Nothing makes me sad anymore...

'Nothing makes me sad anymore'...

Well, it does really but I will not discuss in depth here.

I find it amazing how we have not developed further from mistakes previously made.
I find it amazing how some human-kind no longer consider their own species, for whatever reason, to be of equality.

What makes me sad?
History will repeat, but this time, not as nice I feel.

This is not a PWEC discussion so don't send it that way.

We all know what I am talking about, but, I am more interested in how we can change it?
Is it possible, or do we remain pawns?

Fodder for thought

No Cheers this time sorry...

S! to those lost

IMO opinion it's not possible. We can pretend, and punish those who do not pretend. In the end we a just a out of control bacteria.

Human nature is what it is and barring some kind of alien or supernatural intervention which changes that fundamental nature, things will continue as-is. I do believe though that the world in general is not as bad as it was even just 200 years ago.

No idea what you're talking about TBH, but pessimism is a state of mind. I consider specific humans on this planet to be incredibly below and unequal to myself, and I still carry on every day just fine. Some people on this big ball are little more than rabid dogs (and that's an insult to rabid dogs).

Live your own life to the fullest and don't bother worrying about the world's petty issues. Humans will never change but that doesn't mean you can't see the good when it happens.

Oh and Wango, IMO means "In My Opinion"; you just said "In my opinion opinion"

i wonder how it will afect the norn industry, isn't yuguslavia and ukraine wehere most of european "performers" come from ?

As for the incident,very sad indeed, but honestly, i for one hope we stop doing this small conflict of territory and ideals and just go all out global war, it would thin our numbers,that is needed and like the horrors of the previous two, people would remember it is not a nice thing when you are playing with lifes when you get abundancy of death in return.
Seems the previous conflict are too distant of a memory for people this day.

Be careful what you wish for Blade. If humanity hasn't learned from the 50 million that died during WW2 what makes you think a new global war would have a different effect?

the internet panzer......back then, people saw in the newspaper what images the governament filtered and let them see,either for propaganda or to boost morale, today everyone can upload the horrors almost as they happen, and society response would change,did you forget vietnam already and how your governament reacted to media in the iraq war, censoring everything and selecting who would cover what ?

i'll be straightforward. personally, igave up on humanity. there are a few people i care about. an emotional attachment i still clung to because they were forged before the giving up part.

living day to day is the best way to forget the whole picture. at least it works for me. thinking about the laundry next week makes me forget that the planet is doomed anyway and most likely we won't evolve enough to achieve those grandiose galactic expansions we keep dreaming about in movies.
or on a smaller scale, forget every PWEC taking place every nanosecond.

my life is like that popcorn smiley. eh, let me watch... watch with a certain detachment that everything is fubar anyway. sometimes i pretend to care and pretending to live like there's a future for everyone is really good most of the time. i recommend it.

Perhaps re-introduce the Black Plague?
Fairly non-discriminative and no burden on economics!

And Panzer, I never lived 200 years ago of which I am thankful for.
I possibly may have been hung, drawn and quartered ... lucky me.

Peally..
Wango was right with his words. In his opinion(IMO) ... 'Opinion is not possible'.
In his own way he appears to have an opinion but does not.

Clear as mud to me.

Try being a moderator sometime....really makes you wonder wtf.

Understood mate and what a great honest reply.

Takes me back to something my Father always instilled within me ... 'Put yourself in some one else's shoes .. Where would you be then and how smart do you really think you are'.

i have been concentrating on friends, family and neighbors more. I still read and watch the larger scope of state, nation, international, present and future, but feel less able to influence the outcomes. I have resumed some of my biology studies, maybe I can discover a lawn grass that only needs mowing monthly.

That would be bad for business no?

I keep saying it..."Humans".

It's for a reason.
I've got to know them 'intimately'. Their personal problems, family problems, tragedies, watched their lives end.
Everything, over and over.

