There is a native construct called The Cave of Eternity. It is sometimes found on Vision Quests. (Ask if you don’t know what this is)
The overall progress of our race manifests in the form of a carved tunnel. Each person carves a bit of that tunnel with their life. There are all kinds of interesting little side tunnels that individuals or groups have carved off of the main beaten path. But most of them dead-end before too far, as the individual dies and interest in that path they started wanes.
One is left with just the main passage that the masses carve as they bumble along at the mercy of feelings and flesh.
And it is a progressive downward spiral.
There is a narrower passage, one of spirit, that runs progressively upwards. It’s not as broad or well-worn as the other passage that most are busily carving. It takes extra effort, and conscious intent. It’s narrow enough in places that the excess baggage of pride and ego cannot be brought along. It is progressively brighter and ascending; even as the other grows darker and is descending.
The future of humanity lies along one of these two tunnels. The wide one that most are busily carving, doesn’t bode well.
We could do better. Far better; and have a future brilliant beyond our reckoning.
But it grows less and less likely as so many are so busy and distracted grinding out the grind that has little lasting meaning; procuring and treasuring things that cannot last; and running around chasing temporary feelings that lead us about by the nose to no destination any different from that which our species has already visited.
We may think it is different because of new gadgets, new sights, new toys to procure, greater pools of knowledge to splash around in (but less and less wisdom). And the core base organism of human grows weaker, more isolated, more addicted to/dependent upon all sorts of things and dire mindsets, less loving, less trusting, more fearful, more greedy, more desperate, less fulfilled, less in control of itself, more blinded by distraction and lies while thinking ourselves clever for it.
This is simply the current forecast. The forecast that each of us is busily writing with our own lives.
We can change that forecast if enough of us want to. But most will say it’s too hard too much bother doesn’t fit nicely in a test-tube or wear the labels that we want it to. . .
Can you see where this is going? Most can’t; but will try to disguise it as not caring.
@griz I was meaning mankind’s future… not something post mankind… Technology, economics, climate, employment opportunities, food and water availability
@Jear77
I was also referring to that. The average individual is considerably regressed from past years: in areas like psychological and emotional stability, wisdom and common sense, ethical consideration, trust, freedom, physical immunity, overall health, perseverance, patience, contentment, basic math and English skills, coping skills, essential life skills . . .
@Jear77 i feel like the post Apocalypse is man kinds future, and the window to actually do something to stop or change it is narrowing quickly. we have been approaching this for a long time, but might be our last minute!
@BelleMadre is mankind THAT fragile? We’ve survived this long, fought this hard… I doubt that we could be wiped out (or almost so) as easily as you might think.
@Jear77 i dont know if we are fragile as much as a danger to ourselves and our planet. our weapons are very unnatural. they are designed not based on our fragility but on our strengths… i think
@griz If such a thing exists… it will only be brought upon by the dying of our sun, some 5 billion years or more… and by that point, I’m sure we, mankind as a race, will have figured out how to escape the planet’s confines.
I was speaking of how easy it is for us personally and as a collective whole to pass unnoticed through some kind of “event horizon” from which we will never be able to turn back.
That point is coming.
@griz if science brings us to that point… then science will have the answers on how to adapt, adjust, answer these challenges. In fact, there is a lot of planning on “just in case scenarios”
@griz there Is still time to change the course, isnt there? do you think so?
i think individually there is vast potential, but im pretty scared for things as a whole right now. that doesnt mean i wont continue my personal quests but i feel like its now, or we will be living in Escape from LA before we know it?
I believe there is still time for our race to change course. But the farther and the wider each generation continues to carve the mistaken route, the more difficult (and radical) the course correction will have to be.
Considerations of other courses to follow just don’t come to mind, or are quickly dismissed as unfeasible if they do.
@griz i feel like we are amidst another generation of “if i ignore it it will go away”…
im glad you believe. i do too. i believe humans have the capacity still but i wonder if we will make the effort. i guess collectively it doesnt seem so, but individually it does
@BelleMadre
“The collective” happens when enough individuals decide not just to ignore things that don’t massage them in their little private alternate reality.
There are ample “channels” teaching our young people that this is the way to be. What they need are adults taking the time to teach them better ways.
@BelleMadre
The children who’s parents don’t leave the school system and entertainment media to raise them, will reap dividends from it in the future.
Children are a far better investment than real estate! A loving, wise parent can positively influence lives generations to come.
