Anyone feel like NOT knowing the next 10-20 years?

Now that we can know pretty much everything that happens around the world, all instantly, anyone have any desire to get off, or limit the amount of news information they get?

I had a high school teacher that I thought about while making this thread. Not totally relevant, but he was a math teacher, eccentric, and for lunch had a smoothie made out of raw grains that looked hideous. So he'd fit in to a place like ATS...along with his rants about China taking over the USA.

In any case, he never watched the news, and had only heard about 9-11 about 8 months after it happened. Pretty rare I'd say. Do you think there is any benefit to have not hearing about 9-11 for so long? A greater sense of peace seems to be an easy answer, and it's free...doesn't have to be bought.

What would it be like to hear about something so many months after it happened? Would 9-11 really even be important if you first heard about it so many months after it happened?

Someone might ask, "What were you doing during that time of crisis?!" An answer I could see him saying is, "Living". Surely the impact upon knowing would be much less in any case.

Or this Japan situation that has caught so many peoples' attention to an amazing degree. Huge earthquake, Tsunami, and even nuclear meltdown. If you heard about this event, say, 8 months from now, would you really even care? Probably not. So in a way, could there be sort of a "false self" that enjoys news now, that really in the future you wouldn't care about? Your future self already invalidates the way you are doing things now I think it's fair to say. Maybe your don't know your nature.

So how long do we continue reading and consuming this stuff? One disaster, to the next possible disaster, and in a somewhat real sense, we don't care. Just like how no one really cares about the 2004 Tsunami in any sort of immediately interesting way. You know what you do care about though? Another Tsunami coming up, so that you can read about it, see it. Our future self would not react to these events that we read about daily, yet we do. Isn't that future self more smart, real, and truth than you are?

reply to post by Turq1


Its our responsibility to react to these situations as we grow from being the younger child to the elder child.

The man who doesnt care about the war in libya or the tsunamis in the east is the younger brother.

Hes playing with his toys - Elder brother is helping to secure the well being of those affected by dis-ease.

Will you play with your toys?

Or will you help find the solution?

Or will you be the solution?

Spirit has given us everything - All thats left - Is Choice,


-GM

We need to sort through the information and separate the facts from the potential misdirection...and in turn it is good to be aware and in turn you could be making the world aware = win.

reply to post by Turq1


When reading the news, or seeing the violence, the wars, the lies so on and on, I do some times feel depressed as I'm sure alot of people do.

Some times not reading the news, or bothering with what is happening around you in the world, it keeps your mind fresh, and away from hatred, or government dumbing down.

Not reading the news, or watching it, may leave you out of the loop, but it's not necessarily a bad thing,some times ignorance can be bliss

i think we're gonna need more weed.

For someone not to have heard about 9/11 until 8 months after it happened, he'd have to have been some sort of a recluse?

Even if he didn't pay any attention to news and current events, everyone everywhere was talking about it, all the time.

I have a very good friend who doesn't pay much attention to the news either, but knew about the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear problems in Japan and the strike on Libya, just through talking to people.

Originally posted by Gradius Maximus
reply to post by Turq1

 

Its our responsibility to react to these situations as we grow from being the younger child to the elder child.

The man who doesnt care about the war in libya or the tsunamis in the east is the younger brother.

Hes playing with his toys - Elder brother is helping to secure the well being of those affected by dis-ease.

-GM

According to your definition here, I am by nature the younger brother. I think that it's not so much that I don't care about Libya, Japan or the too-numerous-to-mention other world trouble spots but that I certainly don't think that It's my responsibility to react to everything that happens. I mean no disrespect but I have so many things happening in my own life that I scarcely have time to 'help secure the well being" of so many others. I hope this doesn't sound TOO childish or selfish but I think I would go crazy if I couldn't let go and feel a certain detachment to so much bad news day in and day out.

reply to post by Turq1

and for lunch had a smoothie made out of raw grains that looked hideous. So he'd fit in to a place like ATS.

hey what are you saying about ATS? we have a hideous lunch?

there are times i do not want to find out todays news, but there is just something inside me that needs to know what is going off today or at least what we have been told is going of today. ATS helps to highlight things the media miss, remember most news channels are looped every 15 minutes with stories that only last about 5 mins at the most, so they do not really go indepth(could argue by design), ATS goes through every detail and discusses them back and forth. it helps to get a true prespective on subjects you just would not get in the mainstream media. with the information or knowledge you can warn people about things or pass it on to other people around the web or real life.

