by Ibon » Sat 28 Nov 2015, 18:03:35
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'F')ear is a natural emotion and feeling in a human being. I would say that their are clear and present dangers in this world that hover over in different degrees every human and thus the sense of anxiety that exists. We are talking about physical well being, pain and death. To me it is instructive how Ibon relates that fear seems to be more controlled in other countries than in the US. In answer to the general inquiry posed by the original post, I would say that I am a firm believer in their is nothing to fear but fear itself. Fear paralyzes and also sets humans against humans. In the future we must renounce as much as possible fear and proceed along paths whereby we try to care and have empathy for each other recognizing that we all are humans with a natural fear of pain and death. So that going forward we recognize that uniting we can better deal with the challenges ahead then being divided and in conflict. For the future will conspire to divide us via fear ,long standing biases and grudges and ultimately key resource shortages. But by uniting as much as possible we can gain the needed sense of support that is lacking now in our micro individualistic culture that begets the defensive and ultimately fearful mindset of the porcupine or mouse which is the same mindset of "me against the world"
Onlooker, what you wrote is an enlightened ideal of what we should do. The issue here in times of human overshoot is to let the consequences guide our ideology. The other way around is not possible any more. We cannot evolve culturally any longer in my opinion starting with an ideal that we should all follow. There are too many conflicts and negative feedbacks to any longer expect a large humanistic movement to take root and flourish. There is just too much fear, too much division, to much desire for conflict.
This is all my opinion at the moment and I welcome rebuttals on this and or agreement because we are in new territory here and we are trying to figure out where the juggernaut of over populated and over consuming humans are heading.
I think the mass of humanity will react and be driven by fear and anger and this will eventually lead us toward some bad decisions; resource wars, increase ethnic and racial conflicts, anti immigrant, closing the doors in the future to climate refugees. I don't want to isolate anyone in particular as representative but if we take Cog as an example I think he demonstrates many of these traits.
I think a more enlightened humanistic response will not come from the mainstream, it will represent a counter culture movement.
Think about ISIS, think about how this death cult has the power to create a strong bonded brotherhood among the members. A we vs they is a very powerful force especially when harnessed by a religion that has ancient tenants that support this warrior position.
My point is that eventually a humanistic movement based on compassion and love can have the same powerful unity and brotherhood especially if it is a counter movement to a mainstream driven by fear and hate and anger. In other words, forget about cultural change coming from the mainstream and forget about trying to enlighten the masses. Change will come from the fringe movements standing in stark contrast to the masses going down the toilet of fear and war, That is when we see the possibility of a birth of a new ideology. This is how new religions form. New human ethics. New ideologies. Not from the place of saying what we should be doing but forming out of the chaos resulting from the masses going down the toilet.
This is all hypothetical. I am only describing this as a way of explaining how one day, out of chaos, we might give birth to a new ideology. Consequences lead to a new ideology. Not ideology first trying to change the heads of fearful humans.
I don't think we can escape the upcoming chaos.
Patiently awaiting the pathogens. Our resiliency resembles an invasive weed. We are the Kudzu Ape
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