07-05-2020, 12:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-05-2020, 01:32 AM by Eric the Green.)
One thing has been made clear to me over the years. We humans are still an extremely primitive and undeveloped race.
Cruel, insensitive, mean, fearful doesn't begin to cover it.
As for white flight, that has been over for some time. The trend now is for gentrification, which is the opposite. Why should there be white flight now? Unless you are just ignorant of what is going on these days, swept up in the ignorant right-wing propaganda of the kind Trump puts out and Classic Xer eats up.
One spiritual teacher I read said that of all the lives we souls go through in our journey of discovery and development, life on Earth is the toughest assignment.
Whether you look at life from that perspective or not, it's not a bad assessment. But what makes it so tough? Is it the physical drudgery, the burdens, the hard work for little reward?
No. It is the people. The other people. As Jean Paul Sartre said, "hell is other people."
100 million years ago, most smaller creatures had to look out for the big bad dinosaurs who might eat them up. Staying clear of them was the biggest challenge. And later, there were all the lions and tigers and bears.
Today though, for most species on Earth today, it is the humans. We have wiped out so many creatures that it makes the dinosaurs tame by comparison.
I have to admit though, humans are amazing. We can do so many things. I myself can hardly aspire to accomplish all the great things humans do. The inventions, the athletic feats, the monuments we have built using crude tools, the success some people have in a world of human dinosaurs and predators, is all pretty amazing.
It is some kind of miracle that we are here at all. Some higher power, or the will to life and the struggle itself, made it possible.
Just to be conscious, to be self-aware, to be friendly, to be courageous, even sometimes to love, or at least to appreciate Nature and art, is amazing to behold.
It made me think once that we could create any kind of utopia we want, if we just believe it's possible. Woodstock proved it.
But all along, my experience with real people has left a whole lot to be desired, I must admit too. And it hasn't gotten any better, despite some good times back then when it seemed like it was getting better.
Which made me think even back then, and still think today, that humans are a work in progress. Only a future ideal society is acceptable, not the established and conventional ways. And the established ways--- the horrible way we treat and disrespect people, the oppressive social and economic structures we have, the crude kinds of amusements and entertainment we settle for, the useless things we produce, the money we prioritize, the kind of ugly cities we build, the way we destroy Nature, the way we kill ourselves in wars, the silly condition of most of our religions, our ridiculously narrow worldviews and fantasies; all these mean that the only ethical, moral or rational course of life in this society to support and help create the new alternatives, and to thumb our nose at conventional values.
Just supporting, participating, being a part of straight "normal" society is just perpetuating our primitive condition, when the only way to sanctify or justify our lives is to do whatever little we can to build the new and the alternative way. To work on ourselves, to change ourselves, to release ourselves, to discover ourselves, to emerge as we really are, and to create a new just society and alternative and beautiful ways of living, that is the only meaningful activity.
Racism is one of the ways we are still so primitive, and so ignorant. Sorry to say, but to think that the way we are now is the way things have to be forever, or even for the foreseeable future, is incredibly naive. We have only comparatively recently emerged from the caves! Nazi concentration camps are only 75 years ago! We tolerate incredible monsters in power even today around the world, like Assad and dozens more! THAT'S PRIMITIVE! That indicates just how much we have to learn, how far we have yet to go.
And look who is in the White House!!
Of course, being incredibly naive, being incredibly ignorant, is just part of our normal condition. That's the main part, perhaps, that we need to work on, and to move beyond. And no doubt it all will take a while. And ignorant, afraid and cruel as we are, who knows just how many centuries that could be. But considering our primitive and youthful condition, it could in the long run be seen as a comparatively short time compared to the history of all life on the planet. We may even look back on this youth of ours, as even today we sometimes have nostalgia for our still-short history, and think, wasn't it a great game? Wouldn't it be great to go back and do it again? What a wonderful adventure!
Cruel, insensitive, mean, fearful doesn't begin to cover it.
As for white flight, that has been over for some time. The trend now is for gentrification, which is the opposite. Why should there be white flight now? Unless you are just ignorant of what is going on these days, swept up in the ignorant right-wing propaganda of the kind Trump puts out and Classic Xer eats up.
One spiritual teacher I read said that of all the lives we souls go through in our journey of discovery and development, life on Earth is the toughest assignment.
Whether you look at life from that perspective or not, it's not a bad assessment. But what makes it so tough? Is it the physical drudgery, the burdens, the hard work for little reward?
No. It is the people. The other people. As Jean Paul Sartre said, "hell is other people."
100 million years ago, most smaller creatures had to look out for the big bad dinosaurs who might eat them up. Staying clear of them was the biggest challenge. And later, there were all the lions and tigers and bears.
Today though, for most species on Earth today, it is the humans. We have wiped out so many creatures that it makes the dinosaurs tame by comparison.
I have to admit though, humans are amazing. We can do so many things. I myself can hardly aspire to accomplish all the great things humans do. The inventions, the athletic feats, the monuments we have built using crude tools, the success some people have in a world of human dinosaurs and predators, is all pretty amazing.
It is some kind of miracle that we are here at all. Some higher power, or the will to life and the struggle itself, made it possible.
Just to be conscious, to be self-aware, to be friendly, to be courageous, even sometimes to love, or at least to appreciate Nature and art, is amazing to behold.
It made me think once that we could create any kind of utopia we want, if we just believe it's possible. Woodstock proved it.
But all along, my experience with real people has left a whole lot to be desired, I must admit too. And it hasn't gotten any better, despite some good times back then when it seemed like it was getting better.
Which made me think even back then, and still think today, that humans are a work in progress. Only a future ideal society is acceptable, not the established and conventional ways. And the established ways--- the horrible way we treat and disrespect people, the oppressive social and economic structures we have, the crude kinds of amusements and entertainment we settle for, the useless things we produce, the money we prioritize, the kind of ugly cities we build, the way we destroy Nature, the way we kill ourselves in wars, the silly condition of most of our religions, our ridiculously narrow worldviews and fantasies; all these mean that the only ethical, moral or rational course of life in this society to support and help create the new alternatives, and to thumb our nose at conventional values.
Just supporting, participating, being a part of straight "normal" society is just perpetuating our primitive condition, when the only way to sanctify or justify our lives is to do whatever little we can to build the new and the alternative way. To work on ourselves, to change ourselves, to release ourselves, to discover ourselves, to emerge as we really are, and to create a new just society and alternative and beautiful ways of living, that is the only meaningful activity.
Racism is one of the ways we are still so primitive, and so ignorant. Sorry to say, but to think that the way we are now is the way things have to be forever, or even for the foreseeable future, is incredibly naive. We have only comparatively recently emerged from the caves! Nazi concentration camps are only 75 years ago! We tolerate incredible monsters in power even today around the world, like Assad and dozens more! THAT'S PRIMITIVE! That indicates just how much we have to learn, how far we have yet to go.
And look who is in the White House!!
Of course, being incredibly naive, being incredibly ignorant, is just part of our normal condition. That's the main part, perhaps, that we need to work on, and to move beyond. And no doubt it all will take a while. And ignorant, afraid and cruel as we are, who knows just how many centuries that could be. But considering our primitive and youthful condition, it could in the long run be seen as a comparatively short time compared to the history of all life on the planet. We may even look back on this youth of ours, as even today we sometimes have nostalgia for our still-short history, and think, wasn't it a great game? Wouldn't it be great to go back and do it again? What a wonderful adventure!