@griz i agree :)
altho to be fairly honest, there is a ‘balance’ in our home. days like today when i am nursing a strained lower back (i might be too tall for my job :D) the tv is doing more keeping company than i am. but thats not every day, no siree it is not. and i guess to be fair to me we did go for a swim this morning and a walk as well… and the conversations are open, i am always available, just spending the afternoon on a mat on my floor as opposed to other more productive things.
i am a big fan of communication, listening and trying my best to answer questions.
@BelleMadre
Kids can and do thrive without constant parental attention. My mother was ill, physically and mentally, for most of my childhood. It rendered her “unavailable” and I spent a lot of time in front of the TV.
And my dad was always busy away from home trying to make ends meet. But he still took rare occasions to make my brothers and I the centre of attention for a day or a few hours. Plus we had extended family who often babysat for them, two of which were perhaps more the “centre of my Universe” than my parents were.
I also found various “substitute parents” who also took snippets of time to interact with me.
So don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not constantly there for him. It would seem to be more the quality of the time spent, than the quantity. Especially with boys (can’t say for girls as I never was one!), they need those moments of knowing you are proud of them for their accomplishments. Not just the mouthed words, but you getting caught up in their victories/accomplishments, or quieter moments of their good revelation (of finally getting something or understanding it, or behaving honorably even when you weren’t there to supervise).
I think children might do their most profound growing, out of the parents’ sight; where they either choose to incorporate the wisdom (or rules) of the parents and find they were right — or choose to go against it and still end up finding they were right!
But the parents lay the foundation for such good learning.
Or not. And then the child’s learning is hap-hazard, quirky, just as likely to be negative learning as positive learning.
A for your back: don’t underestimate the benefit of a good stretching regime. A chiropractor, physiotherapist or massage therapist can show you some good ones. It takes a while to train your affected muscles how to react. I’ve found great pain relief has come from stretching properly before getting out of bed in the morning and after strenuous activity. I’ve learned to recognize when something is out-of-whack earlier and earlier and stretch it out before things become locked into a bad process where one needs professional treatment.
I hope you find effective natural relief for your back pain.
In the most general sense; not great. As evidenced by the kinds of movies that make money
What was the last movie that you saw that praised the human spirit…oh yeah Sister Act 2
Over the past 45 years, women’s religious communities in the United States have
suffered a free fall in membership. There were 181,241 American nuns in 1965, 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995. According to the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Vatican’s statistical yearbook), the number fell even more between 2002 and 2007, from 73,704 to 63,250. The number of American nuns has thus declined by more than 65 percent since 1965.
Why did I choose to use a group of cloistered women living under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to illustrate the declining values of the population in general?
Because if fewer people want to live to a higher calling; the bar gets lowered and right now, the bar appears to be buried.
@Jear77
That is already the primary drive of most people. And things are going from bad to worse. The only thing that services is the flesh, and of just a very limited few. (Ie, the increasing gap between the richest and the poorest)
It would take a VERY big set of blinders to hold to the notion that this is a “higher path” of anything but selfishness.
@griz not necessarily. There’s a path my sometimes boss and friend has come upon (or so he says… I’m not quite so sure): a path of wealth that does not impede, interfere, compete, or conflict in any way with what others are doing. By striking out on one’s own path, he claims the world or fate or life as you call it will always find a way to grant what you seek.
Provided what one seeks:
1) can be procured with money and
2) is in the process of passing away or being lost.
It is a path of racing after and storing up things that cannot last. Whatever you store up, your children, kin, (or the government) will simply disperse.
There are people who have wealth who administer it wisely and compassionately. But I would suggest they are in the minority. Many get sucked in by the love of money/possessions. Even if they are not “conflicting” with others, it tends to take over them until everyone is seen through one of two lenses:
“What can they do for me financially” (greed) or
“What are they trying to take from me” (fear).
I have a long-time friend in the south I only get to see on rare occasions. He really lights up whenever I find time to happen by. He’s commented that he values my friendship because he knows I’m not a financial “game-player”, looking to procure anything he has. He has lots of “friends” he’s introduced me to. But almost without exception they are playing games of greed and/or fear.
@griz much of his philosphy is derived from “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace Wattles. It was later re-worked into the blockbuster book “The Secret.” The ideas behind it are good… BUT the problem is, just like Christianity, allows for no testing. It says (in part, as I’m not going to copy-paste the entire book here). You might find it an interesting read. “In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life (your term); and every man should have all that can contribute to the power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.”
@Jear77
Actually “the purpose of Nature” may be something entirely different than just catering to us.
The problem with this philosophy is that everything it gives can be taken away in a heartbeat, by things entirely beyond personal (or human) control.
