Do you live your life by your principles?

What would you prefer ?

To experience the utopia I really think we are capable of if only we take a small shift in the 'collective unconsciousness' and transcend beyond..

Heavy shit baby, heavy shit.

How heavy? Please describe in detail?
Please tell me what's the entire point of us being on this planet, what is our aim? Etc etc

How heavy? Please describe in detail?
Please tell me what's the entire point of us being on this planet, what is our aim? Etc etc

IMO

To experience the gift that is the experience of being a human being. We're all made up of the same stuff the rest of the universe is made from, we just happen to be able to experience ourselves as a collection of atoms by freak chance. It's pretty fucking good if you ask me, enjoy it while it lasts

IMO

To experience the gift that is the experience of being a human being. We're all made up of the same stuff the rest of the universe is made from, we just happen to be able to experience ourselves as a collection of atoms by freak chance. It's pretty fucking good if you ask me, enjoy it while it lasts

Do you smoke pot?

Yes, why do you ask?

Just curious. Ive noticed happy people on it and grumpy/sad people. Just an observation.

Anyway, am off to bed. Night all.

Drunk rambling sorted out.

P.S two things that I've posted on Tynan's profile on here... sorta related and unrelated..

Keep your Jesus off my........

&

How heavy? Please describe in detail?
Please tell me what's the entire point of us being on this planet, what is our aim? Etc etc

I have always thought the "what's the entire point of us being on this planet, what is our aim?" type questions to be very predisposed. They start with an assumption and go looking for ways to confirm that assumption.

P.S two things that I've posted on Tynan's profile on here... sorta related and unrelated..

racist.

(have we had a 'racist' yet ? - about fucking time)

Ok, by utopia I mean the point at which all humans continually experience happiness (perhaps bliss if I let my optimism run free) Our 'search' could still continue in the form of understanding the universe in which we exist which is potentially endless but imo still a worthwhile pursuit

Such an odd question.

You must approach all epistemological situations entirely naked (not literally, keep your official LFGSS t-shirt on + some smart trousers) - never take baggage into questions you really want to get the answer to.

I have always thought the "what's the entire point of us being on this planet, what is our aim?" type questions to be so predisposed.

A little like a racist asking "Why do you think the blacks feel the need to stir up so much trouble and steal from our shops". -They are not genuine enquiry but a search for conformation.

EDIT: I don't mean to suggest racism (or anything 'bad') - replace the racist question with "why do you think all us vegetarians are so healthy?"

I've always found it a worthwhile thought experiment, however in the cold and harsh purely objective sense I've always come to the conclusion that there is no 'point' whatsoever. Surprisingly enough, when applied to my own subjective experience this is always a comforting thought

Ok, by utopia I mean the point at which all humans continually experience happiness (perhaps bliss if I let my optimism run free)

My point is that human happiness may require reference, to be 'happy' may require understanding only derived from unhappiness - what you are suggesting is a technical experience - in fact a chemical cascade in the brain that never stops - in fact a chemical cascade in the brain that must constantly increase.

I might- at this stage - be making my point not very clearly - but what I am saying is that the idea of constant happiness collapses with a little bit of thought.

Our 'search' could still continue in the form of understanding the universe in which we exist which is potentially endless but imo still a worthwhile pursuit

Get the fuck out of here ! :)

Who told you the universe is endless (sempiternal - eternal ?) !!! I don't know of any credible current theory (or credible past theory) that postulates an 'endless' universe, finite and unbounded is our very best understanding.

Shit, I am down to my last half can . . . .

'Endless' was in reference to the amount of understanding we could gain about our universe rather than it's physical dimensions ;)

I've always found it a worthwhile thought experiment, however in the cold and harsh purely objective sense I've always come to the conclusion that there is no 'point' whatsoever. Surprisingly enough, when applied to my own subjective experience this is always a comforting thought

Same here, the conclusion/realisation is like a bracing fresh wind waking you up. (Or as the pharmacist in Boots told me 'it's probably wind')

Blah blah b;ah.

I am now drinking furnature polish

'Endless' was in reference to the amount of understanding we could gain about our universe rather than it's physical dimensions ;)

Whoops ! Sorry, I see what you mean now, the beer has given me the heebeegeebees, I might go out in a minute and score a wrap of 'horse' and beat up a mini cab driver.

