Originally posted by SpookHunter
We all know and experience this.
Unless you are independently wealthy, turning these rules into a game to be played, allowing you to walk out the building to live a real life, provides a healthier perspective.

I see people who self-identify with the job they have. That's a tragic mistake. It's an entirely artificial environment, completely contrived.

[edit on 13-10-2009 by SpookHunter]

I agree with this. This makes me think of a brief conversation I recently had with a person who asked what the difference between "doing" and "being" was. I told him that you can "do" your job, but you don't have to "be" your job, unless of course you love what you do, which I don't think is the case for most of us.

And S & F OP.

Thanks for the kudos, lel1111 and welcome to the thread. It's been asleep for a while but since the problem still persists, I like to re-introduce it from time to time.

There are 2 threads on the boards right now asking about buying/selling human beings. They're valid questions and ones we've apparently answered in our previous history since at one time slavery was a legalized institution.

I had hoped we had moved past that dark stain on our nation's soul as it is a scathing indictment of our lack of humanity towards our fellows. As is the indigenous holocaust that preceded it.

We are human beings not human doings. What we "do" should be an outpouring extension of who we are not just a way to keep from starving.

We're already in a system of slavery in which there are no free men. Even the elite are slaves to their greed and must answer to the system they created. Until we break this mindset of "divine right to rule" and replace it with one of individual sovereignty, we will continue to degrade into total collapse (as we see occurring).

A materialist system thinks solely in terms of wealth and comfort, and assumes its dissidents act only from a lack of these two things. Had Hitler been given a Mercedes at age 16, we reason, he would not have done what he did; the current crop of Muslim guerrillas (and what is a terrorist but a guerrilla acting within civilization) would cease their evil ways if they had the right amount of money, drugs, sex and television. The problem is that this assumption is partially true: most people can be bought. The "partial" truth does not contain however an assessment of their long term happiness through finding meaning in life or sanity in society. Of course it does not; that would debase it.

In many ways, we have reached a time that approximates the warnings issued in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." He described a society where people were mechanically classed for intelligence and produced without identity, where pleasure was the only goal and seemed to satisfy most who yet lived with doubt, and where a lack of purpose but the material made people trivial, thoughtless, dysfunctional and lost. All of this is partially true, although not as centralized as Huxley envisioned it. Those who bow easily and get ahead in the system, no matter how trivial or destructive it is, are rewarded, and yet we all live for our own pleasures and little else, and signs show most are unsatisfied. Suicide rates have consistently risen alongside cancer rates and inversely to intelligence since the industrial revolution. Do we need "proof"? Look around, but do so while thinking critically: what function do these elements of society serve, and what do they make better? Are they intelligent designs or not? If not, what is the impact not only on our time and wealth but our outlook and feelings of confidence in our world?

Our civilization has outgrown meaning in favor of symbols of meaning, much as we pursue money not as a means to an end but as an end in itself, since we no longer trust each other to have inner selves that direct us toward behavior that enhances life. We have picked a more comfortable world in the tangible, but have in trade given up the one thing that can make us feel our lives are a worthwhile trade for the inevitability of death: meaning in self-refinement and non-material accomplishment. When we plot this curve, we see a greater intraversion coupled with greater distrust and isolation, and at its end point is a dissolution of all impulse to civilization whatsoever.

Well said, concernedcitizen, and well considered. To embrace the materialistic solely for instant gratification is to pursue a course in the baser elements of our humanity. It tends to a world view of concluding that ALL (including our fellow man) is here as a resource meant to satisfy our craving for instant gratification.

The iniquity of Sodom was "pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness. Neither did [she] strengthen the hand of the poor and needy....very haughty."

The above verse pretty much describes America in its current state. Sodom was so accustomed to having whatever they wanted whenever they wanted with no thought for self-discipline that they got to the point where they thought they could group en masse around their neighbors' door to demand sex from his guests. It was their "right".

We all work hard so that our children will have an easier life with more abundance than we had. It sounds noble but are we really doing our children any favors? Others have planted crops and we have eaten. Others have spun threads and we are clothed. Others have spent the moments of their life to produce and we are filled with abundance. It's easy to see how one could come to believe that others are here for our use. They are a resource for our consumption.

The end of such a way of thinking is to throw off restraint and with reckless abandon take what we want without consideration of what harm it may do to others. If they are merely a "thing" to provide us with money, food, entertainment, a sense of power or control, etc. then killing them to obtain their stylish shoes is only reasonable. (sarcasm) They have, we want. Robbery is understandable. They have, we want. (more sarcasm) Unless we stop viewing people as something other than PEOPLE we will continue to be confused about social issues that currently divide us.

When the individual is again celebrated as a unique and valuable part of ourselves; as much as we would value our right hand, many of the crimes that currently plague our nation will cease. The arguing will cease. The hatred and anger will cease. We may not always agree on views but in valuing all individuals as we value ourselves we will celebrate such differences in much the same way that we celebrate a new entree on the smorgasbord table.