Are You Proud To Be A Human?

When I think about SA, firearms and big-game hunters exploited the wildlife in the late 19th century.

However, they also formed the first reserves for wildlife, and ideas of conservation.

To a degree that angered and alienated local people, and now it is difficult to convince poor rural communities to preserve wildlife.

The African Shembe church, for example, says that no white man can stop them from hunting endangered leopards for their skins:
www.iol.co.za...

What is even sadder is the horrific killing of our rhinos.

SA once exported and sold rhinos.
Our rhino populations were once considered "secure".

Now they are killed almost daily.

OK, it was maybe tasteless for the Swazi royals to eat a rhino, but where does all the ivory and rhino horn go?

Why do we always criticize "Western culture", when "Eastern culture" and its beliefs and ignorant traditional cures are leading to direct corruption, and the extinction of animals across Africa?

Who pays for rhino horn and ivory?

It has little value for African or Western people today.

Look at the Arab and Eastern customs.

They are stripping the world of wildlife.

reply to post by GaiusMarius


Society will not change...everyone is hoping for some kind of enlightenment and this will be the status quo for a thousand and one years to come...it's been this way for as long as we have been on the planet...the only things that have changed is our ability to make more things....you cannot deny survival of the fittest and in a sense that's what this comes down to...call it the haves and have not...I guess if the monetary system disappeared than things might be different but each of us could easily give twenty five dollars a month to some homeless person but we don't. Some guys are making money out there and could easily help the less fortunate but they don't...it's just on a bigger scale...as the other poster noted it comes down to the individual not humanity

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Sorry I read it but focused on the last part...my apologies..

Originally posted by chrismarco
reply to post by GaiusMarius

 

Society will not change...everyone is hoping for some kind of enlightenment and this will be the status quo for a thousand and one years to come...it's been this way for as long as we have been on the planet...the only things that have changed is our ability to make more things....you cannot deny survival of the fittest and in a sense that's what this comes down to...call it the haves and have not...I guess if the monetary system disappeared than things might be different but each of us could easily give twenty five dollars a month to some homeless person but we don't. Some guys are making money out there and could easily help the less fortunate but they don't...it's just on a bigger scale...as the other poster noted it comes down to the individual not humanity

I disagree. And I would hardly call this suvival of the fittest. It is closer to survival of the weakest.

Capitalist 'charity' is no solution. Our ability to create more things has ensured that we dont have to live like this. Capitalism has failed.

Change will come from Europe and it will spread. Socialism has been building for a long time. Stageism has been taking place for a long time. This is late capitalism.

China has risen under State Capitalism which is nothing like American Supercapitalism. State Capitalism could just as easily be called 'State Socialism. The next superpower is run by a communist party. The IMF have pushed Europe too far and it wont stop. Millions of individuals will force change on a global scale. American Imperialism is done and we will all be better off soon when it is gone.

Originally posted by GaiusMarius

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
One thing should be remembered: no one is guilty by association. Did humanity get to the moon? No. Individual humans did. Does humanity destroy the earth? No. Individual humans do. Did humanity paint the Mona Lisa? No, an individual human did.

No one can logically be proud or ashamed of someone else's actions, and therefore, can in no way be proud or ashamed to be a human. One can only be proud or ashamed of himself.

I disagree. So does Fromm and Marx.....Jack London.

You are capitalist.

So you had a hand in the discovery of insulin? Did you desecrate the Jews during world war 2? All without leaving the confines of your computer. What a load of wishful nonsense. It appears you have much to be proud and ashamed of. I wish you were plankton as well—you're already half way there.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope

Originally posted by GaiusMarius

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
One thing should be remembered: no one is guilty by association. Did humanity get to the moon? No. Individual humans did. Does humanity destroy the earth? No. Individual humans do. Did humanity paint the Mona Lisa? No, an individual human did.

No one can logically be proud or ashamed of someone else's actions, and therefore, can in no way be proud or ashamed to be a human. One can only be proud or ashamed of himself.

I disagree. So does Fromm and Marx.....Jack London.

You are capitalist.

I dont see your point. Neither would Fromm and Marx......jack London.....Oscar Wilde......millions of other people.

I wish you were socialist. You are half way there

So you had a hand in the discovery of insulin? Did you desecrate the Jews during world war 2? All without leaving the confines of your computer. What a load of wishful nonsense. It appears you have much to be proud and ashamed of. I wish you were plankton as well—you're already half way there.

edit on 30-10-2012 by LesMisanthrope because: (no reason given)

I dont see your point. Neither would Fromm and Marx......jack London.....Oscar Wilde......millions of other people.

I wish you were socialist. You are already half way there.

reply to post by GaiusMarius


I said no one is guilty by association nor can anyone take credit for the deeds they had nothing to do with. And you think somehow that is refutable by dropping a few names. Then you attempt to label me from what amounts to the tiniest bit of information you think you know about me; first capitalist, then socialist—well which is it?

If you are able to argue for yourself, then please, be my guest.

I find it quite fascinating our mind, conscious and brain. I am proud on our first ancestors who made it through hard times and evolved slowly in what we are now. I'm also proud on all the fascinating scientific discoveries we have made. What I am not proud of is our dark side, but hopefully that will change in time.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by GaiusMarius

 

I said no one is guilty by association nor can anyone take credit for the deeds they had nothing to do with. And you think somehow that is refutable by dropping a few names. Then you attempt to label me from what amounts to the tiniest bit of information you think you know about me; first capitalist, then socialist—well which is it?