When you find some worthwhile, hang onto them, cause they're very rare indeed.

The rest, you're better off typing messages to, and not ever having contact with. Cause when push comes to shove, your gonna get shoved. Most people change when things go south. You don't want to see that happen too often, it causes you to lose your respect for the species.

We are not what we think we are.
IMHO that's why nobody out there is talking to us, cause we won't be around long enough to get to know.
We're just a passing phase.....a mistake. And we seem to think we're soooo special. It cracks me up.

'Humans'....lol....

It has been a very depressing couple weeks. The horrors taking place in the Outremer and the European steppe, etc. Thankfully this is all that happens in the modern world. A few centuries ago it would have been endemic wars and pandemics.

Granted if wars come between great powers the result is the end of civilization as we know it. Perhaps all involved realize this, perhaps not...

If it does drop in the pot for humanity, I hope its a quick charring on the grand rotisserie for me. I don't think I would want to survive it if things come to that.

Yes, the world isn't as bad as it was 200 years ago, but it has potential to get much worse if we follow certain paths that were followed just a century ago. Perhaps the centers of power have some historically minded people populating them. Inshallah as they say...

er....my opinion is so valuable it's worth mentioning twice.

There are 7 BILLION people on the planet. If you accept that a certain percentage are worthless scum, then there are more worthless scum on the planet than ever before, too.

The simple fact is technology and globalization have advanced far faster than our own cultures, and have indeed allowed what would 100 years ago have been more marginalized opinions and factions to gain strength by allowing them to come into the open, seek each other out, and band together.

So extremists of every flavor can now, instead of realizing with shame how few feel like they do, and either bury it or at least fail to act on it, all cry out together in an illusion that there are more of them than they think there are to justify their actions.



The Jedi Master

I'm worried one day nothing will make me happy. Shutting off feeling sadness is a form of defense against it all. The other I day I watched my 87 year old father run around the back yard having a squirt gun fight with his 3 and 5 year old great grandchildren. I was suddenly filled with joy, because the site and sound was beautiful to me. I guess you have to just look away sometimes and pretend the outside world doesn't exit.

We like to praise ourselves. A lot. We imagine that we've come so far. We're so smart. We've accomplished so much. Hell...we've gone to the moon.
Well, "we" didn't do that. It was done by a special few, as all of the great things in human history have been done. 80% of the population doesn't know how their television gets that picture in there. They just know how to turn it on. That's the way it is with everything.
We really haven't come much farther than Cro-Magnum man. They were actually quite intelligent and hardly different than modern human beings. If you could go back in time and grab one and bring him (or her) back they'd assimilate quickly, I think. You'd have them using the microwave and switching on the T.V. and maybe even driving after a while. They could get a job flipping burgers at McDonalds and they'd be just fine.
Those few special types with the beautiful minds are the ones who push mankind forward. The rest of mankind just follows along like a bunch of sheep. Incredibly stupid sheep, sometimes. Look at the drivers next to you on the highway and see them all texting while they're doing 70 mph. It doesn't matter how many die. There are plenty who will just follow them right off of the cliff....even though they saw them fall. It amazes me.
Yet, most people don't know the names of the great thinkers, scientists, artists, who have changed our lives. They know everything about the actress who made the latest sex tape, though. Call it human nature, I guess. A catch all phrase that encompasses all of the stupid things we do. Like writing a post that's way too long and boring people to death. Sorry. Rant off.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history. - George Bernard Shaw

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. - George Bernard Shaw

My personal philosophy: saying 'yes' to life in all its aspects, including the violent, the ugly, and the catastrophic, not just the peaceful, beautiful, and magnificent.