It counts on an illusion of control; one that a myriad of things could trump.
@griz there actually is something at the core of the paradigm, one you yourself have espoused: attitude is everything (or at least a HUGE chunk of “how we perceive the world”). One part that it doesn’t address is the influence of others at least not as he sees it. His (my friend’s, not the author) idea is this With the proper attitude you can be around others who can make a person wealthy. By hanging around such people, one can increase one’s social standing (provided one is able to act appropriately that is) and “fake it until you can make it.”
@Jear77
Anyone who plays the game and who hangs around with people good at playing the game, will tend to become a better game-player. (But perhaps not before others have fun making a game of them if their “faking it” isn’t up to par!).
The question then becomes, does one want to dedicate their best energies to such a game? Will “the trophy” at the end be ultimately worth it in the long run? Will “the game” distract and eat up valuable life-time from better, more enduring pursuits?
@griz there are plenty of ways to protect yourself financially. MANY different types of businesses. Bankruptcy. Different types of investment accounts. A varied financial/ investment portfolio. But your idea of long term and mine are different. Mind you, i’ll NEVER have kids, even should Ibecome financially solvent. My friend’s goal, on the other hand, is setting up so his kids, and his grandkids for many generations will never need to worry about money. And I think that is a worthwhile thing
@Jear77
Let’s try a scientific analogy for understanding attitude. A biologist hoping to attract a certain creature to their observation blind will bait the area with something attractive to that species.
A certain attitude will bait or attract a certain process (or spirit), while being of little interest or even repelling others.
Energy vibrating at a certain frequency will resonate with all other energies vibrating at the same frequency. Attitude could be like vibrational energy: resonating with and even complimenting or being complemented by energy of the same vibration.
One can “bait” for things like money and possessions, greed and avarice: what the Bible calls the spirit of mammon.
One can fake a certain vibrational energy with their attitude, that will resonate with similar attitudes in others.
But this is very “energy-intensive” to do it properly. Which means one will have little or no energy left to pursue anything else. (Ie. You cannot serve two masters)
One can have the attitude of financial success. And that might sustain one for a while.
But there are no shortage of people vibrating on the frequency of wealth and power to readily admit at some point of crisis in their life that all of their wealth and power amounts to nothing at a moment of ultimate personnel crisis.
It is not wise to invest all of one’s best efforts and energy into something that countless people have said fails them in moments of ultimate crisis.
@griz yet at day’s end if that “personal crisis” is able to be handled with wealth — i.e. a medical cure of some sort, training that costs money, a roof over one’s head, personal or mental counseling, hunger/ thirst, even crime with lawyers. it is so readily solved that the person without looks to be more the fool, and is punished for simply not having. Save death, there’s not a single problem in this world that can’t be made better by having excess capitol that the person in question doesn’t care about spending by which to examine methods to fix it.
@griz wealth only doesn’t work, if given enough (or infinite) time, on EXACTLY one: death. Anything outside that, given enough time and unlimited wealth all other problems are meaningless.
@griz no. I actually have seen it personally time and again how money can get you out of trouble when a person has it or makes the trouble a LOT less problematic. My friend who died a bit more than a year ago had $1000 on his person. He routinely kept that type of money on himself. He was pulled over for drunk driving. He gave the money to the officer. He was made to sober up and was able to drive away afterwards… with a car-start breathalyzer. If he didn’t have that money with him he’d have been in jail indefinitely.
Given LITERALLY any disease, and enough time – even if it’s generations down the line, a cure will be found or a way to allow the people living with it to be able to live a productive life.
Many problems are caused by a lack of education… and guess what? The BEST educators on the planet cost (gasp!) MONEY.
Shall I go on? EVERY problem can be solved with enough time and money. ANY problem can.
@Jear77
But to borrow from something in one of your other responses, all that you have seen so far has been overshadowed by a curse. You have yet to see anything beyond it. Such an outlook is ” not fully educated”. Perception is incomplete.
Consider that your friend’s “gain” was the officer’s loss. And society’s. Your friend doing something criminal, infected the officer into doing something criminal. Something he could lose his job for. He either created, or supported a dirty cop.
Thank goodness for his money, eh!?
If what is good for you degrades the society, then it is not good at all.
And it goes even further than this. Is there a chance that his witness for his god of money, may have infected your thinking as well?
And this ties back into your other thread about the curse. Anything of human design, human understanding, ultimately works against us and ends in curse.
Part of that curse being the clouding of our minds so that things MAY look easier in the short run. But over time they lead to deepening curse.