an example is how the japanesse government are not telling the truth to the people about radiation levels, i bet people here have been trying to warn people there, and i bet some members are from japan and were made 'aware' of how it may be worse than their government is admitting.

therefore i check ats everyday, not because i want to hear bad news but just so that i stay informed to a certain degree and because in some circumstances some of the information here can be benefical compared to what the mainstream media would tell you.

i have changed my circumstances, about 2-3 years ago, i made plans to put myself in a better postion, for what was to come with the economy. if i were in the same circumstances i were 3 years ago there would be no way i would beable to afford to live without really struggling with todays prices.

but thanks to ATS members making me aware that things will get worse and prices will rise and explaining the flaws in the system, even though the media at the time were reporting everything was fine and dandy, i was able plan ahead to combat what was to come. it may of only prevented the inevitable for maybe a few more years but it has given me more time. if there is much more left that is.

thats why i have to find out the news and always visit ATS to discuss it or read it. it can actually help you. so i would actually hate not to know what is going on for 10-20 years, especially in this current climate.

I have a confession to make: I have a journalism degree and up until recently I lived by a conscious decision not to follow the news.

I understand where your raw grain drinking high school teacher was coming from. It can be very difficult for extremely sensitive souls to take it all in.

That being said, I'm now following current events closely because I believe the world's future hasn't been this precarious since the Cold War.

Simply put, I'm scared and I feel a sense of responsibility to my family to be as prepared as possible - that involves staying informed.

reply to post by AidanK


I too would be seen as the younger brother in most situations

We are trying to get our lives sorted and settled, as they say only once the stove is lit, can you make dinner for the family. While we are morally obliged to assist our fellow man, if we lack the resources to do so then that doesn't make us irrelevant.

It just means we have not become the elder sibling.

Do you wish you could do more? Do you feel helpless during these times of distressing change?

You have the internet, raising awareness is a great deed, call out to your own elders to assist if they can.

We are one blood - The sooner we see this ideal for what it is - The better off we'll all be.

reply to post by Gradius Maximus


I don't think people should help find a solution for all these things, it just seems to entangle to whatever extent. And there probably isn't a solution for a lot of these problems we read and hear about. Being your own "solution" as a single person is probably a good idea though.


reply to post by Mentalistbee


Like with anything, it might be a case of slowing filling up with news, enjoying it, but it gets to a point where you fill up and then it's enough. I think many people would have a hard time though not reading the news as much as they do, why is that though I wonder. It really shouldn't be that vital. Maybe it's just the abundance and access we have to news that is the problem. Similar to how we can see the deleterious effects of the overabundance of food on our health in the West.


reply to post by AidanK


There is a draw to "bad" news I think it's fair to say. Could be that in a way we feel safer knowing of all the bad news. Knowing the bad news and feeling safety, a bit odd perhaps.


reply to post by lifeform11


There is truth to that. Having information can help you prepare for a lot of the instability, which is certainly a plus. But then also not having so much information could have other positives I suppose, even if it meant having to deal with that instability a bit more. It does seem sort of "forced" that you keep up with the news. Interesting to comparing the past where a daily newspaper was "the news" and today where you can have twitter feeds updating and sent to you constantly.

I do think, like others, that the state of the world will sort of branch out, and become more of what it is today, and that's not a good thing.

Jung has a distinction between the "spirit of the times" and "the spirit of the depths" that is rather fascinating. It's pretty much what I'm getting at.

The spirit of the times vs. the spirit of the depths – Jung makes a distinction between the spirit or stance of the time in which he lives vs. the spirit of a greater, ancient, and universal reality that is entirely overlooked by the present, and is striving to come forth through Jung. This is historical consciousness vs. the mythic subconsciousness, and Jung frames the Red Book as a way of getting past all the small-minded, violent, materialistic impulses of his age (including a harsh criticism of Christianity), while recognizing that this present world may entirely ignore his warning and call for an understanding of the subconscious.

www.absentnarrative.com...

It's the difference between someone being confined by time or "out of time", I think you could say. Being lead, or leading. We value so highly our lives where we consume the latest news, technology, ect. I think most believe, especially the young, that that is the way to be the "best" at life. Yet you could look at someone in the spirit of the times, say 150 years ago, living the same way people who think they are winning now are, and yet we'd see that as being empty and generic. Ipads are awesome, typewriters are not. The spirit of the depths though, goes across all time and doesn't become obsolete.

Not that the spirit of the times is bad, but I think it becomes more problematic without that depth.. but where do you really find it, each news story you read isn't going to do anything about it.