Bali has finally crushed my spirit

[GliderGuider]

I was holding onto a slim thread of hope that the multi-factorial global crisis was finally immediate enough to overcome our psychological discount function and prompt some action. Alas, it appears that my suspicion about the ability of our evolved psychology to shield us from the empathic acceptance of any threat to those outside our familial/tribal boundaries was correct.

The mutually reinforcing social structures we have built up over the centuries to support the hierarchic and acquisitive aspects of our psychology - our economic, political, education and communication systems - appear to be in full self-reinforcing, self-preservation feedback mode.

As evidenced in Bali those forces are much, much stronger than most of us suspected. They are willing to see the the rest of us walk off a cliff, in the sure and certain knowledge that they and their familiars will be protected. In the face of the destruction of the planet's life they are fully prepared to sign our death warrants.

As I said in an earlier post, if this is what we can expect then there's no point wasting any more adrenaline baying at the moon. They have decided that we should die rather than live, and there is little we can do about it now. Like a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf, I have come to terms with my fate. I may kick feebly once or twice more - give another TEOTWAWKI talk, change one last light bulb for old time's sake - but really, what's the point?

We are finished.

[tom_paine]

1. I feel oddly proud of myself. You're a very smart man and I figured it out before you.

(Breaks arm patting self on back) :evilgrin:

It was a mistake to put any faith in the primate evolutionary line, which appears to be coming to a screeching dead end. We're not even anything like the "good" primates, humans are most closely related to chimpanzees who are some evil fuckers if I ever saw one.

If you haven't done so already, please research how chimp societies work, they are as brutal and murderous and evil (if any animal could be called such, although clearly the chimps have a high degree of intelligence, if not self-aware sentience) as anything humans have ever devised (our technology makes human evil orders of magnitude larger in their consequences).

As the reptilian taxonomical class did not die off, but was relegated to much fewer and more insignificant (in terms of being "higher" on the pyramid) ecological niches, so likely shall the mammalian after the coming Dark Ages and the long slow and likely agonizing, for those few human colonies left in a five milennia, journey to species extinction.

It should be interesting for all those alien Terranologists (if there are any aliens or if they waste their time studying this dead-end of a species) to study and analyze after it's all over.

The one place I disagree with you in being rabbit-like in the jaws of the wolf.

My philsophy is more like this photo:



In other words, if we are going to be chewed up by some wolves, let's at least try to break some fucking teeth on our way down.

[GliderGuider]

4. Don't overlook the bonobos. They're also chimpanzees but

Pan paniscus are nothing like Pan troglodytes. In fact the bonobo is my totem animal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo

Sexual intercourse plays a major role in Bonobo society, being used as a greeting, a means of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconciliation, and as favors traded by the females in exchange for food. Bonobos are the only non-human apes to have been observed engaging in all of the following sexual activities: face-to-face genital sex (most frequently female-female, then male-female and male-male), tongue kissing, and oral sex.<15> In scientific literature, the female-female sex is often referred to as GG rubbing or genital-genital rubbing, while male-male sex is sometimes referred to as penis fencing.<16>

Sexual activity happens within the immediate family as well as outside it, and often involves adults and children, even infants.<17> Bonobos do not form permanent relationships with individual partners. They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by gender or age, with the possible exception of sexual intercourse between mothers and their adult sons; some observers believe these pairings are taboo. When Bonobos come upon a new food source or feeding ground, the increased excitement will usually lead to communal sexual activity, presumably decreasing tension and allowing for peaceful feeding.

Maybe some of that would cheer me up today...

[tom_paine]

6. If there were any bonobo-type hominds in the past, you can bet your ass

our Chimpcestors outplanned, outfought, and just plain old outmanuevered them. The way the Bushies got FDR to let them off the hook for High Treason "for the good of the country", then turned around and in two and 1/2 decades, killed the three most prominent, effective, and strongest Democratic Leaders JFK, RFK, and MLK, who never knew what hit them and never realized until the very end just what bottomless Chimpanzee Evil they were dealing with.

