The modern world is totally pointless, do I even want to participate in the madness?

a reply to: anotherdaytoday

I wrote this a year ago here. People didn't take to it very well. But it's a system better than capitalism, socialism, or communism. A fair warning, it's a bit long.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: southernplayalistic


For sure. Understandable. That's what worries me, people passing down this paradigm in which we do what we do with out critical thinking.

It's a tough choice, and I am glad you are thinking critically when approaching the subject of children... many let the animal instinct known as the heat of passion take over... instead of making a rational conscious choice to reproduce... of course that word itself no matter how you say it... is loaded. Reproduce, or reproduction is the process of recreating an object very similar to that which is already existing... so even the word itself is loaded with teach them the same nonsense, by recreating a mini version of yourself. Use the word procreate... and it means you're for the creation of children, when they are not created at all... but form out of a mixture of the parents dna packed within 2 living cells the mother and father generated with their gonads.

When common everyday words hold a trap of an ignorant biased concept hiding a belief within themselves?.. there's really no easy way to avoid the ignorance that can be misinterpreted arise from them... but fortunately, one can gain awareness and keep awareness of ignorance and perceive it as it arises within ones own spheres of perception... what one decides to do with the knowledge gained from; constantly watching it, arise and pass in various situations, and how it effects and affects oneself and others is also a choice. I simply choose to point at the delusion, greed, or hate itself... that gives rise to ignorance as being the problem, not the person or people haplessly unaware they are spreading it around.

a reply to: BatheInTheFountain

That's because they choose to do that for some personal reason or another. You know that whole out of sight out of mind deal? People choose to trick themselves with that, to maintain their own sense of well-being in order to cope with the world. That's what it is they are doing whether they are aware of it or not... but if you need an oasis from problems so large they are overwhelming? Then there's nothing wrong with avoiding it to cope, for one's own health and sanity, but when taken to an extreme... purposeful avoidance is not really being socially or mentally healthy, it's just another coping mechanism.

Compassion and love, has to be there for oneself... as well as others, to maintain a healthy balance. Notice the key word balance? Avoiding social injustices altogether is an extreme, and constantly focusing on social injustice is also an extreme. Of course, only you know where the healthy balance and middle ground for you is located... your personal comfortable middle may be an extreme obsession to the apathetic, or extreme apathy to those extremely obsessed, we all have different tolerances.

Strong emotions, are usually an indicator of some extreme throwing oneself out of balance has been reached. So when you're moved to anger or depression, what compounded things have moved you out of your personal balance that is destroying your sense of happiness and threatening friendships?

You see their apparent apathy as an extreme, and they see your concern as an extreme... simply because your and their tolerance or middle of certain subjects are not the same. Perhaps you could lose depression if you relaxed your focus on news you cannot do anything about, and they could start losing apathy if you share stories that could directly effect them, bringing the relationship between you and your friends back into balance.

The world is made to suck for a reason, perhaps so we can ween our minds from what causes it to suck so bad and develop the desire for something better.

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
It has to change, but for now dont expect too much that way you wont be dissapointed when the world continues to be a very pointless place.

Pointless?


So what the hell would ET want with such a pointless place?


You have such a negative outlook, a belief in ET hoping if we ever agree or have confirmation of ET it will make your life more exciting?

NO, if you see the world as such today then the intelligent ETs with higher intelligence and abilities that might seem God like will make sure you stay in the pointless place you perceive yourself to be in,

Life is a lesson.

What needs to change if your not in agreement with the modern world?

Yourself or at least allow your perception different perspectives, one might be brighter and have more of point to you personally than the pointless one you perceive at the moment.

The current point of the world may be materialism, which may change eventually. . . .

Many times more than not said by a materialist that has or one that hasn't and would become one if given the chance to have.

Luckily those (not saying you are, just point out my perception of materialism and materialistic people, I am a hypocrite so I know of what I speak) will very rarely be given the chance to be so, If they change and create the opportunities them selves it might change their perception and then they might be less likely to be possessed by the materials they possess as they know what has value when they create their own opportunities.

