Its a given we Humans are fucked up: We are Canceresque in that we

[opihimoimoi]

harvest more than the Earth Provides...slowly, now faster and faster, we are eating beyond the Limit of nutrient production...

ARE WE THE MUTANT SPECIES?

Doomed to die out because we lack Reason?? Sanity? Comprehension?

Come, we go look for ways to cross the Highway to Paradise....forget Extinction....its TOO EASY....

[Deja Q]

1. Excessive desire for greed and selfishness. The Bible has parallels too.

But most of them were perverted and used to scapegoat groups of people instead; probaby re-wtitten BY the greedy and selfish.

[opihimoimoi]

4. In Genesis we learn of how they used God as an excuse to wage

aggression to take over other Peeps lands and farms... Genocide we call it in todays terms....

"Put every man, woman, and child to the sword..."

Look who reaped the rewards? The Levites...its all there...notice they get all the gold and silver plus the best houses(liberated)
and other spoils of war...These guys of them old days were RUTHLESS..

Now we see History repeating it self...all due to wanton GREED...

we want it all, fuck all others...

[stepnw1f]

2. I Think About This A Lot and...

have come to a decision. I believe we may have a "cancer" born from our decision long ago to sway from age old practices that kept man on an equal footing with nature. This may have been our decision to leave the "Hunter Gatherer" state of existence for an "Agrarian" consumption existence. I do not see us as the "cancer" itself. Just the mentality as being the "cancer".

Thom Hartmann's, "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" talks about this.

[acmejack]

5. I thought of that book as soon as I read your post!

Excellent read, but I have not read an unenjoyable work by Thom.

[stepnw1f]

7. How Was "What Would Jefferson DO"? (nt)

[acmejack]

10. Exceptional!

You will like it I am certain. I also spend (too much) time pondering this same point, but I lean towards blaming the industrial revolution more than any other event.

[stepnw1f]

13. I Believe in a Somewhat Moderate Approach to this Epidemic

I believe we can change our existence without throwing technology out the window. I am very cautious about change. Anything we do as a race has very complicated consequences.

So less gas, less electricity, solar energy, etc. is where I'm at with change. Not, let's live in the woods without all modern technology.

[opihimoimoi]

17. Efficiency is a large part of the shoret term solution

[opihimoimoi]

18. dupe

[Lethe]

21. but think in the long term

of course, you sound reasonable considering our current technology. But think about the time when we have swarms of nano-bots and advanced engineered viruses flying around.......technology is advancing at an exponential rate, yet our wisdom and common sense is still stuck in paleolithic times. Honestly, I try to think positive, but the more and more I think about it, the conclusion that is most sensible is this: that we should abandon technology and revert to our rightful, natural, tribal beginnings.

[stepnw1f]

23. In Time We Will Have to

My only concern how exactly. I guess with each obstacle there will be a proper solution. So in time we'll adapt and finally evolve.

[opihimoimoi]

26. Either we evolve to success or we hit the extinction road...

[opihimoimoi]

16. Perhaps the combo of the Industrial Revolution and Greed, selfishness,

ego, vanity, and delusion....

[opihimoimoi]

6. Yes, we have abandoned the Village Level only to reach the city

where its all too easy to fool the sheep.

At the Village Level, the Villagers had to have wise and good leaders else they die off....

In the city: Its too easy for Evilness to creep in with various forms...all bad.

The Strength in many numbers spawned greed and aggression...hence genocide for the losers and spoils of war for the victors...

The spoils included VIRGINS to be divided up for the men...

[stepnw1f]

8. We Are Reaching a Tipping Point in the Life of Our Current Civilization

We either "Stay the Course" or we implement change to soften Mother Nature's "Blow". Man has for too long walked straight into the wind. It is time we take a more humbled, "crouched" approach toward her resistance.

[opihimoimoi]

15. Yup, study Mother Nature for Clues and we will find the solutions

required for Peace....

[The2ndWheel]

11. Agreed

Civilization is the root problem.

[Ladyhawk]

20. Interesting. I've thought about it a lot, too, and came to the same

conclusion. I believe we are hurting ourselves as much as nature by not fulfilling the role nature intended. We were not meant to be sedentary creatures, sitting behind desks, plucking at a keyboard. We were meant to be active, out in nature, a part of nature.