Adam and Eve thought that the forbidden fruit would make things easier.
@griz Money does a LOT to NEGATE the curse that is life, though, ultimately it can’t eliminate the spectre of death. Yet people say there’s life after death… OK, show me one person who’s actually been dead, embalmed, buried, outside of the bible’s texts (and other world mythologies), that can be shown to live again. Show me someone who can be contacted spiritually after death in our daily lives — NOT that I’d want to as they’d have nothing to say (based on the fact that there’d be no brain activity, which houses the spirit). Note: There is none. And the chemicals they use for embalming… would actually KILL someone who’s still alive (the process is actually pretty disrespectful to the body if you look at it… I’d rather be cremated!)
@Jear77
Money can only purchase things that cannot endure, and fix things that will makes little difference in a very few years ( consider the fictional but rather well-researched miniseries “Life After Man”.)
Allegedly one physical entity did make this journey and returned. It both showed that it was possible, and was allegedly shared with all of those who wanted to participate.
Are you back in your mode of finding fault with amazing gifts again??
I can’t say “nothing but doom and gloom,” but I think “mixed bag” gives too much of an impression that there will be great things in our future. I don’t necessarily believe in “great” things. I believe in “less crappy” things. We can improve all that we want to, but we will end up in the same exact place. We are basically on a treadmill. Or, we are trying to count to infinity. We can make it a bit better over time, but we will still be the same distance away from whatever it is that we are driving towards. On the way, there are those that are actively making the world a worse place, a more hostile place. “Doom and gloom” is most definitely the endgame. It is just a matter of how bright our journey is reaching that point. Currently, I don’t have much confidence it will be much brighter, if at all.
i feel like My future is shrinking, which is spurring me to consider what to do with all the dreams i have let sit there for so long. Later … Later ill learn to drive, later ill travel to spain, later ill write a book, later ill whatever the list goes on and on. but the time in whcih to actually live any of this feels shorter. like its time already to Start? (but thats some scary talk right there!)
Humanity and Earths Future feels the same. im not doom and gloomy about it just realistic. the running joke on twitter is that now before we start our morning coffees we check to see if WW3 has started. that is no joke tho. i had a friend who refused to recycle. she said the earth was effed anyway and if we didnt ruin it first we would destroy it by war and the whole planet could start over without us. ok maybe i should go make that coffee now, that sounds pretty gloomy. for us anyway
Twice this last week, in running conversations, I heard an aside of, ” …… in September, if there will be a September …” in two separate conversations.
There is a small solar system trying to get past our solar system. In it, the planet known by the name of Nibiru, or Wormwood, has magnetic properties that may grab on to the magnetics of the core of Earth and turn Earth on it’s side as it passes. The seas will slosh and flood the land. Millions living on the coasts will be killed. The poles will shift There will be, and right now are, weather anomalies. The normal Earth wobble is off by at least 20 degrees right now. What if the Earth stayed on it’s side and a new North and South Pole formed? The sun and moon would rise and set from another direction, but life is all over this planet and life will go on. It may take months or years for mankind to get our bearings and recover, but we will recover. The knowledge will stay with mankind and we know how to bring electrical services back. Technology will keep advancing, as we try to find answers to new problems.
There may be a post Apocalypse, as we recover. In this time, old world skills will be handy to have. Mankind will get this Earth up and running again.
That small solar system will pass by and move back out on it’s 3,600 year orbit around our solar system. It will be a return to normal, perhaps a new normal, and life will go on. The drastic weather anomalies will stop and the temperatures will go back to what was normal.
Or, perhaps, it won’t change the Earth and life will go on, much the same as always.
@immortal_pirate Not funny. You know a nuclear blast will kill everything, don’t you? You need to tell that crazy man you like so much to shut the fuck up! He is going to get us killed.
48 responses to “How do you perceive the future?”
There is a native construct called The Cave of Eternity. It is sometimes found on Vision Quests. (Ask if you don’t know what this is)
The overall progress of our race manifests in the form of a carved tunnel. Each person carves a bit of that tunnel with their life. There are all kinds of interesting little side tunnels that individuals or groups have carved off of the main beaten path. But most of them dead-end before too far, as the individual dies and interest in that path they started wanes.
One is left with just the main passage that the masses carve as they bumble along at the mercy of feelings and flesh.
And it is a progressive downward spiral.
