|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? 1
#26702424 - 05/28/20 06:34 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Right now is, to me, without a doubt the most interesting time in the last four billion years to be alive. So there’s that. Personally, it gives me no special satisfaction to live through and observe this. I generally tune out as much of it as I can. And, try as I might, I can see no way for it to go, or to end, well.
There is no shortage of tragedy and travesty and death and destruction and habitat loss and poisoning and meddling and corruption and dysfunction and lies and you just have to let it wash over you at this point. The catastrophe is so overwhelming that you just have to grow numb. One must simply understand that these seem to be the long-awaited end times – they really do – and that the only consolation we can get from being alive right now is that it’s fabulously interesting.
Is that a consolation for you? Do you feel things will grow better or worse? Or are they somehow okay? There are over 3.5 billion people living on less than $5.50 per day (adjusted) who might disagree if you answered in the affirmative.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
nooneman


Registered: 04/24/09
Posts: 14,561
Loc: Utah
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26702812 - 05/28/20 09:38 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
For me personally, I think roughly 1960-1968 was probably the most interesting time to be alive. I'm really jealous of people who were around 20 in 1960, what a time that must have been to be alive. I could extend that back a few years maybe to include the 50s or maybe even some of the 40s, but to me it really peaked somewhere around say 1965 or so. Acid was still legal, the beatles were still together and putting out music, psychedelic music was taking over, to be alive at that time must have been magic.
Plus, I miss how disconnected and separate the world used to be before the internet compressed everything down to a single point. You could go somewhere and really be far away from other people in a meaningful sense. And a lot of the US that's now heavily developed was still undeveloped at the time. Less people, everything was less expensive, it must have been amazing.
That's not to even mention all the technological and social changes happening at the time, or the stuff going on in national and international politics. The civil rights movement, women's rights movement, free speech movement, etc.
|
MarkostheGnostic
Elder



Registered: 12/09/99
Posts: 14,279
Loc: South Florida
Last seen: 3 years, 2 days
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26702813 - 05/28/20 09:38 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
My Great Uncle Herman was born in the 1890s and lived to 106. He saw Orville & Wilbur's first flight hit the papers, later Charles Lindbergh cross the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis, Sputnick, Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepherd, John Glen, then Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. The Hubble telescope and International Space Station. He remembered the Titanic in 1912 and spoke with Leon Trotsky in NYC shortly before the 1917 Russian Revolution. The Spanish-American War, WW I, WW II, Korean War, Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, the invasions of Afghanistan, the Iraq War. The rise and fall of the Third Reich, of Mussolini, of Stalin, of Pol Pot, the USSR. He survived the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Salk vaccine, Sabin vaccine, Tetanus vaccine, eradication of Polio, Smallpox, Yellow Fever. Penicillin and antibiotics, anti-virals, better anesthetics than chloroform, diethyl ether, or ethylene. Laparoscopic surgery. LASERs and LASER surgery. He witnessed medicine where his nephew, my father, had his tonsils removed at home on the kitchen table and he lived to see kidneys, livers, corneas, and human hearts transplanted. Marconi wireless and vacuum tubes yielded to transistorization and thence to solid state electronics. He was around before there were silent films and saw the rise of Hollywood, television, color television. Now THERE was a century plus of boom and bust!
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
|
The Blind Ass
Bodhi



Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 26,657
Loc: The Primordial Mind
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: nooneman]
#26702819 - 05/28/20 09:44 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
To be born at the tail end of 1945 would be one of my “if I could go back” wishes. One of many...too many times I wish I could live through - wow, it would be nice to skip around through time anonymously with control of your age.
The times now are interesting enough, I’m also pretty sure things are always interesting. Some sort of paradox in there.
-------------------- Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps
|
laughingdog
Stranger