Strongly disagree. We are in an age of mass information. People are able to have whatever information they need at their fingertips. The govt is actually looking at how they can build on the moon - yeah I couldn't believe it either but it's true. You must not read much science and technology news huh? About how 3D printers are making artificial hands that are significantly cheaper than prosthetics (which is great for young kids as their prosthetics change while growing). There are advances in producing clean water even from waste water (I'm talking what you flush down the toilet) and Bill Gates believes this could help many places with drought and water shortages.
People are no longer being spoon fed information, but instead are able to discover it themselves. The only people left behind are those in the third world (which will improve with the more attention given to foreign crisis etc by way of charities and interest groups that one can join or support monetarily). The only other people losing out or not recognizing how much science/tech/communities are progressing daily, besides the poor in 3rd world countries who have no choice really, are lazy people.

The information is there. I'll tell you what our issue is: everything is so convenient and instantly gratifying that SOME people have become lazy, refusing to make an effort to understand or invest in something that takes time.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Wow, that was deep. Thanks for that response. Yeah, we can be trapped with words.

You seem like you've read a bit about Zen.

....that was well written.

a reply to: onequestion

I find it it kind of paradoxical. On the one hand things are cruddier than they ever have been, socially and politically and environmentally etc and so on. It is a lot of stress and pressure for adults - especially the ones who are glued to the television screen and scooping up all the atrocities into their brain. CNN and local news. Rape, murder, war etc.

But on the other hand, it seems like there has never been a time in history where there has been so much amazing technology. Incredible movies and CGI, mind-blowing video games, the internet, smart phones. A huge variety of exponentially accelerating technological possibilities. So when I see all of that, I always think of the younger generations. They are still uncontaminated, for the most part, and are growing up with all of this. The ones from middle to upper middle class families seem very happy and well-integrated. I have my own bias, but it seems like it would be the best time in human history to be a young person in many ways.

They are worth saving, as is everything else on the Earth that is still uncontaminated and full of promise and beauty. Everything else has been corrupted and a lot of people and social institutions are just spinning their wheels, unable to "get anywhere". Of course, there probably are deliberate manipulations. Scientific advance held back due to specific technological advances that could pose a national security risk etc. That is a conundrum I don't know enough about. If it turns out that progress has been held back simply for political reasons, then there actually are people responsible for killing, or trying to kill, the entire planet.

a reply to: corsair00

I agree. The kids are most valuable, yeah? Maybe.

...it's at these times my mind dashes into the future when people actually give a damn about one another.

Reminded me of this

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Terence McKenna - Eros and the Eschaton: What Science Forgot

So, just to bring it all around here, the great exhibit which we must always keep in front of ourselves and our critics, is the mystery of the human mind and body. No one knows how it is that I can command my hand to make a fist and that it will do that. I mean, that’s mind over matter: that’s the violation of every scientific principle in the books. And yet it is the most trivial experience any of us have; we expect to command our body. We expect the mental will to order the monkey flesh into action, and it will follow. The body is the nexus of the mystery of life. And our culture takes us out of the body, and sells our loyalty into political systems, into religions, into inanimate objects and machines, collections, so forth and so on. The felt experience of the body is what the psychedelics are handing back to us; that’s why it’s called escape, because it’s escape from HBO, from walking the mall, from seeing what’s on the tube, from consuming trash media – it’s escape from all of that, into the authenticity of the body. This is why sexuality is so… edgy in this society. They’d make it illegal if they could but figure out how! It’s the one drug they can’t tear from our grip, and so they lay a guilt trip about it.

But sexuality and psychedelics are carrying us back to an authentic sense of the body. Carry us back to the domain of authentic values. And more and more, the message that people are getting as they avail themselves of the psychedelic experience is that it is not a journey into the human unconscious, or into the ghost bardos of our chaotic civilisation; it’s s journey into the presence of the Gaian mind, that the Earth is a coherent whole: it is a thinking, feeling, intending, being – that in terms of our value structures, it would be foolish to image as anything other than female. And when cultural values created by male dominance and science and linearity and so forth and so on – when those values are dissolved, what it waiting there is this incredibly poignant experience of the matrix – what James Joyce called the Mama Matrix Most Mysterious: nothing more than our bodies and the earth out of which our bodies came.

