Peace Starts With Us

As I type this, there are so many things I want to say. I know many of you are familiar with me, and either view me as ignorant, arrogant, spiteful, a douche, or all of the above. And the truth is, I am all of these things. But I don't let them block the light. I still realize the problems in the world, and I still want to help. But one man cannot go it alone. As I saw on a trailer today, the bravest journeys are never made alone. But this isn't about me...this is about the things I have been trying to say. The messages I have tried to send. This is the most important one of all.

No one listens to stuff that is sugarcoated. Sugarcoating is for the weak, for those who can't handle the truth brewed black and bitter. So I tend to be blunt. And I will be blunt...but for the life of me, I'm still trying to figure out how to say what I want to say. I'm not even sure what I want to say. There are so many things to say...it bugs me all the time. How all of this stuff is out in the open, and no one even cares because it's the "hard road".

Religion. Politics. Economy. Homosexuality. Education. Society. Government. Even food...all of these things have been discussed so thoroughly that everything has been said ten times already, and will continue to be repeated. And all of these things have problems, whether they are caused by us or not. We talk, and we talk...but what do we do? What have we done that is worth watching on tv, or worth being repeated all across the world? What have we done to take this race one step further along that road to glory and peace? And even better...what have we done to prevent it, knowingly or unknowingly?

I read somewhere that life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to it. What if...it's 100% how we've all reacted to it? Even our reactions create that which happens to other people. I put that last can of soup back because I'm reacting to just having seen my favorite soup down the isle. Another person comes along and grabs that last can because they are reacting to THAT being their favorite soup.

I'm rambling...the point, out of a long list of points, is that my reaction created the action that they reacted to. And so it goes on. And what a lot of people don't realize is, everything is created by everyone else. Everything you react to was a reaction by someone reacting to something else. The same with them.

So what's my big tamale here? There is no choice. We have to get along. The whole purpose of coming to this site is to gripe and moan about what's going on elsewhere. I come here to get my daily fatal dose of negativity and stuff-going-wrong-in-the-world. And yet everyone here (including me) sits at their computer and just posts stuff without walking outside and doing something about it. Half of the people here do their jobs and support the system that they complain about. It's like watching Christians praying for a a savior that, apparently, plans on coming just when it's too late to save the world.

This is our job, people. We are Homo Sapiens. If we can't do it, who can? All of this stuff that we constantly bicker about...the first step to creating a successful, productive world is GETTING ALONG.

I think that's what this thread is about. Getting along. Sorry, it sometimes takes me a bit to put a theme to the rampaging sentiments that trample my cerebral cortex in the mad rush to reach my frontal lobe. Yes...cooperation, and love. That's what we're teaching here, right?

I'm not gong to post pics, or provide evidence. If you want evidence, turn on CNN or go to the homepage of this website. Everyone is complaining. No one is doing anything. And when it comes down to it, we even turn against each other. It makes me sick. This is the site where we reveal truth...but not even this site is safe from the pitfalls of humanity.

If you want to make a difference, start here. Create an Eden where we can discuss ideas and not get in a catfight over who's right and who's wrong. No one is exactly right...that's why it's called opinions. Get over it. If we can't get along, then you sure as heck can't expect the rest of the world to. That's hypocrisy. So all of you ATS members (including me, as I have said) want peace? Start here. Now. This minute. be nice to people, be respectful, and love everyone, despite their differences.

Is it so hard? One half believes in a hollow earth, the other half believes Elvis is alive and well in the Bahamas. Big deal. There's worse issues going on in Iraq and your own countries. Is this the best you have to worry about? Is your best solution going back and forth in such a pitiful manner? I'm not raging, I'm not ranting...I'm exasperated and frustrated...and most of all, disappointed. Disappointed to have been born into the ONLY SPECIES with ANY HOPE of saving this planet...only to find that instead of saving the planet, for some inexplicable reason, we are tearing it up just to spite one another.

Is getting along a sin? Is it? Is there some reason we can't just hug and be friends? Differences are the spice of life. I don't know what else to say. I'm beginning to believe that if it has to be said, then there's no use saying it. There's a point where the obvious can't be discussed...it can only be observed and acted upon.

Pretty soon, it'll be too late for that. Try to make the deadline, people. Or you won't be around to help anyone...including yourselves. This is my message to the masses. Don't worry about god, don't worry about 2012, don't worry about an asteroids or political elections or anything like that. You want peace? Bring it.

Start with yourselves. Here. Right now. Please...for the sake of our futures.


Namaste. -.-

Yes, peace is what binds a population into a real, sustainable nation. Cooperation destroys limits. Diversity all working together bring nwer possibilities than working alone... Great thread, Starchild, S&F!

reply to post by swan001


See, we can agree on some things...

reply to post by Starchild23



I agree on many things with you, Starchild, it's just that we haven't talked about those thing yet...

