[SeaGypsy]

What happens when you go to a 3rd world country for say a year or so then come back to the 1st world? Almost universally the culture shock on return is based on:
a/ abundance
b/ waste
c/ unhappiness
Paradoxicly the 1st world has become so over organised that it has lost most of it's humanity, or reason for existence in the 1st place. Listening to people whine about how they aren't gonna have it as good as Daddy is something I don't have a lot of time for.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')Orwell said it best, in "Animal Farm."

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'W')hat happens when you go to a 3rd world country for say a year or so then come back to the 1st world? Almost universally the culture shock on return is based on:
a/ abundance
b/ waste
c/ unhappiness
Paradoxicly the 1st world has become so over organised that it has lost most of it's humanity, or reason for existence in the 1st place. Listening to people whine about how they aren't gonna have it as good as Daddy is something I don't have a lot of time for.

[SeaGypsy]

Manila is one of the great hell holes of the world, but unlike NYC or Miami or London you can find exquisite tracts of wild steep mountain forest within 100 km, bordered by some of the most sustainable agriculture in the world. Asia is intense for the disparity in wealth extremes, but also for the coping stratgies people have employed. In an environment where the government does litterally nothing to benefit folks, they spend virtually no time or energy on anything remotely related to government. There is an intense local communality and social support structure naturally built into these societies which town planners in our countries can only wish they could emulate/ design into being.
I feel Asia will dominate this century not by becoming like America or Europe, but by continuing the pattern they are already on: a diverse, tolerant, family based, community centered, hard working and socially focused cohesion. This is what puts Asia way out in front in a world of dwindling resources.

[Mesuge]

Sorry, but I think that your analysis doesn't fit the larger zoom-out picture of the region. What is left of family based-community centered effort e.g. in large parts of China/S.Korea/..? Their youngest city grown population is a slight rehash of their western cousins: e-gadget "social networked " overfocused, msm brainwashed, obedient JIT style consumers.. And as usual only the most psychotic breed of them will progress on the career ladder to influence in the end the entire society, plus societies in their circle of influence from which their import, control local industries.

How do you keep your traditional family clan values, e.g. in Burma near the fossil/raw material mega extraction facility with production bound to China (incl. in-situ management with 10-20% y/y growth mantra focus) ?

The same goes for other, perhaps less industrialized sub regions in Asia, but they get the destruction from another direction, say from "regular" massive floods (soil errosion), again thanks to their "traditional values", i.e. stupid overpop..

[ennui2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')To me, "Animal Farm" is more simply about how power corrupts. Whoever gets it is corrupted and becomes an enemy of the people, either overtly or covertly. This sets up the hopeless, miserable, cruel conundrum that is human political affairs.

[vision-master]

Matt Black's lecture - (Part 1/2)

Matt Black's lecture - (Part 2/2)

[SeaGypsy]

Mesuge, I am not arguing the sustainability of Manila or any other Capital Region in Asia, I am arguing that the Asian people and cultures will survive the coming hardships far better than western people or cultures. Does that make sense?

[Heineken]

Gypsy, I think there is a cadre of very tough people in every culture. For example, I have seen backwoods types in my part of the country who are tough as rhino hide, and highly resourceful too. It's a bit of a myth that all Americans are softies.

I'm sure that lots of Asians are tough hombres too. We saw them in action in Vietnam.

[SeaGypsy]

In that way I think we are on the same page. There are people on every inhabitable patch of earth who will hang on. There is no Easter Island equivalent, we all know the world is round and the oceans touch all of it.

[vision-master]

Hang on? What is the point of it all?

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'H')ang on? What is the point of it all?

[vision-master]

Sorry, I expect much more out of life than just 'hanging on'.

and yes, there is a point, do you know what it is?

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'S')orry, I expect much more out of life than just 'hanging on'.

and yes, there is a point, do you know what it is?

[vision-master]

Then again life is destiny.

This 'came' to me one line at a time........

The path to Love

Worry for others

Pray for everyone

Give your blessings to one and all

Listen to those who YOU have cast away

Watch over those in need

Forgive your transgressors

Work towards a brighter future

vm

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', 'Y')ou appear to have woken up in a philosophical mood today.
There is no point. You live, you die.

[Heineken]

The passing on of the software has been going on for thousands of years, but I'm dubious that there's been "progress" and "improvement," whatever they are. The central human predicaments are still much the same.

[AgentR11]

Just because it doesn't progress and improve in the way that you might approve of, does not negate the evolutionary validity of the improvement.

[AgentR11]

I take it you don't quite get the comparison between code and hardware cpu; and education/training and grey matter.
Tis ok I suppose.