There is a narrower passage, one of spirit, that runs progressively upwards. It’s not as broad or well-worn as the other passage that most are busily carving. It takes extra effort, and conscious intent. It’s narrow enough in places that the excess baggage of pride and ego cannot be brought along. It is progressively brighter and ascending; even as the other grows darker and is descending.
The future of humanity lies along one of these two tunnels. The wide one that most are busily carving, doesn’t bode well.
We could do better. Far better; and have a future brilliant beyond our reckoning.
But it grows less and less likely as so many are so busy and distracted grinding out the grind that has little lasting meaning; procuring and treasuring things that cannot last; and running around chasing temporary feelings that lead us about by the nose to no destination any different from that which our species has already visited.
We may think it is different because of new gadgets, new sights, new toys to procure, greater pools of knowledge to splash around in (but less and less wisdom). And the core base organism of human grows weaker, more isolated, more addicted to/dependent upon all sorts of things and dire mindsets, less loving, less trusting, more fearful, more greedy, more desperate, less fulfilled, less in control of itself, more blinded by distraction and lies while thinking ourselves clever for it.
This is simply the current forecast. The forecast that each of us is busily writing with our own lives.
We can change that forecast if enough of us want to. But most will say it’s too hard too much bother doesn’t fit nicely in a test-tube or wear the labels that we want it to. . .
Can you see where this is going? Most can’t; but will try to disguise it as not caring.
@griz I was meaning mankind’s future… not something post mankind… Technology, economics, climate, employment opportunities, food and water availability
@Jear77
I was also referring to that. The average individual is considerably regressed from past years: in areas like psychological and emotional stability, wisdom and common sense, ethical consideration, trust, freedom, physical immunity, overall health, perseverance, patience, contentment, basic math and English skills, coping skills, essential life skills . . .
@Jear77 i feel like the post Apocalypse is man kinds future, and the window to actually do something to stop or change it is narrowing quickly. we have been approaching this for a long time, but might be our last minute!
@BelleMadre is mankind THAT fragile? We’ve survived this long, fought this hard… I doubt that we could be wiped out (or almost so) as easily as you might think.
@Jear77 i dont know if we are fragile as much as a danger to ourselves and our planet. our weapons are very unnatural. they are designed not based on our fragility but on our strengths… i think
@Jear77
If you are saying we’re resilient enough to sink even farther, I would tend to conditionally agree.
But images of a singularity event-horizon come to mind: where a point-of-no-return is crossed even without knowing it.
@griz If such a thing exists… it will only be brought upon by the dying of our sun, some 5 billion years or more… and by that point, I’m sure we, mankind as a race, will have figured out how to escape the planet’s confines.
@Jear77
That was an unexpected response.
I was speaking of how easy it is for us personally and as a collective whole to pass unnoticed through some kind of “event horizon” from which we will never be able to turn back.
That point is coming.
@griz if science brings us to that point… then science will have the answers on how to adapt, adjust, answer these challenges. In fact, there is a lot of planning on “just in case scenarios”
@Jear77
That’s quite the leap of faith.
@griz there Is still time to change the course, isnt there? do you think so?
i think individually there is vast potential, but im pretty scared for things as a whole right now. that doesnt mean i wont continue my personal quests but i feel like its now, or we will be living in Escape from LA before we know it?
@BelleMadre
Yes.
I believe there is still time for our race to change course. But the farther and the wider each generation continues to carve the mistaken route, the more difficult (and radical) the course correction will have to be.
Considerations of other courses to follow just don’t come to mind, or are quickly dismissed as unfeasible if they do.
@griz i feel like we are amidst another generation of “if i ignore it it will go away”…
im glad you believe. i do too. i believe humans have the capacity still but i wonder if we will make the effort. i guess collectively it doesnt seem so, but individually it does
@BelleMadre
“The collective” happens when enough individuals decide not just to ignore things that don’t massage them in their little private alternate reality.
There are ample “channels” teaching our young people that this is the way to be. What they need are adults taking the time to teach them better ways.
@griz i completely agree
@BelleMadre
The children who’s parents don’t leave the school system and entertainment media to raise them, will reap dividends from it in the future.
Children are a far better investment than real estate! A loving, wise parent can positively influence lives generations to come.
@griz i agree :)
altho to be fairly honest, there is a ‘balance’ in our home. days like today when i am nursing a strained lower back (i might be too tall for my job :D) the tv is doing more keeping company than i am. but thats not every day, no siree it is not. and i guess to be fair to me we did go for a swim this morning and a walk as well… and the conversations are open, i am always available, just spending the afternoon on a mat on my floor as opposed to other more productive things.
i am a big fan of communication, listening and trying my best to answer questions.