We have definitely put ourselves outside of nature. Even though I thoroughly enjoy time spent on a computer, I am never as happy as I am when I can get to the mountains or the ocean and enjoy nature and its wildlife.

[opihimoimoi]

27. Savior those moments as they seem short lived as we ravage the Planet

[undergroundpanther]

3. Thoughts

Mix trauma with strange notions about bloodlines, God and country, strength, noble struggle, strife is life, and it’s as if our most primitive past has overridden out heart.

A penchant for domination or a call for racial identity sometimes emerge, strangling our ability to love a person who’s different in any way.

Some people take such “pride” in their heritage, it's like they fancy themselves champions of one genetic type.

Alongside an obedience to the leaders who are ruining our planet, racists want to destroy other people too.

Anyone different.

A reaction complex forms in their heads that literally colors the way they see the world.

They are forever trapped in US vs THEM.

Winner or loser, zero sum thinkers.

And sometimes, if these losers who imagine themselves winners are charismatic enough, they can commit mass genocide against the competing races: Eugenics.

It’s the only time evolution fancies itself intelligent by design.

http://www.unknownnews.org/050802a-up.html


We are Denying death by ...killing ourselves..We want to live forever,and anthing that challenges this denial system we need to be able to function,is a threat to ego,to security to our sense we are in control..when in reality we are not in control we are not certain we cannot predict and we could die at any moment as well as our loved ones,the world..That kind of gruesome reality is too much for some to take so they try to live forever make war with nature war with life and end up killing us all to survive..we are thinking like cancer and the denial of death,eternal growth, is cancers modus operandi.

Maybe Nukes are the CURE?? Radiation does help cancer..ever wonder?

[opihimoimoi]

12. The CURE comes in the FORM of OVERCOMING IGNORANCE

The DEMs would be wise to State this repeatedly and in differing formats with explicit explinations...all the way down to the cartoon level if we have to.

Ignorance is Global but there is no reason we should not make a serious attempt to lower the Level.....

[Taxloss]

9. No, we're just amateurs.

We were the species that achieved intelligent thought first, and as anyone who has had to deal with a toddler knows, intelligent thought often isn't very intelligent. If the dolphins had beaten us to it, I daresay they'd be fucking up the planet as quickly as we are, and thinking that they help save it by buying cans of chimp that have a little picture of a human on them to show they were caught using human-friendly nets.

If we do wipe ourselves out, then the civilisation that follows us would see the evidence of our folly everywhere and would behave differently. Not very differently - they'd still be vain and short-sighted and brutal and greedy and intolerant. But a bit different. Maybe different enough.

If we don't wipe ourselves out - and I feel we won't, I am at heart an optimist, even in these times - then I feel that the species that created things as beautiful as Barber's Adagio for Strings, Picasso's Guernica, King's College chapel and Roget's Thesaurus can go on to heal our planet and endure forever.

[opihimoimoi]

14. If we can figure out the String Theory...we can figure out Peace

But to comprehende the theory is the hurdle.....

Peace will give us the best ODDs for a very long productive and comfortable existence....

[Guy Fawkes]

19. You're not a humanist, are you...

:)

[opihimoimoi]

24. Please define Humanist and what it means to you...perhaps/maybe not...

[Guy Fawkes]

30. In terms of psychology...

a humanist is a person who believes that all people will strive to fulfill their perceived potential.

[opihimoimoi]

33. I believe only a few do this...most are lazy and fall upon some miracle

to fulfill their dreams.

Too many are too lazy to continue serious reading and instead fall prey to the Rushes, etc for their info. Astuteness escapes them.

Come, we go make Peace contagious...

[buddysmellgood]

22. Just the republicans

[opihimoimoi]

25. Well, its a bit more than just the Pubs...add in the Ignorant and the

apathetic/comped.....

[SoCalDem]

28. Alohaaaa, opihi (totally off topic)

I just saw your greeting to me from the other day.. I left for laughlin before I could check my posts.. I wasn't ignorin' ya..