Registered: 03/14/04
Posts: 4,828
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26702834 - 05/28/20 09:53 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
As regards interesting times:
Surely this is entirely a subjective matter. Soldiers involved in combat are certainly not bored, neither are scientists doing research they love, or mathematicians working on problems that at the present time have no practical use.
As regards horror:
All dictatorships, that have had some sort of secret police, and torture have provided plenty, world wide for ages. Among many sources of misery.
As regards better or worse:
On a personal level
I will die myself before too long, simply because I am a boomer. So I seem quite comfortable, with my demise, and death.
On a world level:
population from my childhood 1951 ( 2,584,034,261 ) to world population at present 2020 ( 7,794,798,739 ) This multiplication by about a factor 3 was unimaginable in the 1950's, it happened in about 70 years, and hasn't stopped. . Then there are all the issues you mention, plus many more I think world wide the majority of mankind, lives in conditions, I could not tolerate. . As you say, to stay sane most of us cannot face this most of the time. So I don't think its a question of whether things will get worse, but is a question of whether one can face up to how bad things already are, and have been for most folks through out most of history. . The more of a loner a person is I suspect the more they are willing to see, what is true about human existence, for obvious reasons.
|
Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26703028 - 05/28/20 11:56 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
When I'm feeling good, I'm happy to watch it all burn down around me, with but a childish yet satisfied smirk on my face.
When I'm feeling bad, I lament it all and struggle with misanthropy and depression and nihilism to look at the state of it.
Truth is, I'm not sure it really matters much. It's a challenge for each of us, and up to each of us to rise above it and shine.
-------------------- 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
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
#26703484 - 05/29/20 04:47 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
we have access to more ideas than ever before, and have more working sanitary plumbing than ever before.
this may be important to some of us.
also lots of hotdogs.
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
chronotope999
Explorer



Registered: 10/09/19
Posts: 61
Loc: Ribbon World
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
#26703506 - 05/29/20 05:11 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
This ^^. It's all relative.
The cool thing about living when we do is that all the big history of the 20th Century is 'within living memory' of people we know and love. But we also don't have to live through world wars, unrest on our doorstep, etc.
The internet is also, without a doubt, an awesome tool for getting context and info about the world we live in.
The way our minds and bodies work is the same as it's been for thousands of years. The wisdom of meditation hasn't changed, only the noise that makes it easier to ignore.
|
Forrester
aspiring sociopath


Registered: 02/05/13
Posts: 9,351
Loc: Northeast USA
Last seen: 24 days, 18 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26703583 - 05/29/20 06:26 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
DividedQuantum said: Right now is, to me, without a doubt the most interesting time in the last four billion years to be alive. So there’s that. Personally, it gives me no special satisfaction to live through and observe this. I generally tune out as much of it as I can. And, try as I might, I can see no way for it to go, or to end, well.
I agree that it is a very interesting time to be here.
But I refuse to let the fear of it all consume me. I guess it just comes down to your core beliefs. If you think there's a reason you're here, at all, whatever it is - do you think it's to look at all the suffering and throw up your arms in despair?
Instead I just try to see what life throws at me and let interesting be interesting. We can probably all agree that whatever happens there will be a lot of change. Were things so great before that we shouldn't welcome change? Was there not already a ton of suffering? I look forward to the changes that could be coming. It would be easy I'm sure to criticize me for being overly optimistic and not a realist, but what has being a realist ever gotten us but more of the same?
(not directing these questions at you Divided, just my thought process)
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
|
Ferdinando


Registered: 11/15/09
Posts: 3,664
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
#26703673 - 05/29/20 07:18 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
this is a fringe of the universe metaphorically it's insect to mouse, man etc.
gnome world is better
I saw a children tv (heard, I was meditating) where a boy said the difference between going in here or here is bigger than you can imagine
it's a metaphor for after death
-------------------- with our love with our love we could save the world
|
laughingdog
Stranger

Registered: 03/14/04
Posts: 4,828
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
#26703848 - 05/29/20 08:32 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Forrester said: .... It would be easy I'm sure to criticize me for being overly optimistic and not a realist, but what has being a realist ever gotten us but more of the same?)
Do you really think people are realists? Do you you think that explains the state of the world? Are there stupid realists and smart realists? are they the same? Are there kind and cruel and indifferent "realists"? are they the same?
|
laughingdog
Stranger