History, as we have lived it in the West, has been a turning of our back on that; and now history has failed. Western cultural institutions, having become global institutions, now show themselves to be inadequate to inspire, lead or carry anyone into a future worth living in. At this moment, then, this reconnecting to the Gaian mind becomes a kind of moral imperative. So this whole drug issue is not an issue even about criminal syndicates or about untaxed billions, or about the mental health of our youth, or any of that malarkey; I mean, God, the most destructive drug that’s known to the species is peddled on every street corner, without restriction. The real issue is what kind of mental world shall people inhabit? What kinds of hope shall be permitted? What kind of value systems shall be allowed? And the value systems that aggrandise the possession of things, the tearing up of the Earth, competition, classism, racism, sexism, have led us to the brink of catastrophe.

Now, I think we have to abandon Western cultural values and return to the deeper wisdom of the body in connection with the plants. That’s the seamless web that leads us back into the heart of nature; and if we can do this, then this very narrow neck of cultural crisis can be navigated. Very little of the past can be saved. The architectonics, the machines, the systems of monetary exchange and propaganda, the silly religions, the asinine aesthetic canons, very little of that can be saved. But what can be saved is the sense of love and caring, and mutuality, that we all put into and take from the human enterprise. You know, there’s a Grateful Dead song that says “You can’t go back and you can’t stand still. If the thunder don’t get you, then the lightning will.” And we now hold, through the possession of these psychedelics, catalysts for the human imagination of sufficient power that if we use them we can deconstruct the lethal vehicle that is carrying us toward the brink of apocalypse. We can deconstruct that vehicle and redesign it into a kind of starship that would carry us and our children out into the broad starry galaxy we know to be awaiting us.

But it’s a cultural test. Nature is pitiless. Intelligence is a grand experiment upon which a great deal has been writ; but if it proves inadequate, nature will cover it over with the same kind of cool impunity that she covered over the dinosaurs and the trilobites and the crossopterygian fishes, and all those other folks that came before. So what we must do, I think, is see our future in the imagination. Catalyse the imagination. Form symbiotic relationships with the plants. Affirm archaic values. And spread the good news that what is out of control, what is in fact dying, is a world that had become too top-heavy with its own hubris, too bent by its own false value systems, and too dehumanised to care about what happened to its own children. So I say, good riddance to it! Bring on the archaic revival, and let’s create a new world!

originally posted by: corsair00
a reply to: FormOfTheLord



Terence McKenna - Eros and the Eschaton: What Science Forgot



So, just to bring it all around here, the great exhibit which we must always keep in front of ourselves and our critics, is the mystery of the human mind and body. No one knows how it is that I can command my hand to make a fist and that it will do that. I mean, that’s mind over matter: that’s the violation of every scientific principle in the books. And yet it is the most trivial experience any of us have; we expect to command our body. We expect the mental will to order the monkey flesh into action, and it will follow. The body is the nexus of the mystery of life. And our culture takes us out of the body, and sells our loyalty into political systems, into religions, into inanimate objects and machines, collections, so forth and so on. The felt experience of the body is what the psychedelics are handing back to us; that’s why it’s called escape, because it’s escape from HBO, from walking the mall, from seeing what’s on the tube, from consuming trash media – it’s escape from all of that, into the authenticity of the body. This is why sexuality is so… edgy in this society. They’d make it illegal if they could but figure out how! It’s the one drug they can’t tear from our grip, and so they lay a guilt trip about it.



But sexuality and psychedelics are carrying us back to an authentic sense of the body. Carry us back to the domain of authentic values. And more and more, the message that people are getting as they avail themselves of the psychedelic experience is that it is not a journey into the human unconscious, or into the ghost bardos of our chaotic civilisation; it’s s journey into the presence of the Gaian mind, that the Earth is a coherent whole: it is a thinking, feeling, intending, being – that in terms of our value structures, it would be foolish to image as anything other than female. And when cultural values created by male dominance and science and linearity and so forth and so on – when those values are dissolved, what it waiting there is this incredibly poignant experience of the matrix – what James Joyce called the Mama Matrix Most Mysterious: nothing more than our bodies and the earth out of which our bodies came.