The concept of uniting and peace is universal. It holds to every logic tests.

reply to post by Starchild23


Very well written.

I think the issue is not so much people getting along, because people can get along. It is out leaders who divide us, our media who lies to us, ourselves for not better seeing others , as we are, just humans.

I don't understand when people carry on about the end of the world, because frankly it isn't. There is enough food, enough wealth to go around, people just have to reach out.

If your government won't, then you do.

Why enlist for war? Why not enlist for peace.

I would like to suggest an alternative. The planet itself is in no real danger. It has survived much worse than a plague of humans, including several mass extinctions. And every time it has bounced back more beautiful and diverse than ever before. Global Warming, as one example, is not putting us in peril, and the liklihood that it is actually happening is growing less and less. Even if it is, it will give us more CO2 to grow more plants to grow more food. The very idea that we can materially affect what happens is an excess of hubris. One volcanic eruption erases all the saved CO2 emissions by every Prius ever made for four years running.

In terms of our own species we certainly need to make some changes in order to hold 10 billion people. And we will. We are at the very edge of an age of abundance with unprecedented energy, a fully nourished population, and unheralded wealth for all. Read Abundance; the future is better than you think or anything by Ray Kurzweil for an accounting of what is now happening before your very eyes and that you don't see or ignore.

But beyond that, I don't believe our purpose in life is to become a peaceful species in a peaceful world. That's not how we are built. Further, if the earth did not have us at all to contend with, that's not how the earth is built either. Lions still would kill antelopes. Dolphins would still kill their own young to mate with their mother. The world is not a peaceful place with or without us. "Nature is red in tooth and claw." (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

My own personal belief is that this is not all there is. We incarnate here to grow and learn and experience. No pain, no gain. That's what this is about. If we're lucky we get to experience some pleasure in life. If we are fortunate we get to help others. If we're REALLY lucky we get to die and get out of here early. The good die young because their sentence is not as long as ours. If the earth were entirely peaceful and we all got along, it would be dreadfully boring. Instead, we get an adventure.

Enjoy.

reply to post by Mentalistbee


The people of these days believe that peace means having the bigger stick.

Iron Man isn't just a Marvel movie...it has some good truths in it, as well.

No one wants to compromise. So, they have to either make a treaty or beat each other down. If they aren't interested in what the other person has, they beat them down. If they are, they make an agreement. Or they kill them and take the stuff anyways.

Yes...why not create a "utopiary"? A force intended to create peaceful resolutions to issues plaguing the world.

reply to post by Starchild23


You saw Iron Man?! It's my personnal favorite! I love that character. Ironman shows that war can change to peace with just a bit of effort. You saw the one starring R. Downey Jr, right?

reply to post by swan001


That's the only live action Iron Man in existence, currently.

So, yes.

reply to post by Starchild23


I can't wait to see Advengers next month.

Possibly the most deserved star and flag ever.
The same thought goes through my head everyday.
Amazingly well written and exactly what I needed to hear.
Thank you OP, truly.

As I type this, there are so many things I want to say. I know many of you are familiar with me, and either view me as ignorant, arrogant, spiteful, a douche, or all of the above. And the truth is, I am all of these things. But I don't let them block the light. I still realize the problems in the world, and I still want to help.

In the quest to be positive, and make a difference, there can be two different types of people.

Some of us are exclusively positive. Calm, sweet, docile; you hardly ever even hear about them. Never a cross word. They're the proverbial Sam Gamgee type. An assistant pastor at a church I went to in my 20s was like that. He was a good man, quiet, sincere, faithful, and tried to serve everyone he could.

The above are the sort of silent majority that the world runs on, and none of us would survive without them. They virtually never get acknowledged, or praised for what they do. They just keep going.

Then there's people like you and me, OP. We're controversial. We're aggressive. We make a noise. We bring up the things that nobody wants to see or look at, and shove them forcibly in people's faces. We don't back down; sometimes when everyone else around us thinks we should, including the people who usually call themselves our friends. We're lockjaws.

We have tempers. We can do things, when we're angry, that we regret later; and other people, who are truly malevolent, love recording all of them, so they can use them against us, and twist the knife at times when we are most vulnerable.

We are hated. The more mainstream elements of the population hate and fear us, not only for our abnormal interests and perspectives in some areas, but also for our temper. The psychopaths, however, hate us most of all. The above type of individual I mentioned, the docile, continually positive type; they are no threat to the psychopaths. The psychopaths can kill them very easily; and most of the time the above type doesn't need that, because they don't raise their voice in the first place.

