Lord knows where we go from here.

[Brother D]

I was taking it easy, thinking that if life does indeed go on, where will it go? Are we destined to  blow ourselves to smithereens? What happens next?

I found this article;

http://netflix.kinja.com/is-there-hope-for-humanity-or-are-we-going-to-destroy-o-1521383868

[Reverend Al]

History has shown that no civilization is fall-proof.  The Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Mayans, Ancient Egypt, the Babylonians, and so on.  We're fucked too, eventually.  Grab some oat sodas and a lane while you still can.

[Brother D]

Kinda fatalist, in the sense of were fucked and there's nothing we can do, though I do agree.

I think my point was, is there any point fighting for something better? Should we all think "tough shit, you had yer chance, humans"?.

I hate the way society is so dependant on technology, the media, the backwards economy, what have you and would love to live off grid, but feel obligated to join in. The mass brainwashing of mostly western nations, being drip fed bullshit, guilt and paranoia is fucked up. It makes my inner Walter foam at the mouth at how taken in we are and us normo's/ Joe public, can't do shit to change it.

As the square community doesn't give a shit about us, maybe we should piss on their rugs n see how they like it!

Sorry for the rant, I'm just pissed off that global capitalism, greed and corruption has been allowed to take over and spiral out of control. It saddens me to think that despite our advances in technology, medicine, science etc, humanity has maybe lost all sense of connection, value and responsibility and replaced it with ownership and those that do feel they share the planet are persecuted (damn hippies).

In Scandinavian countries, the corrupt get jailed and there is free education, healthcare etc, (yes there are also flaws in their systems too, nowhere is perfect).

I hope those that are left after the shit
does hit the fan, don't make the same mistakes from the last few decades and take better care of things for future generations.

I know I ramble, dudes, I just think by sharing/ venting, I hope to better understand and not cause offence along the way. I do value any and all opinions.

Brother D.

[jgiffin]

Entropy is undefeated.

[StAugustineDude]

As hard as it is, you just gotta say "Fuck it" Dude.  Buddhists hold that bettering oneself in turn betters the world.  You can only be concerned with your own microcosm of the universe and hope that those around you pick up from your example.  Attachment, even to despair and hopelessness just adds to your own suffering.   Change what you can, let go of what you cant, and be good to the people around you.  Nature works itself out in time.

[Brother D]

Entropy is undefeated.

Is that some kind of eastern thing dude?

Yeah i know I gotta just say Fuck it and abide, it's just the empath in me that doesn't want to watch the world fall apart and see the devastation left behind.

It's the innocents that get fucked in the ass, while the strangers sit in their suits, lining their pocket not givin a shit about anyone or anything.

TBL, can be seen as a metaphor for this, in that desire/ greed causes suffering on some level, which is probably why we feel for the dudes plight and not TBL, treehorn or others. Ultimately, the one that suffers the most, is also the one who is silenced most often (Donny).

This is where we throw our toys and shout "It's not fair!", which gets us nowhere, I'm not sure apathy is the answer either though.

Man,  now I want an earthship in a nice corner of the world, where no one will piss on my rug and chill out for the rest of my days.

A dude can dream, right? Am I wrong?

[jgiffin]

Welcome to the perpetual plight of the middle. The rulers and the ruled have co-opted the system to their benefit, my friend. The rulers, well, they only care about maintaining their privileged and largely undeserved status. The ruled are glad to vote for any rulers who promise them little stipends. They don't even care if it costs them their freedoms. The middle, though, the middle is fucked. We can't be bought with little fucking stipends - we see they're trying to buy us with our own money. And we can't be allowed to exercise really important freedoms - that might upset the whole apple cart. So, we're segmented, divided, marginalized, called names, and shamed into silence or embarrassment.

This is the function of today's governance - keeping the elites in power, the bottom satiated, and the middle in stasis. And it's leading to destruction. For all that's being said and done against the status quo, these trends are going to continue and worsen absent revolution. Not a peaceful revolution of violets, peonies, and peace signs. Violent, bloody, hard revolution with bodies in the streets and party-strongmen dancing from the ends of nooses.

[StAugustineDude]

No man, you're definitely not wrong... You're just surrounded by assholes man.  Plenty of opportunity to try and make the things around you better though dude, and in doing so, making the world just a little better as well. Letting go doesn't necessarily mean giving up, it just means that you don't worry about the things you cant control and focus on what you can.

[Brother D]

I looked around to see how fucked we are and it ain't a rabbit hole I want to go down. The amount if (dis)information, the 13 families that control everything, new world order etc goes into conspiracy territory. Fuck that!

If you follow the trail up, we get shat on, almost every step. I kinda think I was better off not knowing

I'm with you dudes, let's go get us a lane!

[BikerDude]

Fuck it Dude.
We deserve it.
Not me.
The Royal we.

