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Truths Which May Not Be Self-Evident.

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, August 02, 2012, 02:29:09 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on August 02, 2012, 08:38:38 PM
Like the main takeaway from Antero Alli's chapter on Circut Two:  I am here, and I am now.

Except that being "here" isn't enough.  The world is full of people who are here.
" 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.

Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 08:33:26 PM
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on August 02, 2012, 08:30:27 PM

The point I saw was that things aren't awesome and may well be teetering on the verge of Horribletm soon. However, we monkeys have actually done a lot to improve on a few things over the past hundred years or so. We should enjoy what we got on the ground, because we might be climbing back into the trees soon.

Not exactly, but close enough.

The point of the first piece was that, no matter how bad things may look NOW, your great-great grandfather would have traded 20 years of his life for your worst day.

And the point of both pieces is, enjoy what you have.

The response seemed to be, "EVERYTHING'S FUCKED AND PEOPLE SUCK".

Which may be true in some respects, but there are loads of threads about that.

True enough... I suspect the 1930's would have looked great to people who died during the Plague years in Europe, or under the loving hand of the Inquisition. Hell, slaves in the Cotton fields of 19th century America would probably have preferred freedom and a Dust Bowl, to chains.

It makes sense that we seem to evolve socially, just as we do genetically. Its easier to slip back, its easier for some schmuck to fuck it all up (ala Hitler)... but overall, there seems to be a trend towards humans learning from earlier humans and not making quite the same horrible mistakes (they come up with new horrible mistakes, sure... but still). Hell, our doctors even wash their hands now.

It can be difficult to see the progress when you're "here and now" just like its impossible to see the curvature of the Earth when your standing on the ground.

I like this post very much, Roger.
- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson

Anna Mae Bollocks

Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 08:10:57 PM
One of the main problems people have - and have always had - is willful miscommunication.

Example:  Atheists vs Believers.

The believer thinks that atheists don't think life matters much, because when you die, you're just a lump of inanimate meat.  Atheists think that believers don't think life matters much, because it's just a waiting room for heaven.

Both are of course incorrect:  Atheists value life because that's all there is, and believers value life because they consider it a gift from a deity (or deities).

Neither side will hear that, though, because they think they have to oppose each other, and it's easier to do that if you dehumanize the other guy...So listening to this simple fact is impossible for them:  Everyone values their lives.

Yeah. And we all want pretty much the same things, like health, material comfort and companionship. Should be easy to talk things out, right? Except that people get it in their heads that WE'RE NOT GETTING THESE THINGS BECAUSE GOD IS PISSED OFF AT US FOR TOLERATING GAY STUFF.
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division

Triple Zero

Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 08:39:41 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on August 02, 2012, 08:38:38 PM
Like the main takeaway from Antero Alli's chapter on Circut Two:  I am here, and I am now.

Except that being "here" isn't enough.  The world is full of people who are here.

Two things:

it's also important to be in the now. maybe even more important, but I'm not sure, they could both be equally important.

and I'm not certain what you mean by that "the world is full of people who are here", in a similar sense the world is full of people who are here "now". but the point is that not only they are physically here now, you need to be mentally and consciously here and now.

and that's pretty much what nearly all meditation and yoga practices boil down to, mostly.

all the stuff around it is training, practice and exercises.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Triple Zero on August 02, 2012, 10:25:22 PM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 08:39:41 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on August 02, 2012, 08:38:38 PM
Like the main takeaway from Antero Alli's chapter on Circut Two:  I am here, and I am now.

Except that being "here" isn't enough.  The world is full of people who are here.

Two things:

it's also important to be in the now. maybe even more important, but I'm not sure, they could both be equally important.

and I'm not certain what you mean by that "the world is full of people who are here", in a similar sense the world is full of people who are here "now". but the point is that not only they are physically here now, you need to be mentally and consciously here and now.

and that's pretty much what nearly all meditation and yoga practices boil down to, mostly.

all the stuff around it is training, practice and exercises.

And a great big pile of woo.

WELCOME TO THE THREAD, TRIP! 
" 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.

Triple Zero

Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Reginald Ret

woo=magickal thinking.
I could do meditation and/or Yoga if it didn't lure magickal thinkers.
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Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

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P3nT4gR4m

I fucking love now. I'm just about old enough that I can see improvements in all kinds of areas of life that have happened just in the time I've been here. The obvious technological stuff, yeah, but even things like racism and homophobia have improved since I was a nipper.

There are still a fuckload of assholes, going all-out to balance the improvements with monkey bullshit but they never seem to be quite able to drive the net right down to zero in the long term. The good guys always win on aggregate?

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
Not actually a meat product.
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walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

P3nT4gR4m

Quote from: :regret: on August 03, 2012, 12:31:26 PM
woo=magickal thinking.
I could do meditation and/or Yoga if it didn't lure magickal thinkers.

So if a lot of magical thinkers happen to like the new batman movie, you won't go see it? Yoga is a bunch of stretching exercises, coupled with relaxation. What the fuck is woo about that?

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
Not actually a meat product.
Ass-Kicking & Foot-Stomping Ancient Master of SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK
Awful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.
High Altitude Haggis-Filled Sex Bucket From Beyond Time and Space.
Internet Monkey Person of Filthy and Immoral Pygmy-Porn Wart Contagion
Octomom Auxillary Heat Exchanger Repairman
walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

AFK

Fuck the glom-ers.  If shit works, shit works. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 02:52:57 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on August 02, 2012, 02:49:21 PM
My memere was one of twelve, and lost at least one of her siblings at a young age because, well, it was nearly a century ago and that sort of thing just happened.

Today also has the benefit over yesterday of being attainable.

Yesterday is obtainable.  It lurks around every corner, soaked in blood, waiting for us to fuck up and forget about it.

BAM.  Prophecy.
" 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.

MMIX

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 12, 2017, 03:15:35 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 02, 2012, 02:52:57 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on August 02, 2012, 02:49:21 PM
My memere was one of twelve, and lost at least one of her siblings at a young age because, well, it was nearly a century ago and that sort of thing just happened.

Today also has the benefit over yesterday of being attainable.

Yesterday is obtainable.  It lurks around every corner, soaked in blood, waiting for us to fuck up and forget about it.

BAM.  Prophecy.

Needs to be News tickered, and written on walls in blood
"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently" David Graeber

Goddess Eris

Woo woo woo check this genius skeptic over here WOO WOO


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The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Goddess Eris on January 12, 2017, 06:54:57 PM
Woo woo woo check this genius skeptic over here WOO WOO


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am rarely disappointed.
" 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.