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Shop: Myyco.com Isolated Cubensis Liquid Culture For Sale   Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

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Do you ever think you aren't doing anything?
    #6007201 -

I feel guilty for being an American. Not because I live in America, but because, as much as I try to seperate myself from the american stereotype, i still find many american qualities that I dislike in myself.

We americans just think life is fucking dandy, and when we think it is "tough" it stems usually from such trivial things like: jobs, cars, girlfriends, libido, fame and gossip.

Im not a bleeding heart, and I have no want to join Peace Corps or some Eco/3rd world country friendly cause.... but, Im not doing anything that matters.
By american standards, I am doing great. I am 24, just bought a new car and a new house, self employed through technical knowledge, I have a position of social respect and awe because of my job, occassional one-night stands, and a lot of disposable income.

But, compared to the world outside fake breasts, blinging rims, reality television, and "bigger, better, faster", I am a fucking american tard. Just another face in the Jerry Springer audience.

in america we give money in leiu of action, it helps us erase that nagging feeling I am having.... but the world isn't capitalist and materialist. Im not saying there is a need to uproot and fly to africa to clutch kaworshikori babies to your bosom.... but come on people, we are the worlds abusive husband: sit on the couch watching television with the remote on our beer guts, littering refuse in our wake and ready to bitch slap our significant others (countries) if they don't "shut yer mouth and do wut I tell ya". After their beat down we hand them money to go buy some make-up and hand our "needy" children (3rd world) 5 dollars to get the fuck out of our face.

I don't want to be a part of that. America is the most self-absorbed nation. When we try to seriously help, it ends in erosion of culture, mismanagement of resources etc.... like a retarded golem that tries to pet a bunny but ends up accidentally crushing its skull.

We are spiritually inept. Sure, we have some wonderful thinkers on these boards, but how much of that do you really put into action? We don't witness brutally mangled corpses every day, we don't have to go to sleep listening to gunfire every night, we rarely ever have to struggle for survival.... and I truly believe that it takes that certain exposure to have a well rounded philosophy.

Im not saying anyone should feel guilty for living the good life.... just don't be ignorant of it, and keep that in perspective. How many of you feel the war is completely wrong and that we had no basis for invading a soveirgn nation? how much have you done about it past bitching in blogs and forums, and maybe the occasional protest... if it isnt too hot or raining.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6007246 -

I have been meditating since fifteen going to many major courses. I have done some charity, and also striven to improve at personal and job performance. I have striven for much and yet, and this is how I felt your question was going to run, and yet, I feel I do nothing in spite of everythng.

This is not the state of America, but the status of all humans in that, no life will ever end having felt completed. That's life. And if you look at any figure in history, not one of them ever felt they accomplished their goals. Not a one.

I raised my initial objections to your survivor's guilt, to show you that some people are trying to do what they say, and are not merely just trippin.


--------------------
...or something






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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: eve69]
    #6008126 -

I don't live in the US (not American either). But I certainlt feel that I should be doing more to help people around me, not necessarily in a 3rd wold country, just anyone! I'm not sure though what I can do! Its all nice in theory but people have pride, they don't accept help even if they need it!

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6008182 -

I fully intend to change the world. I may not have much capacity to do so now, but I know that somewhere down the line, when I have more money and influence, I'll have the opportunity to make a real difference, and I plan to take that opportunity. Until then, I do what I can. We are only as inept as we think we are.


--------------------

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: Silversoul]
    #6008252 -

No point feeling guilty about the hand you were dealt. Whether good or bad, its just the hand you were dealt. Not to say you cant change your circumstances at any moment. If you feel your life is materialistic, shallow, unfulfilling, I say you should sell all your shit, donate the money and join a zen buddhist monastery.


--------------------
All I know is that I dont know.