Registered: 03/14/04
Posts: 4,828
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
#26703878 - 05/29/20 08:42 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Forrester said: ....I guess it just comes down to your core beliefs. If you think there's a reason you're here, at all, whatever it is - do you think it's to look at all the suffering and throw up your arms in despair?
A doesn't follow from B I doubt anybody who watches nature documentaries of lions eating prey alive suffers from despair, or even that despair is caused by knowing millions are starving or undernourished. We are all quite good at focusing on our own little concerns. It is when peoples own concerns go down hill that they become depressed. We flatter ourselves if we think we are enormously compassionate.
Secondly what if one is not encumbered with a lot of beliefs?
|
InnerWisdom



Registered: 08/09/19
Posts: 1,936
Loc: North EU
Last seen: 4 days, 12 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26703888 - 05/29/20 08:47 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
No I don't think so, one of the most interesting though. The most interesting time from the near history was when electricity became available and all the technological inventions that followed, so that would be 1800-1950. I think that is more interesting than today just because the amount of information and media via the internet didn't exist. I think people were more interested in stuff back then. However, it is possible that I am just projecting my own dystopian feels and dissatisfaction of the current times onto this topic. The times are certainly very interesting and I agree that this does seem like end times in the sense that something has to drastically change after shit hits the fan. I kind of feel like it is a consolation, but it is also depressing. I really wish things were different here on earth with us humans inhabiting it in a lot of ways.
|
Forrester
aspiring sociopath


Registered: 02/05/13
Posts: 9,351
Loc: Northeast USA
Last seen: 24 days, 18 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: laughingdog]
#26704087 - 05/29/20 09:48 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
laughingdog said: Do you really think people are realists? Do you you think that explains the state of the world? Are there stupid realists and smart realists? are they the same? Are there kind and cruel and indifferent "realists"? are they the same?
I guess I think people generally call themselves realists when they present a negative outlook on the future, that's all - a negative outlook that I admit is probably more "realistic" given what we see going on in the world.
Quote:
laughingdog said: I doubt anybody who watches nature documentaries of lions eating prey alive suffers from despair, or even that despair is caused by knowing millions are starving or undernourished. We are all quite good at focusing on our own little concerns. It is when peoples own concerns go down hill that they become depressed. We flatter ourselves if we think we are enormously compassionate.
Very true.
Quote:
laughingdog said: Secondly what if one is not encumbered with a lot of beliefs?
If one isn't encumbered with a lot of beliefs, especially about right/wrong, good/bad etc, then it should be a very interesting time to be alive indeed. At least a lot more interesting than the last few decades. As far as ever, well I haven't been alive long enough to say much about that I guess.
Now, re-inserting my beliefs, I do find it quite interesting (speaking from inside the US of A) to be seeing value systems that have been in play since the start of this empire begin to collapse.
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26704281 - 05/29/20 11:01 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Great responses from everybody. 
There have been a lot of responses highlighting the twentieth century, and I think I'd have to say I'd include that in contemporary times. So the "most interesting times" identified in the thread title could mean, really, anything going back to the industrial revolution, but certainly the twentieth century, which was the most consequential century in world history. In any case, from the steam engine to electricity to automobiles to airplanes to the atomic bomb to computers to spaceflight to the internet, the last 150 years, which one would call contemporaneous, have been revolutionary.
And remember that 150 years is only seven or eight generations. Blink of an eye. Will it all lead to catastrophe and ruin? Will, on some off chance, technology save us? Can civilization survive much longer? These are just a few of the factors that led to my use of the word "interesting."
This rapid ingress of technology in so short a time is nothing short of a cultural "explosion." And explosions are hard to control. We'll have to see whether Nature devises some gentle use for the explosion, or whether it's a failed mutation.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
InnerWisdom



Registered: 08/09/19
Posts: 1,936
Loc: North EU
Last seen: 4 days, 12 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26704348 - 05/29/20 11:27 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I would be disappointed if culture hasn't evolved as much in 150 years from now as the previous 150 years. The Idiocracy is a possible dystopia in my opinion. It certainly is already here to some extent.
|
Yellow Pants



