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mystica
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Are we living in the modern dark ages?
#25263066 - 06/12/18 07:18 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Dark ages: people blindly trusting in god, discarding (nonexistent) science, little to no advancment in science, literature etc.
Modern dark ages (imo): people claiming there is nothing preceding or following THIS existence. All can be explained by science. - we can reap the earth for all its goods because nothing good/bad we do is ever gonna matter and this life is all we get so lets enjoy and not care for future generations to come - psychedelics are ILLEGAL because they give insight into yet unexplained phenomena which people believe is not supported by nowadays science (not true, see-->quantuum physics). If one claims hes seen extraterrestrial life on psychedelics, its discarded as personal hallucination that is not real -school system still the same as years before, made to match the industrial revolution -a lot of work now automatized, yet people still need to work to survive
It bothers me how people claim we live in some sort of modern ages, when in reality we live in a backwards system, trashing our environment, running a war on consciousness etc.
Whats your opinion and how do we solve this?
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remake
Registered: 01/05/16
Posts: 4,201
Loc: South Africa
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica] 1
#25263098 - 06/12/18 07:37 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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How I view it, is we trash the planet because we think we're going to live forever.
People think they are immortal and cannot accept mortality.
What more do you want or need to know about the nature of reality to enjoy your life?
Are we suffering because of the burning of desires and dreams?
Death anxiety?
Society is what keeps us all alive. Dissatisfaction in the work place is a multi-faceted problem. Psychological and sociological, starting with the individual.
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Rahz
Alive Again
Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,303
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica] 2
#25263159 - 06/12/18 08:21 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Education dumbed down intentionally (not the same as years before, though never perfect). Probably to prevent a worldwide democracy of benevolency from (potentially) forming. Such a program could be seen as doomed to fail or not, but must be prevented from upseting the current balances of power.
In the early days of the internet I had this idea, this expectation about these things called internet forums. People from all over the world can communicate. Strangers who never met and never will, having conversations. It was new at the time and seemed amazing. I thought, it's only a matter of time until a forum of forums, a World forum, is started. It would happen naturally without planning and organize itself organically. This forum would allow all the people of Earth to discuss the various issues without government involvement. If a majority of the world's citizens decided on something, what power would a specific government have to disrupt it?
It didn't happen and there's no indication it will. The idea, which seems like a no brainer to me, was never even seriously floated. There are rogue actors and bots which make such an idea basically impossible today. I suspect various governments of the world colluded to retain fractionated power in this new environment, but people generally are also to blame. It's in our nature.
When you look at periods of time before and after the Dark Ages, direct democracy of Greece, the Renaissance, etc. things were never perfect, just better and yet still isolated and formed in a temporary bubble. In both the periods mentioned slavery was still prominent. The masses were still poor and largely excluded. It's not much different than today, so I reject the notion that we're in a Dark Age, unless it's suggested that all of human history is a Dark Age.
Dictators and mob rule are both flawed systems. That's why the founders of the USA formed a republic based on the rule of law. It's hypothetically the best of both worlds and probably as good as it gets. But nobody mentions the word republic any more. Due to the inequities of humanity the idea was thrown out by various groups, into the trash heap with every other form of government. Now more people are turning towards communism, a slow slide to the bottom. But that's okay with the oligarchys and technocrats. It will always be good for some.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." - Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: Rahz]
#25263235 - 06/12/18 09:13 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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It's runaway brutality, partly due to diminished education, alienation, disconnectedness, and loneliness. the last 3 are paradoxically at a high point coincident with screen time vs. human time.
-------------------- _ 🧠_
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,851
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica] 1
#25263358 - 06/12/18 10:32 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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In the United States, if not elsewhere, one sees ubiquitous isolation and a pervasive melancholy which lurk, as Morris Berman noted, underneath the surface bombast. True happiness, and even some approximation of healthy functionality, have become the exception. There is a definite soullessness in a life devoted to power and "success" -- which is to say to the "American Dream." We are markedly lonely and empty. I do not venture to theorize whether this is a result of extreme American individualism, lack of spiritual fulfillment, or the related fracture between modern humans and our evolutionary heritage; perhaps it is a combination of all three. But America, as well as being doomed on a political and economic level, fosters a psychological framework which has become, or perhaps even always was, utterly lacking.
My
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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HighersyStems
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica]
#25264926 - 06/13/18 04:10 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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If humanity continues to spiritually progress, then we'll look back at these times as a kind of dark ages. If not, we'll never realize what we didn't know.
