Stop distracting me and let me think!

[InfiniteNow]

Gay marriage

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Genetic Engineering

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Drug legalization

Immigration

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War in Iraq

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War in Afghanistan

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Hatred in Gaza

UN Resolution

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Cease fire

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Brangelina

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Paris Hilton

Drought

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Hurricane

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Poverty

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Bird Flu

Social Security

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Medicare

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Obesity

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Religion

Environment

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Population growth

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How do you choose what's right and what to focus on in a wolrd of so much noise? It's no wonder there is such anxiety in the world and such confusion when voting. What's your approach?

[Tarantism]

meditatition.

[InfiniteNow]

Thanks Tarantism... that is a very good approach indeed. I used to meditate all the time, but have fallen out of the habit as of late...

 

 

Anyone else? Is it important to be aware of the above type issues, or is it silly to disregard them? Is it silly to be aware of them and important to disregard them?

 

Just feeling like our 24 hour news cycle is preventing appropriate reflection on the current events for many... but don't know it that's accurate.

[TheBigDog]

Nothing simplifies life as well as the "Hokey Pokey". After all, that's what its all about.

 

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

Nothing simplifies life as well as the "Hokey Pokey". After all, that's what its all about.

So basically you're saying that sex is how you take your mind off the ails of the world? That's a good plan... :cup:

[hallenrm]

When one is really thinking, one is seldom distracted!!

:cup:

[TheBigDog]

So basically you're saying that sex is how you take your mind off the ails of the world? That's a good plan... :D

WOW!! That would be cool too. I was thinking of the dance...

 

You put your left foot in :note:

You put your left foot out :note2: :note:

You put your left foot in :note:

and you shake it all about :note2:

You do the Hokey Pokey :note: :note2:

and you turn yourself about :note:

That's what its all about! :note2:

 

Right foot! :note2: :note:

 

You put your.... :note:

 

Shannon never lets me mix that song with actual Hokey Pokeying :( :cup: :hyper: :hihi:

 

Bill

[Tarantism]

Just feeling like our 24 hour news cycle is preventing appropriate reflection on the current events for many... but don't know it that's accurate.

 

i dont trust the news one bit. all propaganda. left wing, right wing, its just two sides to the same coin. all working for the same power. i say we need a revolution, but hey, you may not agree.

 

we should work as a race not as countries. :D

[InfiniteNow]

Revolution is always occuring... it just may not be the kind that we want personally.

 

We should work as one planet... one solar system... one galaxy... one supercluster... one universe...

 

... as ONE.

 

But yeah, not as countries too. :D

[TheBigDog]

Hang on now! What is wrong with countries? What is wrong with recognition of small groups? Or association with others by geographic or other means? From a government perspective you cannot have a single central world entity, which means you have localized governments at multiple levels in any system to address local issues and allow diversity in how people choose to be governed. Just saying you want to do away with countries fails to take into account what those countries provide.

 

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

Let me preface by saying you raise some valid points, and I could easily argue this from either side. However, I will address your questons based on the tone I presented prior to your post. :D

 

What is wrong with countries?

Us and them mentailities. Working against each other, differently, perpetuating disconnection.

 

 

What's wrong with recognition of small groups?

Maybe Equitorial Guinea is a country which could be classified as a "small group," however, many countries represent large masses of people who are mostly the same anyway, but hatred often ensues because of this. Examples include, but are not limited to China/Taiwan, India/Pakistan, USA/Mexico, Israel/Lebenon...

 

Or association with others by geographic or other means?

This is often good in a communal sense... helping neighbors, supporting one another and whatnot... however, this also instigates tribal behavior, gang like wars. That is an extreme example, but association is not the problem. It's disassociation from members of other groups. Violence stemming from nothing more than a difference in the latitude and longitude which describes the place of our birth.

 

From a government perspective you cannot have a single central world entity,

Why not? You can give me reasons, of which there are several, but I'll respond by saying that we just haven't figured out how yet to do it.

 

which means you have localized governments

Looking out for their own interests, lessening their concern for the population as a whole.

 

...at multiple levels in any system to address local issues and allow diversity in how people choose to be governed.

I see locality as the Earth, and not just limited to humans. That's the broader point I suppose, and admittedly it discounts some of the functions which government helps to ensure... roads, running water and the like... Locality should be more than south central or the east-side... Eastern and Western Germany, North and South Korea... Us and them mentality, which served us well in our evolutionary past is now becoming more detrimental to society and all of our modern conveniences.

 

 

Just saying you want to do away with countries fails to take into account what those countries provide.

Not failing to take it into account, just placing greater emphasis on the negatives which said countries provide in addition to all those positives.

 

 

 

 

 

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

 

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

[TheBigDog]

Let me preface by saying you raise some valid points, and I could easily argue this from either side. However, I will address your questions based on the tone I presented prior to your post.

I thank you for taking the position that you have. It saved me the embarrassment of having to play devil's advocate and taking up the lunatic side of the argument for the sole purpose of fostering debate. Cheers! :secret::hihi:

 

What makes you believe for even a minute that hate and war would end under a central government? Just because there is an ugly side to human nature is no reason to rob everyone of their humanity. The further away government is from the common man that it governs the more intrusive and unresponsive it becomes upon his every day needs. By centralizing government into the ultimate ivory tower you would build resentment of that government to levels that are unfathomable today. And that resentment would need to be dealt with either by appeasement or by force. Appeasement only teaches the discontent that the attitude pays off destroying the unity you were trying to build. Force ends up creating the war that you wanted to avoid to begin with.

