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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? * 1
    #26702424 - 05/28/20 06:34 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici


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Invisiblenooneman
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26702812 - 05/28/20 09:38 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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OfflineMarkostheGnostic
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26702813 - 05/28/20 09:38 PM (3 years, 8 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!


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InvisibleThe Blind Ass
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: nooneman]
    #26702819 - 05/28/20 09:44 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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Invisiblelaughingdog
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26702834 - 05/28/20 09:53 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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InvisibleJokeshopbeard
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26703028 - 05/28/20 11:56 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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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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Invisibleredgreenvines
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
    #26703484 - 05/29/20 04:47 AM (3 years, 8 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.


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Invisiblechronotope999
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Jokeshopbeard]
    #26703506 - 05/29/20 05:11 AM (3 years, 8 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.


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OfflineForresterM
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26703583 - 05/29/20 06:26 AM (3 years, 8 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)


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Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
-------------------

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InvisibleFerdinando
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
    #26703673 - 05/29/20 07:18 AM (3 years, 8 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


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Invisiblelaughingdog
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
    #26703848 - 05/29/20 08:32 AM (3 years, 8 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?


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Invisiblelaughingdog
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: Forrester]
    #26703878 - 05/29/20 08:42 AM (3 years, 8 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?


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OfflineInnerWisdom
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26703888 - 05/29/20 08:47 AM (3 years, 8 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.


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OfflineForresterM
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: laughingdog]
    #26704087 - 05/29/20 09:48 AM (3 years, 8 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.


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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.


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26704281 - 05/29/20 11:01 AM (3 years, 8 months ago)

Great responses from everybody. :smile:

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.


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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici


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OfflineInnerWisdom
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26704348 - 05/29/20 11:27 AM (3 years, 8 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.

:zappa:


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InvisibleYellow Pants
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: InnerWisdom]
    #26705022 - 05/29/20 03:57 PM (3 years, 8 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.


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Invisibleredgreenvines
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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, 8 months ago)

too many sword fetishes


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InvisibleRahz
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Re: Do you think we are living in the most interesting times ever? [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #26705284 - 05/29/20 05:37 PM (3 years, 8 months ago)

This beautiful disaster ain't that beautiful.:shrug:


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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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, 8 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.


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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici


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