@BelleMadre
Kids can and do thrive without constant parental attention. My mother was ill, physically and mentally, for most of my childhood. It rendered her “unavailable” and I spent a lot of time in front of the TV.
And my dad was always busy away from home trying to make ends meet. But he still took rare occasions to make my brothers and I the centre of attention for a day or a few hours. Plus we had extended family who often babysat for them, two of which were perhaps more the “centre of my Universe” than my parents were.
I also found various “substitute parents” who also took snippets of time to interact with me.
So don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not constantly there for him. It would seem to be more the quality of the time spent, than the quantity. Especially with boys (can’t say for girls as I never was one!), they need those moments of knowing you are proud of them for their accomplishments. Not just the mouthed words, but you getting caught up in their victories/accomplishments, or quieter moments of their good revelation (of finally getting something or understanding it, or behaving honorably even when you weren’t there to supervise).
I think children might do their most profound growing, out of the parents’ sight; where they either choose to incorporate the wisdom (or rules) of the parents and find they were right — or choose to go against it and still end up finding they were right!
But the parents lay the foundation for such good learning.
Or not. And then the child’s learning is hap-hazard, quirky, just as likely to be negative learning as positive learning.
A for your back: don’t underestimate the benefit of a good stretching regime. A chiropractor, physiotherapist or massage therapist can show you some good ones. It takes a while to train your affected muscles how to react. I’ve found great pain relief has come from stretching properly before getting out of bed in the morning and after strenuous activity. I’ve learned to recognize when something is out-of-whack earlier and earlier and stretch it out before things become locked into a bad process where one needs professional treatment.
I hope you find effective natural relief for your back pain.
@griz
yes to all of the above! and thank you, the reinforcement is good sometimes :) im doing my best, most of the time.
im working on a good stretching and strengthening regime. have to!
In the most general sense; not great. As evidenced by the kinds of movies that make money
What was the last movie that you saw that praised the human spirit…oh yeah Sister Act 2
Over the past 45 years, women’s religious communities in the United States have
suffered a free fall in membership. There were 181,241 American nuns in 1965, 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995. According to the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Vatican’s statistical yearbook), the number fell even more between 2002 and 2007, from 73,704 to 63,250. The number of American nuns has thus declined by more than 65 percent since 1965.
Why did I choose to use a group of cloistered women living under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to illustrate the declining values of the population in general?
Because if fewer people want to live to a higher calling; the bar gets lowered and right now, the bar appears to be buried.
@spitfire3dc maybe the higher calling is NOT self sacrifice, neglecting one’s own material needs, poverty, but wealth!
@Jear77
That is already the primary drive of most people. And things are going from bad to worse. The only thing that services is the flesh, and of just a very limited few. (Ie, the increasing gap between the richest and the poorest)
It would take a VERY big set of blinders to hold to the notion that this is a “higher path” of anything but selfishness.
@griz not necessarily. There’s a path my sometimes boss and friend has come upon (or so he says… I’m not quite so sure): a path of wealth that does not impede, interfere, compete, or conflict in any way with what others are doing. By striking out on one’s own path, he claims the world or fate or life as you call it will always find a way to grant what you seek.
@Jear77
Provided what one seeks:
1) can be procured with money and
2) is in the process of passing away or being lost.
It is a path of racing after and storing up things that cannot last. Whatever you store up, your children, kin, (or the government) will simply disperse.
There are people who have wealth who administer it wisely and compassionately. But I would suggest they are in the minority. Many get sucked in by the love of money/possessions. Even if they are not “conflicting” with others, it tends to take over them until everyone is seen through one of two lenses:
“What can they do for me financially” (greed) or
“What are they trying to take from me” (fear).
I have a long-time friend in the south I only get to see on rare occasions. He really lights up whenever I find time to happen by. He’s commented that he values my friendship because he knows I’m not a financial “game-player”, looking to procure anything he has. He has lots of “friends” he’s introduced me to. But almost without exception they are playing games of greed and/or fear.
This is what love of money does to a person.
@griz much of his philosphy is derived from “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace Wattles. It was later re-worked into the blockbuster book “The Secret.” The ideas behind it are good… BUT the problem is, just like Christianity, allows for no testing. It says (in part, as I’m not going to copy-paste the entire book here). You might find it an interesting read. “In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life (your term); and every man should have all that can contribute to the power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.”
@Jear77
Actually “the purpose of Nature” may be something entirely different than just catering to us.