Registered: 05/14/17
Posts: 1,386
Loc:
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: InnerWisdom]
#26705022 - 05/29/20 03:57 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Middle Ages would be pretty dope. Less hectic more straightforward. It’s a wide span but one of the ancient East Asian dynasties might not be bad. Samurai man.
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Yellow Pants]
#26705164 - 05/29/20 04:54 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
too many sword fetishes
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
Rahz
Alive Again



Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,230
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26705284 - 05/29/20 05:37 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
This beautiful disaster ain't that beautiful.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Yellow Pants]
#26705368 - 05/29/20 06:06 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Yellow Pants said: Middle Ages would be pretty dope. Less hectic more straightforward. It’s a wide span but one of the ancient East Asian dynasties might not be bad. Samurai man.
I don't think the serfs slaving on the plots, nor the constant warfare, would have been what I would call "interesting." The East Asian dynasties involved a lot of yucky stuff, too, like a huge peasant class and more brutal warfare. Most people have it better today when it comes to those things, but there are more destitute people in the world than ever before. Irrespective of that, I think the twentieth century was a lot more interesting than the eleventh, probably.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
Yellow Pants



Registered: 05/14/17
Posts: 1,386
Loc:
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26705396 - 05/29/20 06:20 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
DividedQuantum said:
Quote:
Yellow Pants said: Middle Ages would be pretty dope. Less hectic more straightforward. It’s a wide span but one of the ancient East Asian dynasties might not be bad. Samurai man.
I don't think the serfs slaving on the plots, nor the constant warfare, would have been what I would call "interesting." The East Asian dynasties involved a lot of yucky stuff, too, like a huge peasant class and more brutal warfare. Most people have it better today when it comes to those things, but there are more destitute people in the world than ever before. Irrespective of that, I think the twentieth century was a lot more interesting than the eleventh, probably.
Ok I shouldn’t of included the “samurai” word, more an appeal to that Tom Cruise movie. Side note.
At any rate I know they weren’t subjected to the grotesque fabrications of our time. Just look at everybody running around screaming things happening hundreds and hundreds of miles away nothing to do with them whatsoever. Meanwhile we’re led into epidemics of mental health and all other problems. But we’re supposed to have great technology and know how, how could this be? And even if it all is correctable it still is living ideally not realistically which only re-emphasizes the dominion of fabrication. My two cents.
|
Forrester
aspiring sociopath


Registered: 02/05/13
Posts: 9,351
Loc: Northeast USA
Last seen: 24 days, 18 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26705405 - 05/29/20 06:23 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
DividedQuantum said: a lot of yucky stuff, too, like a huge peasant class and more brutal warfare.
Sounds eerily similar to umm... today.
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
#26705444 - 05/29/20 06:45 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
On the first point, yes. However there is relatively little warfare compared to past periods. Fwiw.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
Rahz
Alive Again



Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,230
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26705516 - 05/29/20 07:17 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I guess the overall picture was more interesting when I was younger. It get's old after so many years but science and art have had a fantastic/most interesting century.
How humans use science and art seems more synonymous with human nature. Patterns become less interesting over time, especially when humanity seems to be perpetually locked into an intellectual stupor of base instincts. 6000 years of the same monkey business and it's more interesting now than ever? Get's old.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Rahz] 1
#26705547 - 05/29/20 07:29 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I agree. Let me put it another way. Perhaps interesting is too loaded. I think I might substitute the word "complex." With all of the advances of the twentieth century, the internet, the incipient state of A.I., nanotechnology, etc., there seems to be a sort of link between complexity and a quality of being interesting. Now, when it comes to geopolitics, habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, corruption, social and cultural dysfunction -- these are some of the most complex situations ever, but perhaps on a day-to-day, lived basis, they are not actively interesting.
So complexity may be a better way of saying it.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
Rahz
Alive Again



Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,230
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum] 1
#26705585 - 05/29/20 07:44 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Somehow it seems it's always been way above our heads.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
|
chronotope999
Explorer



