think of their police-state tactics, or this test will be over and so will your liberty to ride public transportation without being harassed by these thugs. Continue reading »