History, as we have lived it in the West, has been a turning of our back on that; and now history has failed. Western cultural institutions, having become global institutions, now show themselves to be inadequate to inspire, lead or carry anyone into a future worth living in. At this moment, then, this reconnecting to the Gaian mind becomes a kind of moral imperative. So this whole drug issue is not an issue even about criminal syndicates or about untaxed billions, or about the mental health of our youth, or any of that malarkey; I mean, God, the most destructive drug that’s known to the species is peddled on every street corner, without restriction. The real issue is what kind of mental world shall people inhabit? What kinds of hope shall be permitted? What kind of value systems shall be allowed? And the value systems that aggrandise the possession of things, the tearing up of the Earth, competition, classism, racism, sexism, have led us to the brink of catastrophe.



Now, I think we have to abandon Western cultural values and return to the deeper wisdom of the body in connection with the plants. That’s the seamless web that leads us back into the heart of nature; and if we can do this, then this very narrow neck of cultural crisis can be navigated. Very little of the past can be saved. The architectonics, the machines, the systems of monetary exchange and propaganda, the silly religions, the asinine aesthetic canons, very little of that can be saved. But what can be saved is the sense of love and caring, and mutuality, that we all put into and take from the human enterprise. You know, there’s a Grateful Dead song that says “You can’t go back and you can’t stand still. If the thunder don’t get you, then the lightning will.” And we now hold, through the possession of these psychedelics, catalysts for the human imagination of sufficient power that if we use them we can deconstruct the lethal vehicle that is carrying us toward the brink of apocalypse. We can deconstruct that vehicle and redesign it into a kind of starship that would carry us and our children out into the broad starry galaxy we know to be awaiting us.



But it’s a cultural test. Nature is pitiless. Intelligence is a grand experiment upon which a great deal has been writ; but if it proves inadequate, nature will cover it over with the same kind of cool impunity that she covered over the dinosaurs and the trilobites and the crossopterygian fishes, and all those other folks that came before. So what we must do, I think, is see our future in the imagination. Catalyse the imagination. Form symbiotic relationships with the plants. Affirm archaic values. And spread the good news that what is out of control, what is in fact dying, is a world that had become too top-heavy with its own hubris, too bent by its own false value systems, and too dehumanised to care about what happened to its own children. So I say, good riddance to it! Bring on the archaic revival, and let’s create a new world!

Well said, but I think we can also change the world into a paradise and makeit a great place to not only visit but live as well.
I think there may be some sinister forces keeping everyone from moving foward with more progressive agendas, and the media doesnt promote porgressive one love agendas as well. Thats what we need to do, through our intentions make earth into a heavenly paradise, and support no suffering of any beings on our watch. We should use our morality as a good meter to jusdge our actions as being supportive of madness or enlightenment.

I think we can make heaven a place on earth, but we have to want it, then act to bring it about.

Of course the way its headed its looking like hell will be here in no time, with the fire and suffering from nuclear destruction.
We can change it, we have the power to do anything we just have to want it and bring it about in others, each of us can spread knowledge over ignorance, and lead our humanity to a greater and higher counsiousness FTW!

originally posted by: southernplayalistic
a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Wow, that was deep. Thanks for that response. Yeah, we can be trapped with words.

You seem like you've read a bit about Zen.

....that was well written.

Read zen, experienced zen, written zen... eh, it all becomes the same after awhile. Thank you for the compliment, and you are quite welcome. Words really only have as much power as we personally let them have, they can make us angry, they can make us laugh, they can make us kill, or make us surrender, they can unite us and they can divide us... but it's a choice how we take them and let them affect us... the ones you use really make who you are, so choosing them freely yet wisely... can make all the difference the the world in how you are perceived, when you speak from the heart directly as exactly who you honestly are without fear of judgement, then all you are doing is clarifying yourself... until it is all purely you and easily understood. People pass by flowers quite often, how many stop to smell them? Only those that can appreciate them.