Registered: 10/09/19
Posts: 61
Loc: Ribbon World
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26706191 - 05/30/20 01:32 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I get the feeling that this level of complexity might be a net negative (haha) for human brains like ours.
Ideally you'd want useful complexity... but maybe unless you're a scientist in one of these fields that you mention, there's a lot of distraction from the things we need to give our attention to.
Just my 0.02p.
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Rahz]
#26706641 - 05/30/20 08:17 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Rahz said: Somehow it seems it's always been way above our heads.
Absolutely.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
Yellow Pants



Registered: 05/14/17
Posts: 1,386
Loc:
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26706838 - 05/30/20 10:02 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I thought somebody would say that religion was a great illusion back in the day. One that we may now be cleansed of? Although that seems fairly innocent compared to present times.
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Yellow Pants] 1
#26706875 - 05/30/20 10:25 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
you are your own religion your own god
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
Yellow Pants



Registered: 05/14/17
Posts: 1,386
Loc:
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: redgreenvines]
#26706903 - 05/30/20 10:33 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Eh I doubt it. More like an interpreter.
|
MarkostheGnostic
Elder



Registered: 12/09/99
Posts: 14,279
Loc: South Florida
Last seen: 3 years, 2 days
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Yellow Pants]
#26708365 - 05/31/20 02:42 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Yellow Pants said: Eh I doubt it. More like an interpreter.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
|
Dolanduck
Esquire


Registered: 05/26/20
Posts: 480
Loc: Nu Zulund
Last seen: 7 months, 29 days
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: MarkostheGnostic]
#26708415 - 05/31/20 03:32 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
If we don’t destroy ourselves we could very soon see the evolution of our species into part android beings, otherwise we will be overrun by a sentient AI.
In terms of the state of the world, it doesn’t get better than where we are now statistically for standard of living. Work needs to be done on true equality for all, instead of economy over all.
I think if you could experience the past as a traveller, taking over a host body so that if when you die you would return to you’re original body then you could have a different viewpoint on experiencing the past. I think if you look at it in terms of being born into a time period, anything before penicillin would be shit.
--------------------
When the going gets weird the weird turn pro - Hunter S Thompson
|
lostintimenspc
Stranger
Registered: 03/13/20
Posts: 222
Last seen: 20 hours, 19 minutes
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Dolanduck]
#26709656 - 05/31/20 05:42 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I think this whole thing is going to level up.
It's close and it's going to be unbelievable.
The rioting in U.S. shows that we are at the end of history.
-------------------- LSD, mushrooms and DMT are different structural levels within the same magically simulated mystery sometimes blandly called 'life' Your life, your call.
|
lostintimenspc
Stranger
Registered: 03/13/20
Posts: 222
Last seen: 20 hours, 19 minutes
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: lostintimenspc]
#26709665 - 05/31/20 05:47 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
You know when you think about white genocide... who else was going to do the guilt of history? Civilization has primarily been in Europe.
Furthermore, don't you think if an ecosystem finds a particular genetic marker or archetype standing out, that it's going to enact some kind of emphasis on that marker's reproductive behaviour? Like make its reproduction spiritual.
Just an idea.
White people aren't going to go anywhere by the way. A big mob numbering in the millions controls most of the information and attitudes you have socially.
Unfortunately in full effect it's a kind of hysteria. I think they want to stop war, but it's turned into an hysteria since for a while now. It seems to have the same markers as religious hysteria. The rioting resembles Middle East crowds.
But Nature is not imperfect. It's not. We're going to level up.
-------------------- LSD, mushrooms and DMT are different structural levels within the same magically simulated mystery sometimes blandly called 'life' Your life, your call.
|
The Blind Ass
Bodhi



Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 26,657
Loc: The Primordial Mind
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: lostintimenspc]
#26709679 - 05/31/20 05:54 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Civs pop up wherever they were able to whenever the right confluence of conditions and variables blah blah occurred. Niche.
Plus - EU was not the only one - but as a landmass it was a place that had multiple iterations of societies come and go through it, and the various cultures from it and around the world interchanged various parts with each other while they both simultaneously built up & destroyed each other over time.
Also, we can’t forget about Convergent evolution. Anyways! Fun reads bois.
The great perfection - baby!
-------------------- Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps
|
jcby
Stranger
Registered: 11/27/18
Posts: 17
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: The Blind Ass]
#26711509 - 06/01/20 01:15 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
We are definitely living in an incredible time of history. Sometimes I worry about what the next several decades will have to offer. Hopefully not war.
|
Tulipslave
Homo sapiens sapiens, lol