If you are able to argue for yourself, then please, be my guest.

Nice burn.

I think 'capitalist' will become an obvious insult in the near future. And you are half way to being a socialist because society is half way there. You have no choice. It has nothing to do with you. Society does indeed determine the individual and how the individual can exist. You will understand that when we have socialism. You will know how I feel.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by GaiusMarius

 

I said no one is guilty by association nor can anyone take credit for the deeds they had nothing to do with. And you think somehow that is refutable by dropping a few names. Then you attempt to label me from what amounts to the tiniest bit of information you think you know about me; first capitalist, then socialist—well which is it?

If you are able to argue for yourself, then please, be my guest.

Nice burn.

I think 'capitalist' will become an obvious insult in the near future. And you are half way to being a socialist because society is half way there. You have no choice. It has nothing to do with you. Society does indeed determine the individual and how the individual can exist. You will understand that when we have socialism. You will know how I feel.

reply to post by GaiusMarius


I agree. I wasn't arguing that point at all.

I was arguing that some people, such as the poster above, is proud of the technological advancements 'we' made, as if each of us had something to do with the invention of the printing press or computer. He, nor I, have any right to be proud of that, simply because we had nothing to do with it.

We are arguing over nothing and I apologize.

Originally posted by GaiusMarius
reply to post by AccessDenied

 

Yeah, I think we should consider eating the bankers actually.

BLECH

I often think of the world like Australia was back in the day, A penal colony.Somewhere where all the bad folk were dumped and left to get on with it.Imagine if the old adam and eve story had some weight to it, but the protaganists were a pair of criminals from another world. wouldnt that be mad!.But i certainly dont think we are from here.We have no affinity with the place, We have no natural defences against the indigenous animals here.
Our newborn are completly helpless for years, unlike other mamals that are born and within minutes they can walk or swim and evade.We are not from here.We dont have a clue who we are.So in that sense its hard to be proud if you dont even know who you are supposed to be in the first place.

Originally posted by GaiusMarius
I am not.

I would prefer to be plankton. I consider plankton to be a higher form of life.

Its quite odd to me that we celebrate our flaws as if our flaws make us beautiful. We are 'only human' arent we? And thats fantastic apparently.

Are you ruled by the 'pleasure pain principle'? Can you excuse yourself by blaming your 'id' ? I cant. If our 'id' is responsible for everything then we are void of any genuine virtue. Nothing is for others, its all for you. You only did a nice thing to validate yourself. You seek intrinsic rewards. You want to believe that you are 'good' and thats why you did it. For you.

And what do we consider 'freedom' to be these days? The freedom to indulge in the Seven Deadly Sins? hmm

Is the top of a food chain automatically the highest form of life?

What is 'sanity' these days? It is clearly linked to society isnt it? But do we have a sane society? Not in my opinion.To be sane in the western world you must be insane.

What is 'love' in a society like this? Could 'true love' exist under capitalism? Fromm said it couldnt and look at the divorce rates in the west.

Western Society is a disease and we are all infected.

I wish I was plankton. You could remove us from the food chain and everything would be fine. Plankton is far more important.

Until we make a better society we are no more than parasites and it will only get worse unless we change direction.

edit on 30-10-2012 by GaiusMarius because: (no reason given)

I don't think its Western society so much as its humanity altogether. Sure, the west is special in its flaws, but we aren't the only screw ups.

I understand you, though. When I want something deep, genuine, and good, others look at me like I'm insane, like doing anything outside of their realm of "normal" is absurd.

It's okay to have an affair, to have abortions, to gamble and drink and lust endlessly, as long as you do a simple good deed every now and then... as long as you go to church, once in a while... as long as society thinks its okay.

It's extremely revolting to look at human beings and know that ALL of us could be FANOMINALLY better than we are now.

But the idea of being decent, clean, moral and nice is absurd and odd. It's stuck-up and close minded.

Being a sell-out thieving drunken whore while you bow to the media and her government is the way to go.

reply to post by GaiusMarius


Generally speaking, yes. Very proud, in fact. When you look at what we accomplished since we learned to walk upright, we have done rather well for ourselves. Aside from technology, we have philosophy, metaphilosophy, etc. Do ants comprehend the id? Have butterflies come up with universal rights?

Obviously, we also have to deal with all the negatives. Pollution, resource rape, murder, war, etc.

On balance though, yes, extremely proud.

No

No

No

NO

Animals conduct themselves in a much less "Animalistic" fashion than most people I know.

We are a blight on this planet,a virus,a disease.

Guy in car sez "Damned deer in the road",Deer in the road sez "Damned road in the woods".

Who fkd up first?..

People always do,ain't proud to be one.

We as a species are not really the problem though,it is our exploitation of everyone and everything for profit that sets us apart from those pesky lesser animals.

Some realize this,and try to preserve some places from the destruction of the "Capitalists/Exploiters/Takers".

Too little too late is still not enough to make up for mindless exploitation for profit.

Scary part is,they call the employment department "Human Resources".

Those pesky native americans have accused the white man of "Speaking with Forked Tongue".

Wonder what they meant by that?....

We must be next.