Things are fine here with me.. Drove home today 120 temps whew!!!
At least it's only 100 here :evilgrin:

Lost money (what's new?)
I was happy to get home to my husband & the furry babies..no more gambling for me until next June :)

:hi:

[opihimoimoi]

34. Lost??? AGAIN???? O Lordy, what we gonna do with you??? LOL

I got a blue Siamese 1 year old now...came to us meowing for attention and food. Good ratter he is....

Temp here in the 80's, we got a heat wave...

Hellos to all..Steve, I believe????

And last, get your "Peace is a Lot Cheaper" Bumper sticker.. Make one if you have to, lol

[LucasD]

29. We were doomed as soon as we

began to worship a God whom we believed to be in our own
image, rather than worshiping mother Earth. Perhaps
worship is the wrong word, but you get my point.

The Earth came with two very simple instructions. Don't
put anything into the water that you can't drink, and
don't put anything into the air that you can't breathe.

I'm not sure what evolutionary misfire allows humans
to feel invincible for such a large part of their lives,
but nature needs to find a way to repair it before it’s
too late. Many of us think we can get away with anything.

I see only one root cause to almost every problem facing
the Earth right now. Human overpopulation. We need
to face a very hard reality as “intelligent” beings and realize
that we have to keep our population in check somehow.

My wife and I have decided not to have children, and we
get slammed on a weekly basis by our parents, our friends,
and even casual acquaintances. “Carry on the family name!”.
“That’s why we’re on this planet.”, “Your sisters did it.”
And my favorite, the one that bugs me the most and goes
straight to why too many people have kids: “Who
will take care of you when you get old?!”. Fear is the wrong
reason to have children.

Ugh…. I get so frustrated. Sorry about the length of this.

*end rant*

[opihimoimoi]

35. Yup, thanks for the rant....Humans, too many will over eat, overwhelm...

We could do a lot better but Delusion/denial stand fast in the freaking way...

[oasis]

31. Humanity is on a bullet train to extinction. The passengers will wake up

to find that the brake system to stop it is inadequate.

[opihimoimoi]

36. We are approaching the no brake point....

We want to reduce the pop in a humane way, the Pubs want the Famine route...thats the diff.

[the_spectator]

32. Remember when the right used to call us "secular HUMANISTS"?

Boy did they get THAT one wrong. :crazy:

Three points:
1) People who really believe this stuff about humanity being a "plague species" had better stop pretending that they believe in things like democracy, justice, rights, etc. This kind of attitude is a perfect justification for totalitarianism. After all, we don't deserve anything. So if men like Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. want to murder millions, well they're just like a good homeowner exterminating the cockroaches from his home, right?

2) In life before civilization, such as hunter-gatherer societies, people lived, as wild animals usually do, always on the verge of starvation or death by exposure to the elements, and evey day of life was centered around avoiding those deaths. And of course any disabled person was a dead duck, likely didn't survive out of childhood. Civilization has given us the ability to educate ourselves, to learn about the world outside of our own random little family group, to make our own way in life, to pursue what interests us. A hunter-gatherer society was a society WITHOUT choices - and talk about a violently hierarchical system dominated by alpha males! Think high school was bad?

3) In the past century or two, just as civilization has FINALLY began to provide prosperity and a certain amount of justice to average people, it is also beginning to ALLEVIATE the very environmental problems the OP refers to. Just ONE example: now that children are no longer economic benefits to parents, and people have more opportunities to choose their own individual way of life, the birth rate naturally decreases. Families go from 6 kids, down to 2 kids, down to one, or even to couples who choose to remain childless. Parts of western Europe are already at negative population growth. Now of course we're not there yet in most places (Latin America, the Arab world, etc.) but give them time, and I think, and hope, they'll get to where we are too.

Sorry to get so long-winded, but this OP and so many of the responses realy set me off: what does "Liberal" or "progressive" really mean these days? You all sound like some rabid fundie-type salivating for God to destroy this "evil" society because, hey, God did it to Sodom and Gomorrah, right? We can only hope! :crazy:

[opihimoimoi]

37. Forget Hope, Wish, and Pray...if we want better, we have to WORK FOR IT