My point is that human happiness may require reference, to be 'happy' may require understanding only derived from unhappiness - what you are suggesting is a technical experience - in fact a chemical cascade in the brain that never stops - in fact a chemical cascade in the brain that must constantly increase.

I might- at this stage - be making my point not very clearly - but what I am saying is that the idea of constant happiness collapses with a little bit of thought.

I understand completely, and that point is nearly as far as I have taken this particular train of thought so I'll take this chance to finish my last dribble of whisky and ponder further.

Good night and good luck

I understand completely, and that point is nearly as far as I have taken this particular train of thought so I'll take this chance to finish my last dribble of whisky and ponder further.

You've got whisky !!

You fucking lucky bastard !

I am currently licking a toilet duck, getting a bit of a buzz actually.

I now don't have any whisky

I do have some ketamine and I think I'm pissed enough to think doing some is a good idea

I save my horse tranquillizers for holy communion.

I liked the 2 songs in this thread.

Corporations run countries, not governments, stupid. (:P)

That's just your conspiracy theory.

I suppose I could have said: Kohl gave in to concerted lobbying by the packaging and probably other industries. But I didn't. Formally speaking, the responsibility lay with him as the head of government. The buck stopped with him. Why politicians like him and Thatcher, who simply give away power from the public to the private, were/are considered 'strong' is completely beyond me.

Wigan Will - If we all die, it is indeeed a victory for socialism. It is what is so absurd when people say the great ideological battles are over; apparently socialism does not 'work', but perhaps we should ask those in chinese and indian sweater factories, or those living in slums in Rio, or those in Somalia, the congo, whether capitalism is working for them?

Capitalism means always what it has; working for some and not for others. And its absolutely sick as you mention that the poor will suffer from climate change first and more seriosly than us, despite the fact that we were the cause of it.

And recycling is just the poor cousion of less consumption. All these wankers from middle classes driving electric cars etc - why not get a fucking bike instead. Stop recycling the times and telegraph weekend supplements - dont buy the shit in the first place.

We will simply not lower our standard of living even the tineist amount it seems even if the outcome was as beautiful as guranteed sustainability of the world. This is what I mean about the disctinction between selfishnes and self awareness.

Selfishness doesnt really require a definition. Self awareness does. We ought to look inside and ask ourselves, why am I acting this way? Why do I 'really want' this. From where does my fear come from? From where is this urge arising? having done so myself I've noticed all such negative action comes absurd thought processes, animal like simplicty and physiological reaction, as opposed to from reason. 'Be the change you want to see in the world'as Gandhi said.

Look inside for your own faults and you will quickly find the reason for the faults of the world as a whole. We do have a broad identity as a one but we are also a series of constitutent parts - and the collective madness must ultimately arise from the madness of each of our minds.

I am fundamentally an existentialist who is quite heavily influenced also by zen buddhism. What I love abut existentialism is that despite the fact that one can be a historical structuralist, beviing that materiality principally determines actions, it is defiant because despite this - which may be true - the human being still and will always have a choice on how to act.

Wigan will - hope may not change anything now. And Tynan, it was indeed action that freed the slaves, but action is impossible unless you have a belief that it will change. We always have two options, even in the face of climate change, we can give in, as Will is implying but then any horror will come quicker. Or we can turn and face it, accept reality and potentially fight it. Whatever philosophical problems we raise the choice is always that simple; ignore it and it will come quicker or fight it and to fight it you always need hope.

Much can be learnt from the surviving jews of the holocaust. Those who lost hope literally died; they brought around the end quicker. Sometimes hope is all you have. Viktor frankl, himself a survivor, bridges this and what I was saying above about choosing your respnse brillianty:

'Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. '

'Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

The Shell oil scientist Hubbert predicted we were going to run out of oil at some point as long ago as the 40's/50's, many of his predictions have both materialised and been repressed to this day (the US government conveniently commision their own surveys of middle eastern reserves for example).

Fifty years later BP are quietly dropping their 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign and Shell have pulled out of many 'Future fuels' projects to concentrate on the core business - oil - where the money is, as rare, hard to get things tend to be sold at a premium. For every barrel of oil we discover we consume three and the hard truth is we really needed China and India to stay on their bicycles.

Recycle your carrier bags and they'll most likely get the opportunity to sail to china and be made into something by a child for someone that does'nt need it and can throw it in the bin when it breaks.

IMO our 11th hour efforts are as useful as trying to stop a lorry with your finger, this is not a 'we are all doomed' statement, it's just accepting the inevitable.