Row, row, row, you boat, gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: badreligion2good]
    #6008409 -

My advice, that I give to anyone feeling confined, pushed, or guilty about "standards" of today's world, especially in America, is to get out into the wild. Go camping. Hike the Appalacian trail. When you're by yourself (or with a significant other) and come across some cliff face overlooking a valley, or stand at the bottom of some tall mountains, it's awe inspiring and a sign that life is still here, in America, despite all the crap going around.


--------------------
When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro.

-H. S. Thompson

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6008788 -

"retarded golem"  LOL! LMAO!  :laugh:

Hey, just walking on some street somewhere in Germany, minding my own business, not saying a word, and someone says as they pass "Amerikaner' [sp?].
Sue me, I carry myself with confidence, not arrogance. I walk with my head up, shoulders back; I had somewhat long hair and wore a bandana headband (it was 106 days in Germany that summer). I wear blue jeans - everywhere. If they can't come in, I don't go in. I wore bluejeans at both of my parents' funerals.  I'm incorrigibly an iconoclastic American. I send money to the 'Save Tibet' fund even though I think it's a lost cause. I'm with a Nigerian-Jamaican London-raised Lady because American women, by-and-large, are even more spoiled than American men by the materialism that has colored their Darwinian natural selection (of desirable men) and I have always been outside the loop of eligible materialists.

I'm blessed to have been born here and I first realized that at Roosevelt Stadium in the 70s, while tripping my face off at a Grateful Dead show where acid was being sold openly. "Only in America" I thought, could such a phenomenon arise and give even the cops around the show a contact high. I am - grateful - and you're right, one must be aware and never take freedom for granted like the majority of piggy Americans who fancy themselves somehow superior to others based upon what car they drive or neighborhood they reside in. It isn't about people's philosophy - they don't  philosophize. They are not philosophers. They are what they 'have.' They are children who boast about all the toys they have, or take pride in being spoiled, Boys about toys, and girls about pearls. Children, and not very pleasant children at that because nothing is ever enough. It's never enough because thy're never living in the Present. "The one who dies with the most toys wins," is a bumper sticker slogan for materialistic morons. Heaven forbid that this is what the world thinks is American philosophy. It is the pathetic absence of philosophy, the childish titillation of the senses plus adolescent egocentricity. America - 'land of the free and home of the boob[s].'

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6009137 -

"Sure, we have some wonderful thinkers on these boards, but how much of that do you really put into action?"

I extend myself into practicing what I preach as much as I am humanly able under the circumstances. I am a long way from impeccability, but I give my very best into being what I think I should be every single day, though I come up short in the end. Don't take for granted the cushy freedom (limited though it is) that you enjoy...sleeping to the sound of gunfire is no way to live. Fuck guilt!! Take what you have and be grateful...make the best of yourself and live.

"I don't need you to pay me back," he said, "but if you still want to pay back, make your deposit to the spirit of man. That's always a very small account, and whatever one puts in it is more than enough." --Carlos Castaneda


--------------------
"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

Edited by Huehuecoyotl (08/29/06 07:56 PM)

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
    #6009594 -

In contrast to the amazing and revolutionary things people have done in the past, things we may do . . especially as americans . . may definately seem like they do not measure up. Many get caught up in the frivolous games of society. Do not lose sight of your goal. You may have no effect on the war in Iraq, but you affect everyone around you through your actions, positive or negative. Live your life around making a change for the positive. Collectively, we will make a change.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6009806 -

Don't worry, be happy. :cool:

Just watch the parade, then watch it fade, no need to feel one way or another. :wink:

You da dude psilocyberin. :thumbup: :heart:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? *DELETED* [Re: Icelander]
    #6009959 -

Post deleted by uber_aj

Reason for deletion: .



--------------------
A final message to my favorite online community

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: uber_aj]
    #6009985 -

Now here is an honest post. Well done. :thumbup:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: Icelander]
    #6010168 -

Sometimes I think I'm not doing anything. But in reality, I am. Maybe not as much as I should - not to full potential - but every day I stand by my views and do a lot of little things to set examples.

It's all about setting examples. If you can't do anything big, you've got to do all the small things that will make the future a brighter place to live.