Cheers, Tiger-lily

originally posted by: corsair00
a reply to: onequestion

I find it it kind of paradoxical. On the one hand things are cruddier than they ever have been, socially and politically and environmentally etc and so on. It is a lot of stress and pressure for adults - especially the ones who are glued to the television screen and scooping up all the atrocities into their brain. CNN and local news. Rape, murder, war etc.

But on the other hand, it seems like there has never been a time in history where there has been so much amazing technology. Incredible movies and CGI, mind-blowing video games, the internet, smart phones. A huge variety of exponentially accelerating technological possibilities. So when I see all of that, I always think of the younger generations. They are still uncontaminated, for the most part, and are growing up with all of this. The ones from middle to upper middle class families seem very happy and well-integrated. I have my own bias, but it seems like it would be the best time in human history to be a young person in many ways.

They are worth saving, as is everything else on the Earth that is still uncontaminated and full of promise and beauty. Everything else has been corrupted and a lot of people and social institutions are just spinning their wheels, unable to "get anywhere". Of course, there probably are deliberate manipulations. Scientific advance held back due to specific technological advances that could pose a national security risk etc. That is a conundrum I don't know enough about. If it turns out that progress has been held back simply for political reasons, then there actually are people responsible for killing, or trying to kill, the entire planet.

Unfortunately, the teens that I have spoken with... feel there's nothing left to achieve no way to make their mark just follow footsteps and are unfortunately stricken with a sense of hopelessness especially with them growing up in the midst of war... 9/11 was almost 14 years ago, this idea of war and terror is all most teens have ever known. That is something not only to be ashamed of but something we need to work towards ending... people operating in extremes has to stop, and the best way we can achieve that is with reason by changing one mind at a time... the same way an ignorant voice led them into the extreme they feel right and justified for being in and have made these extremes their life's reason and purpose.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

In the outside world, this is probably very true. That is why they all seem to be escaping more and more into the digital world. That's why I always half assumed that the digital world would be something that we (or they) would eventually migrate into at some point. Without some sort of marked transition like this in our evolution, all seems lost - and pointless. At best, just really incredible variations of entertainment and escapism.

I think I am mostly just projecting on the fancy notion of high technology as a teen. From my perspective it seems like it would make all of it pretty awesome. But the few younger people I have talked to sometimes say that they feel lonely. It is even making newspaper headlines in recent sociological studies that young adult students are increasingly more anxious and isolated. That is mostly blamed on highly competitive schooling and not enough time for social activities, except for the nonstop, ever-present random text messages constantly diverting and chopping up their attention and cognitive resources even more.

Hmm... maybe the modern world is totally pointless. Is this great transition ever going to come, or can we all look forward to The Real Hunger Games? LOL

a reply to: corsair00

RELIGIONS UNITED
THE NEW GENERATION

This is a movement not an organization.  There are no leaders funders sponsors unlike currently existing corporation for peace. No money will ever be asked to donate and No person will ever be asked to help or volunteer

This movement represents the end of the dormant era and beginning of the awaken one

This movements is For world where religion is not abused for political and economical propaganda

This movement is  For world where religious dogma is not part of the monetary foundations of society. It is Only then society can progress politically economically environmentally and sustainably

This is a new millennium where we have acknowledged thar human race can only progress if we put our differences aside 

This movement is the voice of new generation

This movement is for people who believe...

...that different religious views don't separate us but instead enrich us as a whole

This movement is for people who believe...

...that free speech does not equal discrimination 

This movement is for people who believe...

...that humorous cartoon drawings of religious prophets are simply not even funny and are certainly  not a way to get a point across 

This movement is for people who believe...

...that people who play GOD with wars and use of death sentence and harm do not bring justice to the table

The goal of this movement will be accomplished when the political leaders of all existing nations and the representatives of religions unite on the symbolical holly ground as one 

declaring to the world that...