 

Nationalism is not what makes wars. Religion is not what makes wars. Man's hunger for power is what makes wars. Religion and nationalism are justifications for that want of power, but they are not the cause. The cause lies in the hearts of men. And eliminating the excuses only means that men passionate for power would invent new reasons to pursue it.

 

There are two methods toward keeping peace. Freedom and oppression. I for one would much rather live in a society that enjoys peace through freedom than peace through oppression.

 

From a government perspective you cannot have a single central world entity

Why not? You can give me reasons, of which there are several, but I'll respond by saying that we just haven't figured out how yet to do it.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Quotes like this one sicken me. How they attempt to minimize and marginalize the significance of man so as to make the pursuits not espoused by the speaker seem so insignificant as to being ridiculous. Why should the fact that there is a vast universe beyond my reach have a bearing on my needs right now? How does it feed and nuture and shelter and protect myself and my family? There are things on this planet that are significant and worth the blood of conviction to protect and to defend. And unlike the things of the great beyond they are real and they are tangible now; a time that you would acknowledge is of the greatest significance.

 

Bill :beer: :beer:

[TheFaithfulStone]

Quotes like this one sicken me. How they attempt to minimize and marginalize the significance of man so as to make the pursuits not espoused by the speaker seem so insignificant as to being ridiculous. Why should the fact that there is a vast universe beyond my reach have a bearing on my needs right now? How does it feed and nuture and shelter and protect myself and my family? There are things on this planet that are significant and worth the blood of conviction to protect and to defend. And unlike the things of the great beyond they are real and they are tangible now; a time that you would acknowledge is of the greatest significance.

 

I think you missed the point, and you missed it hard. The quote has little to do with space, and everything to do with being humble in the face awesomeness, brave in the face of insurmountable odds, and hopeful in the face of nothingness.

 

Sagan isn't talking about nihilism, or, the way you took it - that nothing small is significant. On the contrary, he was saying that only small is significant - that we are so tiny, and that the universe is so big, and all we have is each other - and why are we killing each other over this stupid **** when we this is all we've got, and all we'll ever have.

 

How you got "Nothing is important" out of that I'm not sure. Everything is vitally important! The little sub-pixel dimension of your life is all you will ever affect - so do it well.

 

There are only three important things ever said.

 

1)The meaning of life is to make sure that life has meaning.

2)Love thy neighbor as thyself.

3)Although nobody is "special", everyone is of equal worth - priceless.

 

Sagan is saying all of those things in the Pale Blue Dot speech - that this pale blue dot is all we've got - that our eyeblink is all there is, and we should make sure that our eyeblink means something. That our neighbors are not so different from ourselves, that we're all equal - and that our disagreements are (mostly) petty time wasters. Everything we've ever valued is small, but that doesn't mean it has less value! Is the price of our planet less than the price of the universe? Not to us! Is the worth of one man's life less than the worth of another? Not to him!

 

Do those things feed and shelter your family? No, frankly they don't - but they feed and shelter your soul. The solipsistic view that the world doesn't exist outside of you is an empty one. The idea that the world revolves around you is narcissistic, and it's not far off to say that the universe revolves around your tribe, or your religion, or your country.

 

Simply put - the only thing greater than any of us is all of us, and it's up to each of us to make sure that that means something.

 

TFS

[InfiniteNow]

Well, TFS used a sledge hammer instead of a feather, but his assessment is a good one IMO.

 

Except, you probably didn't miss the point, but were arguing the other side. :D

 

 

What makes you believe for even a minute that hate and war would end under a central government?

 

Nothing really. I do, however, believe we are quickly approaching this type system, especially since the increase in world connection resulting from the internet.

 

I need to run, but will come back at some point later with more thoughts.

 

 

Cheers. :hihi: :eek: :ud:

[InfiniteNow]

I do, however, believe we are quickly approaching this type system, especially since the increase in world connection resulting from the internet.

 

Boerseun has begun an interesting thread along these lines:

 

http://hypography.com/forums/philosophy-humanities/8070-world-government.html

[Kriminal99]

I dont vote. The problem is we have a representitive government. The only thing I know about the different representitives is what I see about them on tv in 30 second commercials or in carefully planned speeches. In both cases what I see is engineered to make me want to vote for them.

 

Therefore in truth I know nothing of either candidate. Voting is therefore pointless.

[Turtle]

I dont vote. The problem is we have a representitive government. The only thing I know about the different representitives is what I see about them on tv in 30 second commercials or in carefully planned speeches. In both cases what I see is engineered to make me want to vote for them.

 

Therefore in truth I know nothing of either candidate. Voting is therefore pointless.

 

They distribute voters pamphlets before all elections in my area which have extended statements & bios of the candidates. I read it thouroughly & therefore my vote is not entirely pointless. I have also had a number of candidates come to my door personally over the years to explain their views and meet people. Additionally these days, virtually all the the candidates whether incumbent or not have websites with information pertinent to making a vote choice. Whose fault is it for not seeking more information on the choices?:)