--------------------
The answer to 1984 is 1776.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: kake]
    #6010591 -

im not talking about making the future a brighter place.

I am talking about experiencing real life, not American life, and striving towards a non americanized goal. Not: trying to get a promotion, trying to get in that girls pants, trying to get everyone to notice you.

I think the most cathartic and self-realizing moment of my life was when I lived by myself on a houseboat 40 miles from civilization for two weeks.
Im not talking about meditating, or being nice to people, or helping katrina victims rebuild their material possessions.... I am talking about just living a REAL life, instead of living the fake american life.
By just being an average american, we are hurting the rest of the world in so many ways. I don't believe there is a wrong or a right, and that anyone who strives to impose a will under the ideology of "helping" (such as the current war) is in fact imposing a foriegn reality on a group of people who are just living, and struggling to survive.
no matter how vaccinated, or how good your intentions are, your personal concept of good will most often becomes a hindrance in the long run to those you "helped".

I realize between my two posts in this thread there seems to be conflict, but it sums up to equal : if everyone would resort to living life, and not resort to living in some fantasy world where status and material possessions are the emphasis of daily reality, then the big organism which is our earth would tilt back to normal function.

America is like a virtual reality, where we think we are actually doing something, yet we are just making motions and believing they are having impact upon a reality that is merely an illusion.
I think that by continuing in this pattern we are doing more imbalancing than assumed good... and by reverting back to a simpler, more primal lifestyle we might unconciously revert this world back to its previous function.

It is kind of backwards, but by not doing anything, we would actually be doing something on a whole, and by doing things the way we are now, we are spreading the lie and perversion of this virtual reality, infecting the rest of the world.

yet still, after this post, I am still truly not doing anything, but sitting on my computer and bitching about an idealistic life. I finally feel like I have something to strive towards: doing something, by doing nothing - gaining enough virtual money to buy myself out of the virtual world one day.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? *DELETED* [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6010953 -

Post deleted by dorkus

Reason for deletion: .

Edited by dr_mandelbrot (08/30/06 04:32 PM)

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: dorkus]
    #6011032 -

There's no reality. The mountain man image in your mind means nothing. Or rather, the reality is that we all eat, shit, kill with every breath, and no matter what our intentions we inadvertantly harm others automatically. The reason? Not America, but life itself.

Because everything is alive, and all things fit into a whole. Therefore one cannot run down a road, or scratch an itch without harming something.

In fact, often wisdom is the power to make hard and harmful decisions with a long view instead of always receeding from any contact.

Living on a houseboat might have seems novelly refreshing to you, maybe in Crowley's "Soul of the Dessert" sense, and I admit, more time to perceive the underlying soul of life is truely something all humans should have.

Yes, Americans in general do harm much. Having internet is not the same as having a heart or a purpose. Having two cars doesn't equate with peace of mind. Ownership is not freedom. But the ability to manifest ones dream is.

For all you know, the supposed harm we have supposedly created was contributed to by all the others in the distance. Like a drug dealer, yes, we have pushed commercialism on others, but they didn't have to buy. Instead they got hooked and decided to follow suit. It's too late to now return to innocent yesterday before the tasting of the fruit of the tree. The only way through is out. Simplicity is not reality.

The ocean of life may diversify as well as simplify in waves. Allow it and judge not with that beam in your eye.


--------------------
...or something






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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6011119 -

psilocyberin said:
im not talking about making the future a brighter place.

I am talking about experiencing real life, not American life, and striving towards a non americanized goal. Not: trying to get a promotion, trying to get in that girls pants, trying to get everyone to notice you.

I think the most cathartic and self-realizing moment of my life was when I lived by myself on a houseboat 40 miles from civilization for two weeks.
Im not talking about meditating, or being nice to people, or helping katrina victims rebuild their material possessions.... I am talking about just living a REAL life, instead of living the fake american life.
By just being an average american, we are hurting the rest of the world in so many ways. I don't believe there is a wrong or a right, and that anyone who strives to impose a will under the ideology of "helping" (such as the current war) is in fact imposing a foriegn reality on a group of people who are just living, and struggling to survive.
no matter how vaccinated, or how good your intentions are, your personal concept of good will most often becomes a hindrance in the long run to those you "helped".