[LotsaBadKarma]

A few years back when Kerry/Edwards were trying to unass Bush/Cheney my wife and I and another couple went out for lunch the day after election day. We were in a restaurant in our home town in northern Wisconsin. Kerry/Edwards were talking up the "Single Payer" thing during the campaign which was something that sounded good to me but our waitress was vocal about her joy that Bush/Cheney had devastated Kerry/Edwards and all their commie philosophy. I told her that she must feel blessed to be able to get such fine health insurance through her employer and she looked at me as though I had an extra head sprouting out of my shoulder so I asked her about the health care plan that the restaurant provided her with. Her answer was that she weren't provided with no health care plan by her employer, she just didn't have no insurance. (Paraphrased for the illustration of ignorance).
And so it goes.
We have been conditioned to believe that socialism is evil even though we have some of the oldest and most entrenched socialist entities in the world right here in the good ol' U. S. of A.. The public school system for one. Everybody, including single people with no children, pay for that through property taxes. People who sent their kids to parochial schools pay for it too. How very socialist of us.
But the pols have us figured out. If they can play on our fear they can get us to vote against our own best interests every time. They don't need to get 100% support, 50.0000001% is enough. And usually the most outspoken voters are the ones who are so supremely ignorant of the salient facts that should be guiding their hands in the voting booth.
Hence, I have sworn off this bullshit exercise of our so-called freedom, the Free Election. I no longer believe that free elections actually exist. I think back to the days of Nader running for president and how he was kept off the stage time and again by the two party system. And I'm not saying that Ralph had all the answers but I would have appreciated the opportunity to see how he fared onstage with the big boys.
So what's the answer? Beats the fuck out of me. I have no ideas for anything that would actually work before being taken down in a hail of gummint lead. So my answer is Fuck It. I don't care any more. I'm on the older end of the scale, I got no prom on my horizon. I feel sad for people who are having kids nowadays, though. Sad and scared. It's not going to be fun watching them raiding the dumpster behind McDonald's to feed their kids because armed conflict will determine who eats and who doesn't. Once that happens can cannibalism be far behind?
Goddamnit, I need an oat soda.

[BikerDude]

Well said.
The tip off is when people start treating issues as "Good" and "Evil".
You know they've been co-opted.
That's been the case over the years.
If you can get people into a place where they have the irrational beliefs then their minds can't be changed even if the preponderance of evidence is to the contrary.
This is the most commonly used technique of propaganda.
And religion of course.

Sadly I agree that with the 2 party system we generally choose Coke or Pepsi.

Two parties is a perfect way to get people to vote against themselves.
Divide policies along economic and social issues and put them on opposite sides.
It's like the joke about putting an idiot in a round room and telling him to shit in the corner. Whichever way they go they get at most half of what the majority of people actually want. And then they just use the other half to herd people with fear and hate. As always.
Fucking Nazi's. Nothing changes.

[Brother D]

Doubt and distrust=confusion, anxiety and fear. That's what we live with, but still hope things will change.

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering " Yoda.

"Fighting for peace, is like fucking for virginity" George Carlin.

Name your cliché, I kinda pity the fools, for they know not what they undude. "They" can keep their riches and corrupted ideals, the good lord will make sure they're gypped. A bit like bullies in that it's how they were raised, no one is born an asshole, they live what they learn.

I guess like how the dude sees past Walters ego to the insecurity behind it. He hides behind his righteousness, whereas compassion would leave him vulnerable.

[jgiffin]

I get frustrated when someone asks the government for something or, worse, thinks the government should provide something to them. The government's only roles are performing those tasks which the citizenry cannot, to pass neutral laws, and to adjudicate disputes. Anytime the government exceeds these roles, it creates - rather than solves - myriad problems. Let's look at healthcare since it's been raised.

As a threshold matter, notice the debate now isn't actually about healthcare? It's about INSURANCE for healthcare. That is pure genius. They avoid the point by re-framing the argument. If the debate were actually about healthcare, we would consider why it's prohibitively expensive. Pro-Tip: it's because of government regulations pressed by special interest groups in the healthcare industry. There is a reason why your local hospital is buying up physician groups. The more regulations, the more bureacracy, the more red-tape, the more it benefits larger corporate entities which can hire a department to deal with it all. They shift those costs, of course, to the consumer. Thus, as ever more rules are passed, costs increase, and ultimately the services are extortionately expensive - not because the services, themselves, cost so much but because of the administrative overhead and costs of regulatory compliance.

Guess what? It worked better before all this. Doctors used to charge market appropriate rates and employ a nurse and maybe a secretary. That was all they needed. But now you need a billing coordinator, a medical coding specialist, an executive administrator, and 13 other fucktards...all while the actual services are still provided by the practitioners.

So, no, neither Obamacare nor single-payer are the answer. They're solutions pressed by special interest groups which will make the problems worse. To paraphrase a better wit, "if you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it's free."

[Hominid]

As hard as it is, you just gotta say "Fuck it" Dude.  Buddhists hold that bettering oneself in turn betters the world.  You can only be concerned with your own microcosm of the universe and hope that those around you pick up from your example.  Attachment, even to despair and hopelessness just adds to your own suffering.   Change what you can, let go of what you cant, and be good to the people around you.  Nature works itself out in time.

Sage advice.  Hits the nail on the head.