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 PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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 Ramblings and questions.
#8068172 - 02/25/08 10:47 AM (7 months, 7 days ago) |
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Instead of making a few scattered topics, I wanted to consolidate it all here for convenience.
Economy:
This has been concerning me a lot lately. I'm in my second econ class and the more we discuss it the more it makes sense... on paper. Capitalism works if you expect people to follow stringent patterns and proper behavior. But what we are seeing are many many corrupt companies and agents crowding ethical companies and working on their own behalf. The invisible hand concept can only do so much. Less so when our people become thoughtless maniacs out for instant gratification over long term benefits. What does this mean for our future? Our desires being pulled toward wants rather than needs.
And how do we determine who has the right to own land and expend our resources? Someone collects enough paper and/or has someone agree to loan them some more paper so they can buy one final piece of paper that tells them that this and that area is theirs to keep. But who are they to determine who gets that land or not?
I understand that governments are in place to help regulate security and peace, but how good of a job are they doing at allocating our land? What if some shut in buys property that has a river rich in salmon? He could help society by letting people eat these fish by either selling them to the market or something else but instead he chooses to build a big gate all around his property and keep to himself. How can this be a good thing?
And how do we determine the cost of unrenewable resources? We keep on pumping and selling that oil for pieces of paper. But what's going to happen when all that oil is gone and a few people have a few stacks of money? Why are we letting companies waste thousands of gallons of oil to build novelty toothpicks when what we really need is serious help to find a new source of energy? What if the Walton's all got their money together, bought a few oil fields and set them on fire? They could, at least I think so. I don't know the laws. But it would still be a normal monetary transaction.
Have economists thought about how we are going to handle all this rapid growth? Can we sustain hundreds of millions of people each with a car, and a big resource sucking house? People keep making money, and are going to keep buying. But when is it going to stop? How are we going to support billions of people living the suburban lifestyle?
Society:
What about them? I always wondered how they were doing. Is the majority of our human population happy? Or are they suffering? Have only a minority acheived innerpeace? Do we mainly hear about depressed, violent, and or deprived people because that's what the news deems important? Is that really just a small but loud minority or are there really that many people in pain?
How many people are really in poverty anyway? I hear reports of 2/3 of our world today living on less than a dollar a day or whatever. But is that so terrible? I could imagine how it would, but what if these people are just simply living without modern equipment and are tending to their farms doing perfectly fine?
If so many people in modern society are having such a painful experience, where can the blame be placed? Sure, it's up to yourself to color your own life but how many people truly realize that? There are so many distractions. Drama with people relationships, advertisements telling you to buy things, movies and music talking even more about personal drama or money, etc. The spiritual side is really lost. Even more-so when abusive people come and force religion. Trying to force their children to have a spiritual experience at church, or the mosque, or the synagogue. That makes people back off and deem spirituality as kooky crap.
Of couse you can't blame society completely, but is it really free from having some kind of fault? It's so easy to get caught in the cycle and become so serious about life. Especially when people encourage you to come back and stay strong when you begin to question it or fall out.
I believe you can be perfectly happy in the system. But people have to remember to think "What can the system do for me" not "What can I do for the system". Becoming so serious and attached to your life and fearing failure so strongly is what causes people so much greif, I think.
Spirituality:
Do people get caught up in this too much, too? I wonder sometimes. Do we get too serious about being enlightened?
I honestly feel like I'm already enlightened. Not like I'm better than anybody or anything, or know everything. I know that I still have a ton to learn. What I do feel is that I just finally except life and can sit contently in it's rythm. I can just be. You know? Is there really so much more to enlightenment?
Another thing. On my last mescaline trip I saw this image and instantly fell in love with it:
Does it appear anywhere in other religions? Maybe I subconciously recognized it or something. But it gave me great meaning.
I understand it as, the bottom line is life coming from the infinite. And going into the circle which represents sex. Not exactly the act, but the combination and result of male and female. And from it comes the 5 senses. Left being sight (pointing outward because it tells us about the external), left middle being smell (pointing inwards, and intersecting taste, reflecting how these senses tell us together about the external coming to the internal or just the internal), middle being touch (not pointing anywhere but staying straight at its station), right middle being tase, and right being hearing.
I saw this in my mind as chalk drawn on the ground with incense burning at each point. I thought it was pretty cool and relaxing.
Then I saw a version, indicating death of whoever it represented:
Kind of like that, but not exactly. Sorry, I'm not that good at mspaint lol. But that basically represents the combining of the senses back into the infinite.
I like it, and find it pretty interesting. Maybe some day I'll try to draw it on the ground and light some incense on it like in my imagination.
