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i mean, pardon my english but this, the life i'm living is ww1 trench warfare.

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The plains.

Started by The seer, December 09, 2005, 03:04:37 AM

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The seer

,ÄùThree are the paths of the soul:
    -One out: and Roam across the plain
    -One back: Dwell with tribe and tent
    -One in: turn an enemy's hate,Äù[/list:u]~Unknown~[/i]


    In this place there is nothing of what you call the
civilised world. There are no buildings, there are no farms, there are no farmers, no families, only aching miles of expanse, life itself streaming towards the sky, radiating from open ground. You may travel far and wide and ne'er see a single soul.
From the horizon I come, A dustcloud has signaled my approach, you cannot hide in that wide open space, and anything that you can hide, cannot stay hidden for long. Day by day as survival takes it's toll on your defenses you shall realise yourself and be dragged kicking and screaming to the truth. For death is a fear that shall always far outweigh all other concerns, be thankful for that, for it is this blind terror within you that has pushed you forward, driven you up.
You are alone on the plains as even those you travel with cannot take care of you. Even should you not be brave enough to travel alone, understand that you will in time become an island. You cannot escape the fate that awaits you traveller, you have come here searching and thus you may never leave without finding. Until you have wrested your hands free from chains of vengeance, taken off the armour of security, until you have cast aside all that is of no use to you here, until you have touched the spirit of this place, it will haunt you, it will dog you and torment you. Onward! For she has answered to your cries for help. Upward! For she has thrown open the closed doors of consciousness. Even if you have chosen in jest, she shall care not, you have come to seek and shall find.

You will learn that there is much you cannot control outside of this circle of tents. Out among the Plains, whether alone or surrounded by people you shall come to see many things. That people do not trust someone who asks risks but does not take them upon themselves, You cannot lead without so doing. That when you most need help it shall be unavailable to you, You cannot truly stand until you stand on your own. That your words will fall on deaf ears, your sword shall cut only air and you shall be waylaid by those with less scruples than yourself, it is impossible to force the willing. You shall see me as I come closer, that I am alone, but yet I smile, For I have stood upon my own feet, I have lead by example, and I have avoided pointless conflicts.

You shall find me as I dismount at your camp stranger, that I am clad in plain clothes, that I carry only the baggage which I need to keep my health in all five spheres. You ask me of my travels, of the ruins you can see from afar, the ones at the edge of the desert. You tell me on the horizon these strange monoliths make words to you, and I can tell you that they are far stranger up close. You tell me of your chieftan, that he has ridden past these monuments and on one side were startling revelations, and on the other side were more still. Forgive my laughter, but these standing stones are reference points for many people, and each face has said the same thing to you. The toppled statues to the west of the wadi are a message you have yet to interpret. The cavern of scratchings to the far south, holds a message so alien even one such as I cannot interpret it.
Do you see your folly? Your monuments are on distant horizons and they have never changed. But the world is far more wide than the horizons. The sum total of your knowledge and experience is but a tiny drop in a vast ocean and yet you circle the ruins and these plains learning new things from the same things. It does me no pride to say to you that a new facet, a greater subtlety to an old wisdom after the umpteenth time, is not one tenth of a new wisdom.

Wherever you shall go, you carry your memories with you, the teachings of the monuments are available to you. You may reflect on them over and over and learn to translate into new languages; yes! This too was written on a monument many days from here, deep in the desert, where the sand turns black and the beasts fear to tread.

I see I have yet to crush your comfort here in this stateless place. Would it provoke you to know that these monuments were carved by human hands. Yes. For after the place of black sands the monuments begin to peter out, some repeat, some are still blank, and this deep into the desert there are signs which i cannot read. I have returned for one thing alone: a hammer and chisel, I can no longer make my journeys without the ability to add an echo in my own words, words that perhaps you may read one day. No, I have not come to stay, for the future is not here, it is out there on the plains, naked and honest, alive and free. Be content with your rut stranger, and may it cradle you no longer than is necessary. Yes the stormclouds gather, but rain and thunder do not trouble me as they once did, the gods are not vengeful with those who stand in defiance, this you shall learn.

As I ride out I bid you farewell, and I hope that you remember this day, I hope it nags at you the way the plains nag at me, and I hope it drives you out from your home and hearth and into the wilderness, screaming, seeking; clawing at the dirt, crawling to the creeping sands. You may think I wish to curse you, but if you would but pull the mask from your face and let your ears hear the sounds of the world without the filters of your armor stranger, then you too would see with your own eyes as it is, in all it's beauty, horrible or glorious.

The Good Reverend Roger

This rawked.

Only one small point:

In this place there is nothing of what you call the civilised world. There are no buildings, there are no farms, there are no farmers, no families, only aching miles of expanse, life itself streaming towards the sky, radiating from open ground. You may travel far and wide and ne'er see a single soul.

There USED to be places like this.

Now they're all gone, even from our dreams.  You can travel the world, and it's all the same stripmall.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The seer

You didn't even read the whole thing.

And there ARE places like that, they're just dangerous for westerners to travel in because the locals know what you want to do with them.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: The seerYou didn't even read the whole thing.

And there ARE places like that, they're just dangerous for westerners to travel in because the locals know what you want to do with them.

1.  Actually, I did.  I read approx 400 words/min w/85% comp.  It was very well done, and I *did* catch the metaphor.

2.  Well, like any resident of Fat City, I was referring to Fat City as "the world".
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The seer

There's even parts of fat city that are like that, but they're a lot smaller than they once were. I suppose you could bargain with the grizzlies in alaska, but there's no guarantee they won't rip your face off, Because they know how white men behave.