The problem with this philosophy is that everything it gives can be taken away in a heartbeat, by things entirely beyond personal (or human) control.
It counts on an illusion of control; one that a myriad of things could trump.
@griz there actually is something at the core of the paradigm, one you yourself have espoused: attitude is everything (or at least a HUGE chunk of “how we perceive the world”). One part that it doesn’t address is the influence of others at least not as he sees it. His (my friend’s, not the author) idea is this With the proper attitude you can be around others who can make a person wealthy. By hanging around such people, one can increase one’s social standing (provided one is able to act appropriately that is) and “fake it until you can make it.”
@Jear77
Anyone who plays the game and who hangs around with people good at playing the game, will tend to become a better game-player. (But perhaps not before others have fun making a game of them if their “faking it” isn’t up to par!).
The question then becomes, does one want to dedicate their best energies to such a game? Will “the trophy” at the end be ultimately worth it in the long run? Will “the game” distract and eat up valuable life-time from better, more enduring pursuits?
@griz there are plenty of ways to protect yourself financially. MANY different types of businesses. Bankruptcy. Different types of investment accounts. A varied financial/ investment portfolio. But your idea of long term and mine are different. Mind you, i’ll NEVER have kids, even should Ibecome financially solvent. My friend’s goal, on the other hand, is setting up so his kids, and his grandkids for many generations will never need to worry about money. And I think that is a worthwhile thing
@Jear77
Let’s try a scientific analogy for understanding attitude. A biologist hoping to attract a certain creature to their observation blind will bait the area with something attractive to that species.
A certain attitude will bait or attract a certain process (or spirit), while being of little interest or even repelling others.
Energy vibrating at a certain frequency will resonate with all other energies vibrating at the same frequency. Attitude could be like vibrational energy: resonating with and even complimenting or being complemented by energy of the same vibration.
One can “bait” for things like money and possessions, greed and avarice: what the Bible calls the spirit of mammon.
One can fake a certain vibrational energy with their attitude, that will resonate with similar attitudes in others.
But this is very “energy-intensive” to do it properly. Which means one will have little or no energy left to pursue anything else. (Ie. You cannot serve two masters)
One can have the attitude of financial success. And that might sustain one for a while.
But there are no shortage of people vibrating on the frequency of wealth and power to readily admit at some point of crisis in their life that all of their wealth and power amounts to nothing at a moment of ultimate personnel crisis.
It is not wise to invest all of one’s best efforts and energy into something that countless people have said fails them in moments of ultimate crisis.
@griz yet at day’s end if that “personal crisis” is able to be handled with wealth — i.e. a medical cure of some sort, training that costs money, a roof over one’s head, personal or mental counseling, hunger/ thirst, even crime with lawyers. it is so readily solved that the person without looks to be more the fool, and is punished for simply not having. Save death, there’s not a single problem in this world that can’t be made better by having excess capitol that the person in question doesn’t care about spending by which to examine methods to fix it.
@Jear77
A key that works in all locks is preferable to key that only works in some locks.
Wealth only work in some locks.
@griz wealth only doesn’t work, if given enough (or infinite) time, on EXACTLY one: death. Anything outside that, given enough time and unlimited wealth all other problems are meaningless.
@Jear77
Oh really!?
Who’s been selling you this line of malarkey? The Trumpster?
@griz no. I actually have seen it personally time and again how money can get you out of trouble when a person has it or makes the trouble a LOT less problematic. My friend who died a bit more than a year ago had $1000 on his person. He routinely kept that type of money on himself. He was pulled over for drunk driving. He gave the money to the officer. He was made to sober up and was able to drive away afterwards… with a car-start breathalyzer. If he didn’t have that money with him he’d have been in jail indefinitely.
Given LITERALLY any disease, and enough time – even if it’s generations down the line, a cure will be found or a way to allow the people living with it to be able to live a productive life.
Many problems are caused by a lack of education… and guess what? The BEST educators on the planet cost (gasp!) MONEY.
Shall I go on? EVERY problem can be solved with enough time and money. ANY problem can.
@Jear77
But to borrow from something in one of your other responses, all that you have seen so far has been overshadowed by a curse. You have yet to see anything beyond it. Such an outlook is ” not fully educated”. Perception is incomplete.
Consider that your friend’s “gain” was the officer’s loss. And society’s. Your friend doing something criminal, infected the officer into doing something criminal. Something he could lose his job for. He either created, or supported a dirty cop.
Thank goodness for his money, eh!?
If what is good for you degrades the society, then it is not good at all.
