You are the stars

[Eric the Green]

(07-29-2016, 04:21 AM)taramarie Wrote:

(07-29-2016, 04:03 AM)Galen Wrote:

(07-29-2016, 03:45 AM)taramarie Wrote: Hmm interesting. Yeah I never saw any of it. It was quite something to see what some boomers were like in their youth. It was totally shocking. As xers saw the hypocrisy it does make me wonder why they think their ideas will conclude at the end of the 4T. I tell many boomers who are blindly idealistic it will never happen. But it never gets through to them. Such ignorance and delusion. It takes the majority of a society to make an ideal reality. A stable ideal that does not destroy the economy/planet is ideal as they are both connected to our very survival.....but many of the ideals i hear from older boomers (seems to always be those '40s boomers) do not sound realistic, nor sustainable. Such a waste of time trying. Heck i wonder if GIs had similar conversations with the lost about the missionaries lol. Perhaps not. I have heard the missionaries were much more stable prophets to a certain degree. Much more organized.

There is crucial difference between the last second turning and all of the previous second turnings in the US.  In the earlier examples there was a religious revival.  In many ways it was an effort to reclaim American culture.  While it did lead to some craziness such as Prohibition it never went as far off the rails.  The Boomers on the other hand were making a very conscious effort to reject western culture.  The Reverend Jones was an exception in that he embraced what I would consider a distortion of Christianity.  This is the crucial difference you need to understand to get a handle on why things got so crazy.  They tended to throw out western concepts of rationality and the need for evidence and logic.

There were a fair scattering of fifties Boomers that went that way as well.  I had Boomers step-brothers and step-sisters at a couple of point growing up.  One step-sister went down that road and the consequences were fatal and she was seventeen.

I wonder why they wanted to reject western culture? Devoid of the kind of eastern spiritual exploration that they desired? Throwing out evidence and western concepts of logic and rationality....if that is anything like Eric regarding mechanistic ideas or what is his favourite word for describing that way of thinking.....shit i have had too much beer to remember it right now. Hahahaha!
Anyway i would rather have a good grasp of reality rather than what nonsense they were eating up and dying for back then. Good to be a civic and get a good dose of reality at a young age. Although we will most likely make our own mistakes in the future. No doubt. We are after all imperfect.

I don't know what ideals from 40s boomers you mean, but it is wise to trim expectations when goals seem too far away from achievement. Yes, the ideals which liberal boomers embrace today are expressed by such people as those at the Democratic Convention; simple goals of making our planet sustainable, respecting the rights of all and opening up our society to greater opportunity.

Boomers were not dying for their ideals, although many did die for the old goals of beating communism that were forced upon them. Others refused to participate in that death march, and led us on the road to peace instead. It's our choice which road we follow, and this election will be crucial in that decision. Meanwhile, the philosophy of Alan Watts is just one example of simple pathways to recognizing the obvious realities we need to see if we are to create a sustainable and sane world. And it can be a balanced view that retains the best from the West, and yet sees beyond the limits of the western culture that is now part and parcel of the past in what is now a global society and NOT a "western" world at all. Our heritage is now the world's heritage, and not just The West's, and we need to be open to it all. Not fall for a philosophy that thinks that if we don't stay within "Western civilization" that we are somehow corrupted and degraded. Get with it! People who think they are separate individuals, as Xers tend to do, are prey to the false philosophies like trickle-down economics and social darwinism of the kind Galen promotes and clings to.

The philosophy of Ayn Rand and Mises is thoroughly and completely irrational, and to tout that as the alternative to "boomers throwing out evidence and rationality" totally discredits his statements. The ideals of the Enlightenment were about liberating people and creating progress, not enabling the powerful as libertarian philosophy does. Libertarian and Anarchist philosophy like that of Rand and Mises distorts "Western culture" into a caricature designed to deceive us into tearing down our government and our laws and removing all protection of the weak from the strong. That is not the best heritage from western culture at all. But that is what Galen upholds with all his heart and soul.

And btw, beer is not a very healthy avenue to spiritual or personal development in my opinion; rejecting and putting down psychedelics, and knocking spiritual seeking beyond outdated western concepts, while at the same time drinking too much beer, seems rather hypocritical to me. Alcoholism is a serious disease that ruins 100 times more lives than LSD ever did, and it lowers consciousness and does not raise it. I have never drunk beer; I find it totally repulsive, and it tastes horrible. Talk about negative cultural programming! I don't share a lot of your taste in music, nor in beverages either I guess