The metaphor is actually many layered. On the one hand I was talking about my leaving, and how the removal of my emotional investment in this place taught me a thing or two about what to finance my cares in and what not to. and also about the spiritual ruts we fall into. We get hung up on one idea and then we forget it and eventually we come full circle and don't realise today's new revelation was last week's holy shit idea.
The sum total of all human knowledge and experience covers very little of anything, and there are many reasons:
Few people know how to propery transmit information
Those same teachers know little about the fact we all speak a different language
People get so hung up on finding the ultimate truth they end up finding it. That's when they stop thinking.

People who are satisfied really piss me off actually. I'm all for comfort and quality of life, but the minute you're happy to live out your days following the same routine is the minute you end up with civilisations like ours. You'd think the opposite would be true, that you have to be discontent to breed malcontents, to have waste, to have war. But people are happy to throw molotovs, people are happy to fight over land and resources, people are happy to turn their neighbours in to the fedz. People are happy to watch the same old crap and bitch about it.

I am not content to watch the world's resources be pissed away for money and power. and I am not content to follow the same old path to do something about it.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: The seerThere's even parts of fat city that are like that, but they're a lot smaller than they once were. I suppose you could bargain with the grizzlies in alaska, but there's no guarantee they won't rip your face off, Because they know how white men behave.


People who are satisfied really piss me off actually. I'm all for comfort and quality of life, but the minute you're happy to live out your days following the same routine is the minute you end up with civilisations like ours. You'd think the opposite would be true, that you have to be discontent to breed malcontents, to have waste, to have war. But people are happy to throw molotovs, people are happy to fight over land and resources, people are happy to turn their neighbours in to the fedz. People are happy to watch the same old crap and bitch about it.

I am not content to watch the world's resources be pissed away for money and power. and I am not content to follow the same old path to do something about it.

1.  Not anymore.  We paved the last square inch about 2 weeks ago.

2.  In ANY civilization, you will find the molotov cocktail throwers.  One Anthropologist has suggested that barbarism is genetic.  The larger the population, the more barbarians.  Australia, of course, disproves this, as ALL 12 people are barbarians.  Why do we barbarians exist?  Genetics?  Just BORN wrong?  Who cares?  We're here, and the rest of the world will just have to deal with us.  Or kill me.

3.  Okay.  What's on your twisted little mind?  If you have any concrete, workable ideas, I'm game.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The seer

[list=1]
  • a damn shame
  • There is little about behaviour that is not ultimately controllable, even some biologics can be managed.
  • Ontological genocide. The war on dumb's final solution.[/list:o]

LHX

haaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa @ workable ideas

youre killing me


(good)
neat hell

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: The seer[list=1]
  • a damn shame
  • There is little about behaviour that is not ultimately controllable, even some biologics can be managed.
  • Ontological genocide. The war on dumb's final solution.[/list:o]
2.  What a hideous notion.

3.  Dumb people don't pay attention to things they don't understand, unless they can just stomp it flat.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The seer

2. Yes, it is. Now suck it up and deal with it.

3. Hence the first phase of the plan.

LHX. There are a lot of workable ideas, only the involve risks that may result in a gruesome state execution for trying and failing. So by workable I take it you mean: "Will still allow me to function in daily life if I can't score 100%. Sad to say unless you take some "unworkable" Ideas, daily life isn't going to be worth much of anything by the time you're roger's age.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: The seer2. Yes, it is. Now suck it up and deal with it.

3. Hence the first phase of the plan.

LHX. There are a lot of workable ideas, only the involve risks that may result in a gruesome state execution for trying and failing. So by workable I take it you mean: "Will still allow me to function in daily life if I can't score 100%. Sad to say unless you take some "unworkable" Ideas, daily life isn't going to be worth much of anything by the time you're roger's age.

2.  Okay.  Gimme the pills.

3.  Um...unless you have smart pills, the first phase is gonna fail.

4.  Don't have a revolution and lose.  Easy.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cain

Quote2. In ANY civilization, you will find the molotov cocktail throwers. One Anthropologist has suggested that barbarism is genetic. The larger the population, the more barbarians. Australia, of course, disproves this, as ALL 12 people are barbarians. Why do we barbarians exist? Genetics? Just BORN wrong? Who cares? We're here, and the rest of the world will just have to deal with us. Or kill me.

Yeah, there is a book I have somewhere which works on the barabarian/tribal division in humanity.  I'm still sorry I haven't managed to do social anthropology in my times here.  I'll try and dig it out, it has some explanation of it.

The biology of control is very interesting, I just had a class on future wars where we were discussing the use of implants and drugs that could be used on troops, but also would have worrying effects on a civilian population.  For instance, the implants they have created allowing people to control a machine with their thoughts.  All you have to do is turn it into a reciever rather than a transmitter...

East Coast Hustle

damn.

that was fucking AWESOME, T.

damn.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

LHX

LHX wants to work the land with no interruptions
neat hell

LHX

Quote from: The seer2. Yes, it is. Now suck it up and deal with it.

3. Hence the first phase of the plan.

LHX. There are a lot of workable ideas, only the involve risks that may result in a gruesome state execution for trying and failing. So by workable I take it you mean: "Will still allow me to function in daily life if I can't score 100%. Sad to say unless you take some "unworkable" Ideas, daily life isn't going to be worth much of anything by the time you're roger's age.

not looking for a guarantee past my next post
neat hell