...they recognize war on religion as a form of crime 

declaring to the world that...

...religious intolerance is form of discrimination 

declaring to the world that...

... people who play GOD and use wars, death sentence and harm as form of justice will not be tolerated 

declaring to the world the that...

...as one they will progress with absolute transparency to achieve peace and unity 

feel free to join the group at

m.facebook.com...

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

we can change this. we have to .we need to come up with a solution. we need to create an ultimatum, I want to start hearing people talking solution. we are living in a limbo

a reply to: corsair00

The teens today that have technology freely available in the home for the most part, are already there... much like the Otaku of Japan. Japan is really a microcosm population wise for what has been growing here. Technology has many benefits, such as uniting the world in a matter of seconds... open source information and sharing beyond the spin or slant the media spins it for the sponsors paying their bills. Want to know what's happening from the horses mouth in the Ukraine, Egypt, or anywhere else in the world? You have a pen pal one search and click away with social media... so yes there are advantages in uniting us, of course those wishing to divide humanity for whatever purpose try to have as much presence, to spread hate and bias for people many have never or will ever meet. Of course the motivation behind that is greed and they get their troops by feeding the hate people hold in their hearts for things past. So we get stuck in the loop of reliving the past by those constantly fanning the flames.

The kids? They don't have a choice to move forward, we are in control as adults and because of our petty grudges and refusal to forgive and move forward? We hold them back as well as ourselves for a chance at a brighter tomorrow.

War has been waging for 1000's of years, because out of ignorance we grab up an ideological line and start running with it and to hell and war with the opposition. This is obviously not the way and it's honestly the very definition of madness; repeating the same thing expecting a different outcome each time... the outcome of war is always more war, we have to lay it down if not for us but the children and the future.

originally posted by: MimiSia
a reply to: corsair00

RELIGIONS UNITED
THE NEW GENERATION

This is a movement not an organization.  There are no leaders funders sponsors unlike currently existing corporation for peace. No money will ever be asked to donate and No person will ever be asked to help or volunteer

This movement represents the end of the dormant era and beginning of the awaken one

This movements is For world where religion is not abused for political and economical propaganda

This movement is  For world where religious dogma is not part of the monetary foundations of society. It is Only then society can progress politically economically environmentally and sustainably

This is a new millennium where we have acknowledged thar human race can only progress if we put our differences aside 

This movement is the voice of new generation

This movement is for people who believe...

...that different religious views don't separate us but instead enrich us as a whole

This movement is for people who believe...

...that free speech does not equal discrimination 

This movement is for people who believe...

...that humorous cartoon drawings of religious prophets are simply not even funny and are certainly  not a way to get a point across 

This movement is for people who believe...

...that people who play GOD with wars and use of death sentence and harm do not bring justice to the table

The goal of this movement will be accomplished when the political leaders of all existing nations and the representatives of religions unite on the symbolical holly ground as one 

declaring to the world that...

...they recognize war on religion as a form of crime 

declaring to the world that...

...religious intolerance is form of discrimination 

declaring to the world that...

... people who play GOD and use wars, death sentence and harm as form of justice will not be tolerated 

declaring to the world the that...

...as one they will progress with absolute transparency to achieve peace and unity 

feel free to join the group at

Nice list of Ideology after ideology, ideology does nothing but breed extremes... as soon as someone draws a line for others not to cross with an ideological belief to not cross? You've created an enemy... please tell me how this not so new movement is supposed to bring peace when there's so much ideological bias in it? Rhetorical... it can't.

what is it indeed? that's a difficult question.

i ponder;

when did everyday life become a ceaseless torrent of fear?
when did kids stop having childhoods?
when did paranoia and doubt push optimism and hope out of the nest?
why does it not only continue, but worsen exponentially?
how can it be changed for the better?
is it possible for humanity to change for the better?

i can only imagine a world-changing event, of perhaps an extra-terrestrial nature, shaking our civilization out of it's self-destructive and, frankly, suicidal course. outside of such an unlikely scenario i am stumped. and depressed.