What do you guys think? Interesting or kind of cheesy? Am I just recognizing a logo from somewhere?
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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 backfromthedead
Activated
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 3,590
Last seen: 2 months, 8 days
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8068186 - 02/25/08 10:55 AM (7 months, 7 days ago) |
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Looks like a pair of wings.
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 MushmanTheManic
AverageFrustrated Chump
Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 4,307
Last seen: 5 minutes, 13 seconds
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8068725 - 02/25/08 02:22 PM (7 months, 7 days ago) |
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Quote:
Have economists thought about how we are going to handle all this rapid growth?
They have been thinking about it off and on ever since Thomas Malthus and David Richardo. The two most important recent economists that debated this issue were Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon (circa 1968). Paul Ehrlich, following in the footsteps of Thomas Malthus and David Richardo, predicted that because of the rapidly growing population, the cost of goods would rapidly increase while wages would decrease. Simon believed that innovations and economic growth would make up for the population boom.
Simon was right. Costs have gone down and wages have gone up.
Quote:
Can we sustain hundreds of millions of people each with a car, and a big resource sucking house? People keep making money, and are going to keep buying. But when is it going to stop? How are we going to support billions of people living the suburban lifestyle?
Nobody knows this, but many modern economists believe that more people is better, especially political economists that have their foundations in the American School of Political Economy. Most engineers think that humanity will never stop expanding, but they are notoriously optimistic.
Quote:
But what's going to happen when all that oil is gone
Molecular biology will probably take care of this problem within the next ten to twenty years... unless chemical engineers do it first.
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http://www.citizens-united.com
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PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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Simon was right. Costs have gone down and wages have gone up.
But that's just because factors of production have become easier and more accessible. IMO that's made things way more dangerous.
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 21,641
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8071683 - 02/26/08 09:10 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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You mean more dangerous than being a cave man?
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
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PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: Icelander]
#8071726 - 02/26/08 09:24 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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What I mean is using up these resources so freaking rapidly. How in the heck are we going to sustain all this growth?
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 21,641
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8071738 - 02/26/08 09:28 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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People have been saying this for a long time. There is no way to answer the question because we don't know if we can compensate for our problems with advancement in science and technology.
It's really not important because we are dead set to continue down this road. If we find a dead end we won't know until we reach it.
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
Edited by Icelander (02/26/08 09:28 AM)
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PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: Icelander]
#8071746 - 02/26/08 09:31 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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That scares me. I worry about the crazy stuff our fellow humans get themselves into. Maybe I shouldn't, but I hate the thought of innocent people being thrown out into the cold and starving because our governments didn't do a very good job at planning ahead.
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 21,641
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8071826 - 02/26/08 09:56 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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Death and starvation are natural occurrences. We have come to believe that culture/society can make us immune to these challenges.
But down to brass tacks; you are experiencing death anxiety. If you understood the fact of death (not intellectually) you would not be concerned about the ever changing ebb and flow of all things.
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
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PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: Icelander]
#8071853 - 02/26/08 10:02 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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Do I? I don't think I'm afraid of death.
What I'm worried about, is everyone messing everything up when they could have easily prevented it. We are running blindly with our arms outstretched ahead. Is it so much to ask that we stop running and take it easy?
That will be hard to convince the entire world to stop their goofiness, but isn't it something to wish for?
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 21,641
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: PyroBurns]
#8071869 - 02/26/08 10:06 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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Quote:
PyroBurns said:
Do I? I don't think I'm afraid of death.
What I'm worried about, is everyone messing everything up when they could have easily prevented it. We are running blindly with our arms outstretched ahead. Is it so much to ask that we stop running and take it easy?
That will be hard to convince the entire world to stop their goofiness, but isn't it something to wish for?
You think you aren't afraid. Dude everyones afraid of death.
How do you know things are being messed up? Compared to what? Humanity has always been running blindly since the dawn of culture and we're still here. If you need to take it easy then do so. You can't expect others to share your values, right or wrong.
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
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PyroBurns
Wake up and findout
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 1,578
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Re: Ramblings and questions. [Re: Icelander]
#8072128 - 02/26/08 11:23 AM (7 months, 6 days ago) |
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I accept the fact that I'll die some day. I don't bite and scratch my way out of it.
Things are being messed up, maybe not as bad as I put it but look at what's happening. The cost of gas is going up, yet people buy more cars, and even some buy bigger ones.
Land is being cut down, paved, and "civilized". Ecosystems are being killed, rivers are having toxins dumped into them, food is getting harmful additives, and people are sucking down garbage.
People are getting richer exponentially, and that means more and more resources are going to go away at even more rapid rates.
It's something to think about.
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Remember to cut your nails regularly.
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