Registered: 07/25/17
Posts: 11,111
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26736824 - 06/11/20 01:09 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
DividedQuantum said: Right now is, to me, without a doubt the most interesting time in the last four billion years to be alive. So there’s that. Personally, it gives me no special satisfaction to live through and observe this. I generally tune out as much of it as I can. And, try as I might, I can see no way for it to go, or to end, well.
There is no shortage of tragedy and travesty and death and destruction and habitat loss and poisoning and meddling and corruption and dysfunction and lies and you just have to let it wash over you at this point. The catastrophe is so overwhelming that you just have to grow numb. One must simply understand that these seem to be the long-awaited end times – they really do – and that the only consolation we can get from being alive right now is that it’s fabulously interesting.
Is that a consolation for you? Do you feel things will grow better or worse? Or are they somehow okay? There are over 3.5 billion people living on less than $5.50 per day (adjusted) who might disagree if you answered in the affirmative.
i think the current time absolutely is, but i may have some bias based on only experiencing this current time.
|
RJ Tubs 202



Registered: 09/20/08
Posts: 6,016
Loc: USA
Last seen: 35 minutes, 4 seconds
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Tulipslave]
#26738007 - 06/11/20 09:17 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Right now many people are saying these are very "uncertain times".
Isn't life always uncertain, but we forget (or choose to ignore) that fact?
Is tomorrow less "certain" than the tomorrow of a year ago or a decade ago?
|
The Blind Ass
Bodhi



Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 26,657
Loc: The Primordial Mind
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: RJ Tubs 202]
#26738068 - 06/11/20 09:48 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
RJ Tubs 202 said: Right now many people are saying these are very "uncertain times".
Isn't life always uncertain, but we forget (or choose to ignore) that fact?
Is tomorrow less "certain" than the tomorrow of a year ago or a decade ago?

(How’d ya like that for a philosophical contribution?)
-------------------- Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: MarkostheGnostic]
#26738335 - 06/12/20 12:22 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Hell yeah in that time we went from a primitive agricultural species to a space faring species. The rise of the industrial age is like science fiction. I personally believe the next 100 years will see us spread out to the farthest reaches of the solar system and likely the first unmanned missions to our nearest stars and the planets that surround them returning data in the lifetimes of the people who launched them. Humans are nasty and destructive...but industrious as hell. Judging that technology doubles every ten years as a solid rule...the hundred after that will see humans to the stars if we can keep our fighting to a minimum.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
InnerWisdom



Registered: 08/09/19
Posts: 1,936
Loc: North EU
Last seen: 4 days, 12 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: RJ Tubs 202] 1
#26738791 - 06/12/20 06:30 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Well just for the sake of argument: yes and no. Living in a time of war for example would be less certain than living in a time of peace in some country. Right now times are uncertain especially in the US it seems but of course globally as well with covid19. Maybe times like these break that illusion of certainty some what more and increase the desire for it. I just watched a video yesterday where it was mentioned that before WW1 there was a belief that rationality and technology have gotten to a point where big wars are not necessary, and perhaps it was this arrogance that exacerbated the risk of war. Too much certainty in anything is bad I think.
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: InnerWisdom]
#26739060 - 06/12/20 08:59 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
well at least we have uncertainty plenty of it.
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
Rahz
Alive Again



Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,230
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: redgreenvines]
#26741369 - 06/13/20 08:45 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Something interesting I read.
"May you live in interesting times" is an English expression that purports to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in "uninteresting times" of peace and tranquility than in "interesting" ones, which are usually times of trouble.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
|
RJ Tubs 202