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remake
Registered: 01/05/16
Posts: 4,201
Loc: South Africa
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: HighersyStems] 1
#25264939 - 06/13/18 04:34 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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People seem to be addicted to moving around, acquiring shit, stimulating their senses and having sex.
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: remake] 1
#25264974 - 06/13/18 05:28 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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IMO, we're in the dark ages. Given what mankind has the potential to be, and what we are, I believe that we entered them when we disbanded from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and took on agriculture.
So I believe we were once not in the dark ages, and now we are, and that we show little sign of leaving them without some kind of mass-extinction event.
I very much doubt most people would agree with me on that though. Phones and internet and Netflix and airtravel and shit man. Hella future. Hella satisfaction.
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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DividedQuantum
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Posts: 9,851
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
#25265179 - 06/13/18 08:47 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Well said.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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XUL
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica]
#25265583 - 06/13/18 12:29 PM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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We live in the dark ages where robots are sent to Mars, People can get food stamps, and violence is declining.
It's not dark to me.
My glass is half full.
--------------------
TRUMP 2020
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: Jokeshopbeard] 1
#25265826 - 06/13/18 02:22 PM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Just to piggyback on Jsb a bit, not only do I think we're in a new dark age socially and culturally, we're in a dark age spiritually as well. Materialism in all its forms has formed the basis of the entirety of Western, secular culture. Without going into the spiritual side of things, it seems most people believe in an empty, meaningless universe whose behavior is entirely based on accidental events. This is an entirely new way of seeing the world, whereas in the past, most societies throughout history have had a robust spiritual dimension to call upon. In any case, whether or not someone believes in God, it is markedly unhealthy to have a spiritual dimension rooted essentially in a form of nihilism.
And so I feel there is a kind of darkness in the realm of the intangible, which could very appropriately be described as a dark age.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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sudly
Quasar Praiser
Registered: 01/05/15
Posts: 11,255
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: mystica]
#25267097 - 06/14/18 02:58 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Pretty sure the dark ages were a time where religions that blindly trusted the idea of god, the dismissal of scientific inquiry, and the acceptance of spiritual journeying to the afterlife ruled.
All can be explained by science but as of yet has not, because never in the history of mankind has magic turned out to be the answer.
You can't put a blanket statement saying 'we' are the ones acting like nothing we do is ever going to matter so lets not care for future generations.
I think Frannie made a good point in saying if you think you'll live forever and that immortality is achievable then the care for THIS existence is diminished and/or pointless all together.
Psychedelics are illegal in most countries, though some do take kinder to magic fungi. As with cannabis there are pharmaceutical hands at play, profiteering and quid pro quo arrangements that create difficulties in achieving therapeutic use of such substances. That said I myself wouldn't want lisergic acid legalised as the therapeutic benefits I don't believe are on par with those of psilocybin.
Scienctific literature does lend a great deal of support for the therapeutic use of psilocybin.
Usually the use of such substances is disregarded because people talk about quantum-flapdoodles and extraterrestrial experiences, this is no way to be taken seriously when talking about psychedelics and will not aid in progressing such discussions.
I do agree that schooling systems haven't changed in over a century and that they're still there to produce factory workers.
Work automisation is a growing issue too. I myself am fortunate in my career path that this is not economically feasable though many other careers face this current and future risk.
Yes there is a lot of trashing our environment that goes on and there at the same time is a decent amount of rebuilding it though I doubt this is enough to catch up.
The war on consciousness? I think what happens after life ought to be removed from the conversation.
Essentially I believe death anxiety is a factor that fuels the war on consciousness.
I'm probably the only one who's going to think we're in the glass age and moving forwards, maybe to something better for a while or maybe to extinction and I'll try to be hopeful of the former.
My spiritual side of things seems to follow that there were reasons before reasoners.
-------------------- I am whatever Darwin needs me to be.
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remake
Registered: 01/05/16
Posts: 4,201
Loc: South Africa
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: sudly] 1
#25267137 - 06/14/18 03:56 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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How I interpret a meaningless universe is that there is no metaphysical reason for our suffering, and every reason to enjoy life.
That we are free to create extremely deep and meaningful relationships and social gestures.
That we needn't wait on rewards and surprises from God, but instead reward and surprise each other.
The reason some might feel they are in Limbo is because we have forgotten that we are dependent on human nature.
We are isolated because we have given up on giving to ourselves and others.
The good value of social contracts. Proper communication not of spirituality but of your human condition.
We grew up getting presents, and suddenly that stopped. There were no more gifts to unwrap.
