How do you deal with apparent hopelessness?

Originally posted by Mr. Toodles
Nothing can stop the hopelessness. We live in a hopeless world with little left to hope for. In my experience, hope is all but blind faith. The more you hope for, the more disappointment will come your way. Some people have a happy go lucky life where everything they could ever need or want is just handed to them and they don't have to suffer through REAL pain. I might be the only one here who will give this advice. But, give up on hope. It brings nothing but pain.

Gee aren't we a beacon of light?

You know we may live in a hopeless world but not all is lost because there is much good in the world too. I like the OP get my kicks on the doom and gloom but I also can keep perspective and I do not allow it to become me. You are always in charge of your destiny and you have to live in the present and see the beauty in things around you. Nobody else can do that for you. Find joy, it is there.

Originally posted by OmegaPoint

Originally posted by DezertSkies
Don't despair, there's hope, we're a fragile species on the exposed surface of a ball of rock whizzing through space and a gajillion relative mikes per hour, along with gajillions of other rocks whizzing through space all in different directions. It's inevitable that we'll run into a spacerock or comet someday.

So there, there's hope, that the big comet will come and wipe the earth clean of this plague of civilization. That's what i hope for, so it's not hopeless.

Hoping that everybody will all wake up and find love for each other as fellow beings, well, that's hopeless.

Nice hope and prayer on ya there bud, how sad, when so much is possible.

I hereby counteract your prayer with a degree of hope and optimism which is more powerful by many many orders of magnitude.

That is my optimism. From the looks of things we don't have a future that contains hope.

Tell me, what is possible? I KNOW we can build paradise, utopia, right now, today, if we all stopped trying to cut each others' nuts off and worked together as a race of humans rather than 6 billion devils all fighting over nothing. In between the last post, i went outside my house in the park, and decided to do something positive and film a short skateboard video. While i was filming myself one of you oh-so-goodhearted people stole my camera as i was in front of it. I looked down at my feet, looked back AT the camera and it was gone within 2 seconds.

I don't even care about the loss of my camera, that's only a piece of plastic that i got to almost use, i care more about the person who would wait for the 2 seconds i couldn't stare at it and snatch it.

But i guess that's my fault for thinking i can stand 8 feet away from my camera and film myself in a public park in this society of sick individuals without being robbed. I don't live in the city, i live in a small rural mountain town where i know ALL my neighbors personally and have been a prominent member of the community for over a decade.

My opinion of you sick creatures has just been knocked down another notch, i already don't trust any of you, i'll be leaving this planet soon enough anyway and you can go on being the filthy things that you all are and want to be.

reply to post by DezertSkies


Hey, you know what they say:

Even the Devil gets his way, in Paradise.

How do you know anywhere else would be any better? Like goes to like, and you're sounding pretty negative yourself if you ask me.

reply to post by DezertSkies


I think you're confusing "sick individuals" with poor people who don't have any money, because they have to pay taxes, pay incredibly high heating and electric (and probably cable/phone/internet/satellite etc.) bills, make atleast the minimum payments on their cars, homes, and CC's.

Stealing is not being respectful of another individual's property, but there are many things that can drive a person to do that. Of course, it was probably some teenager who wanted to trade it to their friend for some Xanax or Ritalin or something.

Anyway, my point is: sick individuals would do something like grab your skateboard out from underneath your feet, bash you in the face with it, and THEN steal your camera. Or just watch you go back home, sneak inside in the middle of the night, slice your throat, steal your camera, TV, computer, and anything else of value.

Personally, I wouldn't ever steal anything from another individual, no matter how poor I am. I really think a majority of people would not. And I'm a little offended that you word your statements as if WE are ALL the thieves you are talking about.

Granted, some people are dishonest, so I don't trust people in general. That does not however mean that I don't love them. And I love you too, man, whether you like it or not.

Originally posted by DezertSkies

Originally posted by OmegaPoint

Originally posted by DezertSkies
Tell me, what is possible? I KNOW we can build paradise, utopia, right now, today, if we all stopped trying to cut each others' nuts off and worked together as a race of humans rather than 6 billion devils all fighting over nothing. In between the last post, i went outside my house in the park, and decided to do something positive and film a short skateboard video. While i was filming myself one of you oh-so-goodhearted people stole my camera as i was in front of it. I looked down at my feet, looked back AT the camera and it was gone within 2 seconds.

I was me. I'll take full responsibility for it.

Now what do we do?

Thanks for all the replies and advice, most of which is sound and healthy.

In my own case, I'm pretty much an Internet addict, due both to the nature of my job and just my general mindset. I used to just let it run free but I've been forcing myself to take breaks lately, which is a good direction. Even when I'm not on the net, I spend a lot of time reading or listening to audiobooks, etc. I guess I'm a "verbal junkie." I don't think that's necessarily the worst of things to be -- it can be and has, for me personally, been a central survival tool in terms of business and putting food on the table. And curiosity and the urge to read/learn has been a part of me my whole life. I wouldn't change it for all the world.

But spending all your time with words, texts, and thoughts can't be healthy.

Unfortunately, I cannot connect with nature easily as I live in the center of one of the world's largest mega-cities. I've lived in big cities for decades (though I spent my childhood in an extremelty rural area) and I thionk its profoundly unhealthy. Again, the pressures of job, situation, etc. mean I'm basically stuck here 99% of the time. It's hot as the hinges of Hades here, too. I'm an upcountry boy...can't take this accursed wet heat...

So my escape strategy today is to check into a very nice hotel and turn the airconditioner down as low as it will go. I will close all the windows, turn out all the lights, and attempt to sleep for as long and as deeply as possible or, failing that, to look at an art book. Its nice and silent in there (been there before) and in the middle of a big city silence itself is a rare commodity. This is my basic escape mode and I do it regularly in the summer. It's not as good as a cabin by a burbling brook on the edge of a windswept field, but it will have to do.

So catch ya all on the flipside as they say.

If you immerse yourself in anything for a long enough time it starts to become a part of you or maybe you start to become a part of it rather. Regardless, make a conscious point to breakup all the negative stuff more often with positive news, ideas, peoples, thoughts, etc.
They're out there, and not hard to find.
Maybe take a break from ATS for a while, or at least avoid all the doom and gloom threads (yes, I know that will be hard around here.)

That is actually why I am reluctant to believe so much around here and really embrace the conspiracy culture: its all doom and gloom and negative and fatalistic, mostly...don't allow yourself to fall into that trap.

Just came across this, and I like it:

"Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and took out at the stars. This practice should answer the question. The superior person settles his mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky. By connecting his mind with the subtle origin, he calms it. Once calmed, it naturally expands, and ultimately her mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky."

=Lao Tsu, Hua Hu Ching