Registered: 09/20/08
Posts: 6,016
Loc: USA
Last seen: 35 minutes, 4 seconds
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: InnerWisdom]
#26748625 - 06/16/20 09:43 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
InnerWisdom said:
Well just for the sake of argument: yes and no. Living in a time of war for example would be less certain than living in a time of peace in some country. Right now times are uncertain especially in the US it seems but of course globally as well with covid19. Maybe times like these break that illusion of certainty some what more and increase the desire for it.
I appreciate those points. Especially that last statement! We forget that at any moment we could die of a heart attack or brain hemorrhage and many people die in car crashes every day.
This topic reminds me of the practice of meditating in a cemetery. We forget that every moment is uncertain, and that's one way to break free from the dream - the illusion, as you say. To wake up. I really enjoy walking thru a cemetery! It puts things into beautiful perspective. We all really should attend more funerals. And for people we did not know. It would be great for our mental health.
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: RJ Tubs 202]
#26748700 - 06/16/20 10:44 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
love cemeteries except when needed
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
Darwin23
INFJ



Registered: 10/08/10
Posts: 3,277
Loc: United States
Last seen: 1 day, 17 hours
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
#26752836 - 06/17/20 09:16 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
DividedQuantum said: Right now is, to me, without a doubt the most interesting time in the last four billion years to be alive. So there’s that. Personally, it gives me no special satisfaction to live through and observe this. I generally tune out as much of it as I can. And, try as I might, I can see no way for it to go, or to end, well.
There is no shortage of tragedy and travesty and death and destruction and habitat loss and poisoning and meddling and corruption and dysfunction and lies and you just have to let it wash over you at this point. The catastrophe is so overwhelming that you just have to grow numb. One must simply understand that these seem to be the long-awaited end times – they really do – and that the only consolation we can get from being alive right now is that it’s fabulously interesting.
Is that a consolation for you? Do you feel things will grow better or worse? Or are they somehow okay? There are over 3.5 billion people living on less than $5.50 per day (adjusted) who might disagree if you answered in the affirmative.
In terms of sheer information coming out, no other generation comes close. I ultimately think that humanity will be humanity, though. Our last real major pandemic was the Spanish Flu in the 1910's. In the end, with that illness, we basically let it run its course and kill millions of people. We have the technology and the capabilities now to not follow the same path, and yet, that's exactly what's going to happen. Humanity doesn't change a whole lot even when the technology does.
People are sheepish (I know, treading dangerously close to "sheeple", lol), and by that, I mean that people move in herds. Everyone gives a shit right now about police brutality but I've already watched them drop away. Imagine the issues that aren't trending. I may sound a bit misanthropic, which is strange, I think people are mostly good, but I don't have faith that things will change for the better on any real fundamental level.
--------------------
Take a look at my journal
|
Peyote Road
Stranger

Registered: 09/02/15
Posts: 3,527
Loc: Great Lakes State
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Darwin23]
#26755506 - 06/18/20 08:07 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I would say no but I can't recall living in any other times so it's hard to compare. I don't find today's times all that interesting though.
-------------------- The path of the herbalist is to open ourselves to nature in an innocent and pure way. SHe in turn will open her bounty and reward us with many valuable secrets. May the earth bless you. - Michael Tierra
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Peyote Road]
#26756345 - 06/19/20 05:17 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
up the dose or increase your frequency or shift to salvia if nothing is interesting
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
DividedQuantum
Outer Head


Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,818
|
Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Darwin23]
#26758446 - 06/19/20 08:09 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Darwin23 said: People are sheepish (I know, treading dangerously close to "sheeple", lol), and by that, I mean that people move in herds. Everyone gives a shit right now about police brutality but I've already watched them drop away. Imagine the issues that aren't trending. I may sound a bit misanthropic, which is strange, I think people are mostly good, but I don't have faith that things will change for the better on any real fundamental level.
Right, the term "herd mentality" takes on a whole new dimension atm. The issues that aren't trending aren't profitable, I guess. The Navajo Indian reservation in Utah and Arizona was one of the hardest-hit areas in the whole country by the coronavirus, but no one seems to care. I still haven't seen a shirt or a banner that reads, "Native American Lives Matter." Maybe even black people don't care about them.
And no, nothing fundamentally will change. This will all be past history, and we'll still be stuck in the mud as a country and a civilization.
-------------------- Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
|
|