We, however, very often will not be killed, and cannot be broken. We resist their attempts at shaming us into silence, and we wear the abuse, no matter how much of it comes, because we know that there is something else, something bigger than we are.

We know about the next world that's coming; the next civilisation. It is going to beautiful; a shining, sociological and environmental jewel that will be the wonder of our area of space. It will be a place where no one will have to deal with hatred or fear or hunger, ever again.

We also know, however, that we very likely won't get to go there. We can work towards a world like that; and we can know that there is nothing more important than helping people get to it; but we couldn't live there ourselves. Not with our temper. Not with our scars.

We are of the breach. We are of the transition. We can help build the bridge, but we will feel the feet of others on our backs as they cross; we will not cross with them. Our job is to help ensure that as many others as possible get into the boats; but there is no place in them for us ourselves.

reply to post by petrus4


Very well said.
Even if I don't believe what some other believ, and you don't believe what I believe, we are all sharing the same cause, the same goal.
Peace, harmony and freedom. And, my personnal favorite, Joy, becasue life is not worthy of living without this special ingredient.

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.

~ William Blake

Compromise is of no true value, because it means submission. When you are right, you don't submit to anybody.

For example, you're married. Your wife wants to watch American Idol, you want to watch Evil Dead. You have to compromise and that means you have to watch American Idol while your wife will never watch Evil Dead with you.

reply to post by EvilSadamClone


When no compromise is made, that is when conflicts happen. Compromise is the first step of sharing.

Would you rather no one shared anything? That's what got this world in this mess to begin with. Lack of willingness to share...and lots of willingness to take by force.

reply to post by petrus4


I never act out of anger.

In fact, me and a couple of buddies got in an argument the other night. Because I didn't want things to get ugly (especially considering one of my friends was about to punch my other friend, who is epileptic) I was the first one to suggest, once all of the problems were out in the open, that we sleep on it and discuss it the next day.

I used to have immense anger issues. I don't have those issues anymore. I walk away from stuff that makes me angry, and the anger fades away. Unfortunately, not enough people do that. They prefer to destroy the things that displease them, and that's half the trouble with the world.

With that said, I'd like to address that video you posted from the Dark Knight. Very good movie...enjoyed it a lot, largely because of the philosophical bones it picks at. The Joker was a genius, who was well aware of how humanity will destroy itself the first chance it gets. He wanted to create that opportunity, show exactly how a push in the right direction will shatter the illusion of civility. But he had one big flaw in his agenda: the will to be good.

There are people who don't have the willpower to maintain civil code. People who, when forced into a corner, would rather take someone's life to further their own, than sacrifice themselves to save another. People who will destroy everything if it means their own survival.

And then there are people who will look around and realize that if everyone else follows that path, there has to be someone to set an example. Someone who can show that the right path, while rarely simple, will be better for everyone in the end. And even if no one follows, these people can still make a difference. They may not be appreciated, recognized, praised, or noticed for it, but they don't do it for that. They don't want gold, fame, immortality, none of these things. They want to make the world a better place for those who follow after.

Why? Because if no one does the right thing, then you can't expect anyone to live a decent life. Even if your example isn't followed, it gives someone else a chance. Don't be good for God, or for yourself. Be good for those who deserve to come out on the right foot. Be good for those who follow after, because even if you don't care about the world, maybe they do. They deserve a chance...and if you don't give it to them, who will?

That's the message of the Dark Knight. Even if humanity is an illusion, you can create a reality out of it, and at least give someone a chance to live a good life. Because all we have is a chance. Given a chance, what would you do with it?

Bruce Wayne chose, and he paid for it. But he's happy with the price, because despite the Joker's attempt to reveal the monster lurking in the shadow of humanity, he has also shown the potential for greatness. The potential for peace.

He has shown that even despite our flaws, we always have a choice. And that even if you don't care what happens to you, make the right choice...for those who follow behind.

reply to post by Starchild23


That's the way the world works, bub. You don't share, you take, any way you can.

The government does that all the time, such as UHC.

Especially the self righteous moral guardians.

They are always right and always impose their morality onto you. They never compromise and are always willing to take.

Such as the pastor who says it's okay to beat up gays but it's not okay for atheists to criticize Christians in any way shape or form.

There are so many examples.

reply to post by EvilSadamClone


That's not true at all. You can give...in fact, I started a thread on that just now. You wanna see?

Choice

This world is in deep trouble because people like you believe that survivalism is the only way to live. We have enough to give to everyone on the planet...but you think we can only take, take, take.

We can give. We just have to let go of our animal instincts. There is no extinction on the horizon unless we do something stupid. Why do we need to hoard or destroy? We can easily coexist.

It's a matter of choice.

Except for one thing.

No good deed goes unpunished.

EVER!