'Where is my present?'
The search for meaning can quickly turn into an extremely isolating venture. How do you make yourself available to someone? Do you do this for your own good, or for the good of good?
The problem might not lie in religion or science. Both can be tools to foster a greater social structure. It is the individual motivations that are obscured by misunderstanding and denial of our existence and reality.
We are talking to each other right here, right now. But for some reason do not know how we can help each other. Psychologically and physically. The amount of pain we can take from one another. The relief we can give to each other.
Edited by remake (06/14/18 04:15 AM)
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redgreenvines
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: remake]
#25267229 - 06/14/18 05:50 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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the relief we can give to each other is a great starting point for meaning
-------------------- _ 🧠_
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student
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Posts: 26,088
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: remake]
#25267307 - 06/14/18 06:59 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
FranniePilgrim said: We are isolated because we have given up on giving to ourselves and others.
The good value of social contracts. Proper communication not of spirituality but of your human condition.
You should try living in America. The intensity of this condition is fucking mindblowing. Truly frightening stuff.
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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laughingdog
Stranger
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
#25268932 - 06/14/18 09:57 PM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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not the dark ages because we do have amazing technology and science available outside of the 'third world' or the ' developing countries'
But perhaps a better metaphor is: "the fall of the roman empire", as regards the USA.
Another factor is that the masses are delusional, in a political sense, at least in the USA, and do not realize the USA is an imperialist empire, and that slavery has simply been largely exported. This may seem stark language, because the media and political system do a great job of sugar coating everything, and the promise of consumerism also blinds us. Beyond consumerism we have the bad consequences of capitalism run amok, so that corporations are only responsible for turning a profit to share holders. This lack of ethics and character now permeates most of the industrial world, not just the USA. But the USA has the most influence, and for example has exported it's life style as an ideal to the point where other countries that used to have healthier populations due to more natural diet are now manifesting 'diseases' formerly associated with the US due to all the fast food, and junk food in the US.
In the sense that as a result of all this the future seems dark, 'the dark ages' seem poetically apt. A real misanthrope would say that all we lack is a plague such as the dark ages had to rid the planet of the human virus. Actually this has sort of happened at the radioactive chernobyl site where due to lack of humans wildlife has returned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Johnson Chalmers Johnson : "A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship."[4]
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redgreenvines
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Posts: 38,066
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: laughingdog]
#25269005 - 06/14/18 11:03 PM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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robo-calls and fake news are a cloud upon us from the wonderful world of technology.
-------------------- _ 🧠_
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laughingdog
Stranger
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: redgreenvines]
#25269297 - 06/15/18 04:28 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
redgreenvines said: robo-calls and fake news are a cloud upon us from the wonderful world of technology.
if you want to take issue with the statement that technology might be a differentiation from the dark ages, you might have done better than robo calls & fake news, like perhaps the stuff that endangers humans and the planet like: land mines, biological weapons, chemical weapons, nukes, pollution, and acidification of the oceans, etc etc.
The point, which you seem to have missed was that the dark ages were a time of belief in witches and demons as causative factors, whereas except for the evangelists in the USA, this is on average, in the industrialized world, an age of more openness to science, and reason, as opposed to belief in witchcraft, demonology and superstition. Now particularly in Europe the society is more secular than the 'religious' hypocrisy that passes for political correctness in the USA.
Regardless these are sad times for the quality of life for the vast majority of folks on the planet, and the evidence is that the momentum is clearly in the wrong direction, in that regard; and for much of life on the planet, if one considers what is being called the '6th extinction event'.
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: laughingdog]
#25271587 - 06/16/18 07:00 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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And how many in this forum believe in such unseen entities?
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Blue Wrench
Bolt Turner
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: redgreenvines]
#25278376 - 06/19/18 08:12 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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There is a book out called "Enlightenment NOW!" by Steven Pinker that makes a very good case that our world is actually on an upward trend across multiple areas. Has good supporting evidence.
-------------------- Bods Easy AF Link List Most teks have too much bullshit. These methods by bod do not.
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Green7Alchemist
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Re: Are we living in the modern dark ages? [Re: Blue Wrench] 1
#25280930 - 06/20/18 12:14 PM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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technology is definitely a materialization of spirituality, it can clog it or allow it to flow.
i describe a phone as my outermind lots of Black Magik, guns, and pretty women, pretty much.
-------------------- Trip 7 THUG - ISLAM - BIBLE streets disciple CHRIST IS KING. Sunshine said: "Gangsters are super heroes"
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