Hmmm. We are constantly accumulating knowledge, and bar
all-engulfing mayhem, that knowledge will be sticking around,
and we and our descendants will benefit from it. One of the
fields of knowledge which has grown up from nearly nothing
in the last century is child psychology, and the realization
that people are extremely pliable in their youth, and although
there are a range of inborn tendencies in behaviour, a well
constructed experience of early childhood will produce a
human who is intelligent and compassionate, when the same child
raised poorly might become a psychotic, or any of a variety
of other pathologies. Even schizophrenia is not destiny, as
identical twins, one developing it and the other not, indicates,
so as knowledge continues to accrue we will presumably determine
how to reliably thwart its expression. And of course that doesn't
begin to consider what we can do with genetic engineering.

Remember that whatever else they do all but an insignificantly
small number of people want the best possible life for their
children, and will actively seek out those things which will
result in healthy, happy well adjusted children, if they can
at all access them. So, I expect eventually, if we don't screw
up and trash the planet and collapse civilization first, in a
few centuries we will have a world where people have taken
control of ensuring everyone grows up to be the sort of person
any parent would be more than proud of. There, there's an
optimistic view of the long term future.

Oh, and something I've always rejected: "you can't change human
nature". What crap. Of course we can. We can do whatever we damn
well want, it's what we do. And we will certainly want to change
human nature, to improve it, enhance it, and who knows where
we'll go from there.

I agree that the scum of the earth, or evil doers for lack of a better word, are a very small minority. However with today's technology a small minority can inflicted terribly huge damage.

How about just going on about your life? Enjoy your family and friends. Have fun. Don't sweat the #%&*$# you can't control.

When we cure the common cold, I may have 1% of your optimism. To me it's clear we don't know much at all. We get excited because we find out there may have been water on Mars.

Unplug from the news for six months. Then take a peek. Same crap with a different wrapper, none of which matters a whit to your day. Sigh. Unplug from the news for six months. Rinse and repeat.

On the upside, be decent to the folks within arm's reach and relax. There is a good possibility - about 99.9978% chance - that nothing you do in your 70-90 years on this planet will have any lasting effect beyond extending the gene pool on humanity or "the state of the world."

This is a very good thing. You have no power or authority over the state of things beyond a very limited range of interactions, which means you also are absolved of responsibility.

Do the heavy metal head bang dance thing with polka cranked up while at a red light. Take the trash can to the curb wearing yellow boxer briefs and a blue t-shirt with the name of your kid's elementary school, waving and saying hello to the neighbor who pulls up in his truck while you do so. Imagine the rap song Raise Up is about WWII.* Use a portable flame thrower to kill weeds in the yard. Pay outrageous compliments to your wife and overly generous tips to the Waffle House waitress. When people deserve it, thank them for their time and for making that time enjoyable. When they don't, let it slide.

Barring that, fake it. Take some time out to watch a bird fly around and pretend you're enjoying it. Hand out a compliment without a hint of sarcasm on something small. Quiet yourself - pull the punches in conversations to the point where you don't make the rebuttal or cutting remark. When someone needs slapped down, make it sound like a fact not an accusation. Play legos with the kids without directing them on what to make and watch the stupid cartoons without comment.

Oddly enough, you'll actually find yourself enjoying those things in short order. Since you're telling yourself you should be enjoying them the brain will adjust and you'll find yourself actually enjoying them. Behaviorism and modelling are forces of biology.

But by all means stop thinking of yourself as a member of some larger humanity, because you aren't. You're part of your little self appointed tribe and nothing more.

* Here's the lyrics of that song:

Greed, jealousy, fear of the unknown, pride, etc.

All of these things are hard-wired into humanity and will never go away.

+1

WE ARE THE GREATEST THINGS EVER...we made the iphone.

I do think the proliferation of news as entertainment is a Bad Thing for society. When the role of news went from informing to "glue them to us 24/7" we started down a dangerous path.

When I went to school, it was taught as yellow journalism, things like "Remember the Maine!" There is no doubt the modern companies have decided to embrace that again, no matter whether it divides society up and promotes treating your neighbor like a foreign enemy invading your land or leading a righteous crusade against X.



The Jedi Master