And it goes even further than this. Is there a chance that his witness for his god of money, may have infected your thinking as well?
And this ties back into your other thread about the curse. Anything of human design, human understanding, ultimately works against us and ends in curse.
Part of that curse being the clouding of our minds so that things MAY look easier in the short run. But over time they lead to deepening curse.
Adam and Eve thought that the forbidden fruit would make things easier.
@griz Money does a LOT to NEGATE the curse that is life, though, ultimately it can’t eliminate the spectre of death. Yet people say there’s life after death… OK, show me one person who’s actually been dead, embalmed, buried, outside of the bible’s texts (and other world mythologies), that can be shown to live again. Show me someone who can be contacted spiritually after death in our daily lives — NOT that I’d want to as they’d have nothing to say (based on the fact that there’d be no brain activity, which houses the spirit). Note: There is none. And the chemicals they use for embalming… would actually KILL someone who’s still alive (the process is actually pretty disrespectful to the body if you look at it… I’d rather be cremated!)
@Jear77
Money can only purchase things that cannot endure, and fix things that will makes little difference in a very few years ( consider the fictional but rather well-researched miniseries “Life After Man”.)
Allegedly one physical entity did make this journey and returned. It both showed that it was possible, and was allegedly shared with all of those who wanted to participate.
Are you back in your mode of finding fault with amazing gifts again??
@griz Ah…. ALLEGEDLY. That’s the core of the issue.
Would it hold up in a court of law? NO!
@Jear77
I guess I should expect this from the man who is trying to sue life for alleged damages!
I used the word alleged knowing you would take offense to my insisting that it is absolutely so.
how about with PEACE & LOVE
I can’t say “nothing but doom and gloom,” but I think “mixed bag” gives too much of an impression that there will be great things in our future. I don’t necessarily believe in “great” things. I believe in “less crappy” things. We can improve all that we want to, but we will end up in the same exact place. We are basically on a treadmill. Or, we are trying to count to infinity. We can make it a bit better over time, but we will still be the same distance away from whatever it is that we are driving towards. On the way, there are those that are actively making the world a worse place, a more hostile place. “Doom and gloom” is most definitely the endgame. It is just a matter of how bright our journey is reaching that point. Currently, I don’t have much confidence it will be much brighter, if at all.
@yin this could well be the age of “less crappy” if we get our sh*t together! well put
i feel like My future is shrinking, which is spurring me to consider what to do with all the dreams i have let sit there for so long. Later … Later ill learn to drive, later ill travel to spain, later ill write a book, later ill whatever the list goes on and on. but the time in whcih to actually live any of this feels shorter. like its time already to Start? (but thats some scary talk right there!)
Humanity and Earths Future feels the same. im not doom and gloomy about it just realistic. the running joke on twitter is that now before we start our morning coffees we check to see if WW3 has started. that is no joke tho. i had a friend who refused to recycle. she said the earth was effed anyway and if we didnt ruin it first we would destroy it by war and the whole planet could start over without us. ok maybe i should go make that coffee now, that sounds pretty gloomy. for us anyway
Twice this last week, in running conversations, I heard an aside of, ” …… in September, if there will be a September …” in two separate conversations.
There is a small solar system trying to get past our solar system. In it, the planet known by the name of Nibiru, or Wormwood, has magnetic properties that may grab on to the magnetics of the core of Earth and turn Earth on it’s side as it passes. The seas will slosh and flood the land. Millions living on the coasts will be killed. The poles will shift There will be, and right now are, weather anomalies. The normal Earth wobble is off by at least 20 degrees right now. What if the Earth stayed on it’s side and a new North and South Pole formed? The sun and moon would rise and set from another direction, but life is all over this planet and life will go on. It may take months or years for mankind to get our bearings and recover, but we will recover. The knowledge will stay with mankind and we know how to bring electrical services back. Technology will keep advancing, as we try to find answers to new problems.
There may be a post Apocalypse, as we recover. In this time, old world skills will be handy to have. Mankind will get this Earth up and running again.
That small solar system will pass by and move back out on it’s 3,600 year orbit around our solar system. It will be a return to normal, perhaps a new normal, and life will go on. The drastic weather anomalies will stop and the temperatures will go back to what was normal.
Or, perhaps, it won’t change the Earth and life will go on, much the same as always.
The future is bright…with the flash of a nuclear blast. Oh look, wasn’t that North Korea, or what used to be…
@immortal_pirate Not funny. You know a nuclear blast will kill everything, don’t you? You need to tell that crazy man you like so much to shut the fuck up! He is going to get us killed.