Just like the Neanderthals (or whichever would be the approriate ancestor) likely got murdered by the tens of thousands after accepting dinner invitiations or something from the Chimpie-Cro-MagnoBushies then as soon as they put their clubs down to enjoy the feast of peace, got their skulls crushed by previosuly hidden and well-armed Chimpie-Cro-MagnoBushies, who bashed their skulls in from behind.

This is among the oldest and most recurring themes in chimpo-human history, I think PATRICK mentions it, from a different angle and perspective, further down this thread.

Some things just never change, do they?

Sorry, I guess I am not being much help in cheering you up, Paul. Better go find the wife and have some freaky bonobo-sex. :evilgrin:

[dysfunctional press]

8. one of the most brutal pieces of film i ever saw involved thai chimps in the wild...

hunting a monkey. the males cornered it in the treetops- one of them jumped it and they fell to the ground, where the waiting females, who were quickly joined by the rest of the males- started ripping the monkey apart alive and eating it.

on edit-
i couldn't find the clip i had seen before, but here are two fairly similar ones with the same kind of outcome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQepG7sD6vk&feature=related

this one is by richard attenborough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDFh5JdYh7I

[Harper_is_Bush]

2. You haven't changed all your light bulbs yet?

What is taking you so long?

[panader0]

3. I read in your profilre that your hobby is the collapse of industrial

civilization. Maybe you are dwelling on it too much. Take a walk. Have a beer with some friends. Listen to some good music. There is wonder and beauty everywhere around all of us. Besides, what would be so bad about a little less industrialization?

[NickB79]

7. I would welcome a little less industrialization myself

The extra 3-4 billion mouths that couldn't be fed without industrialized agriculture might be concerned, however.

[PATRICK]

5. Upper delegation meltdown

Super systems created to advance the species beyond that are not recognized to be inertia bound, even worse, tools of reaction.

Science.
News.
Political leadership.

The massive failure of each when hitting this same wall either shocks or numbs or blinds those who relied on "leadership" to make up for our private concern limitations. This is the shiny lid on our coffin, the one activists here scrape their nails against trying to dig out.

The higher functions like foresight don't have ultimate power in the world system created overall for mankind, by its own failed leadership. the highest high such as great leaders of compassion and liberation get shot and memorialize, an ominous sign(according to Christians' own Gospels) of the mad self-sealed fate of humankind.

This century's challenge is simple. Change your deepest ways or die, but change is difficult and you have the main of living with the fact you only have a CHANCE of making it to the unknown future. A further spur to denial.

[Buzz Clik]

9. It seems that our lurking, knuckledragging friends are having difficulty understanding the OP.

Apparently, the reading level of the your typical wingnut is roughly third grade (to the surprise of no one).

Ok if I summarize?

The entire planet is facing problems coming from different directions, but these problems are not easy for the average joe to understand, so it's a hard sell. I was hoping that the emergence of some of these problems would make people act, but it didn't happen. I guess if the we don't find dog shit on the bottom of our shoes, we convince ourselves that the dog isn't shitting anywhere at all.

It seems that people have become real good at blinding themselves to the truth about the decay of our finances, political systems, education, and the way we talk to each other -- so good that we see bad things and translate them as good.

The meetings in Bali this past week show all this pretty clearly. These guys seem totally happy to have us sink in our own excrement while they protect themselves and those important to them. Despite clear warning signs, they are letting it happen.

Is there anything we can do? Probably not. Maybe we should simply accept that we're screwed.

[GliderGuider]

10. Very nicely done :-) Thanks.

[GliderGuider]

11. (Deep breath) I just got back from the first birthday party for the granddaughter of a close friend

I was reminded that we must do everything we can to be worthy of such innocent trust. Enough self-indulgence - on with the fight. I'm thinking of joining the IED Division of the Deep Ecology Jihad (erm, that IED would be "Intellectually Explosive Document", just in case Agent Mike is reading...)