I realize between my two posts in this thread there seems to be conflict, but it sums up to equal : if everyone would resort to living life, and not resort to living in some fantasy world where status and material possessions are the emphasis of daily reality, then the big organism which is our earth would tilt back to normal function.

America is like a virtual reality, where we think we are actually doing something, yet we are just making motions and believing they are having impact upon a reality that is merely an illusion.
I think that by continuing in this pattern we are doing more imbalancing than assumed good... and by reverting back to a simpler, more primal lifestyle we might unconciously revert this world back to its previous function.

It is kind of backwards, but by not doing anything, we would actually be doing something on a whole, and by doing things the way we are now, we are spreading the lie and perversion of this virtual reality, infecting the rest of the world.

yet still, after this post, I am still truly not doing anything, but sitting on my computer and bitching about an idealistic life. I finally feel like I have something to strive towards: doing something, by doing nothing - gaining enough virtual money to buy myself out of the virtual world one day.


:hissyfit:  :rofl2:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: eve69]
    #6011650 -

eve69 said:
There's no reality. The mountain man image in your mind means nothing. Or rather, the reality is that we all eat, shit, kill with every breath, and no matter what our intentions we inadvertantly harm others automatically. The reason? Not America, but life itself.

Because everything is alive, and all things fit into a whole. Therefore one cannot run down a road, or scratch an itch without harming something.

In fact, often wisdom is the power to make hard and harmful decisions with a long view instead of always receeding from any contact.

Living on a houseboat might have seems novelly refreshing to you, maybe in Crowley's "Soul of the Dessert" sense, and I admit, more time to perceive the underlying soul of life is truely something all humans should have.

Yes, Americans in general do harm much.  Having internet is not the same as having a heart or a purpose. Having two cars doesn't equate with peace of mind. Ownership is not freedom.  But the ability to manifest ones dream is. 

For all you know, the supposed harm we have supposedly created was contributed to by all the others in the distance.  Like a drug dealer, yes, we have pushed commercialism on others, but they didn't have to buy. Instead they got hooked and decided to follow suit.  It's too late to now return to innocent yesterday before the tasting of the fruit of the tree. The only way through is out. Simplicity is not reality.

The ocean of life may diversify as well as simplify in waves.  Allow it and judge not with that beam in your eye.


:thumbup:


--------------------
The answer to 1984 is 1776.

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: kake]
    #6011751 -

The system sucks ass IMO,

it doesn't work for alot of people,

in fact its engineered to bring certain people down

so I do think its necessary that everyone takes a certain level of responsibility to make it better, instead of being self center and uncompassionate for the less fortunate

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Re: Do you ever think you aren't doing anything? [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #6013713 -

ya know, sometimes I feel like I'm not. But then if I live a certain way then maybe somebody will see me and follow my example. I wouldn't expect them to follow my footsteps verbatim, but rather take what they find fits them.

Whether it be picking up trash on the way to class, I could start a whole domino effect and maybe other ppl would pick up trash.

I can organize a group of people for a cause. I could teach. I could talk to all of you about philosophy giving my two cents and whatever fits your liking then, to me, I did something. Maybe I changed, inspired the way someone thought. Or maybe someone already had that thought and I simply complemented it and made them more comfortable knowing that there's other ppl who feel the same way.

I can be symbolic in what I do and have mental cues within people that would remind them of certain ideas that would be better or worse for them or the world.



If ya didn't like what I just said then maybe I can say it better concisely...

"The logic of money is a logic that has gone mad"
-Jim Page


--------------------
The best way to live
is to be like water
For water benefits all things
and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
and even cleanses those places
a man is loath to go
In this way it is just like Tao        ~Daodejing

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