Will Baldwin hook up with Gideon's daughter?
How will Gideon respond to TWilliam's post on the differences between sociology and neuropsychology?
What happened to Pablo2079?
Will lateralus choke on a piece of popcorn?
Stay tuned, we'll be right back after this short break.
PeakOil is You
"You won't."
Re: "You won't."
by lateralus » Thu 05 Apr 2007, 15:22:10
- lateralus
- Tar Sands
- Posts: 621
- Joined: Tue 04 Jul 2006, 03:00:00
- Location: Hockeyland
Re: "You won't."
by TorrKing » Thu 05 Apr 2007, 15:31:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lateralus', '[')i]Will Baldwin hook up with Gideon's daughter?
How will Gideon respond to TWilliam's post on the differences between sociology and neuropsychology?
What happened to Pablo2079?
Will lateralus choke on a piece of popcorn?
Stay tuned, we'll be right back after this short break.
How will Gideon respond to TWilliam's post on the differences between sociology and neuropsychology?
What happened to Pablo2079?
Will lateralus choke on a piece of popcorn?
Stay tuned, we'll be right back after this short break.
http://livingprimitively.com/
Need new shoes? What about making them?: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/making-a-primitive-sewing-kit-and-a-pair-of-moccasins/11191315
Need new shoes? What about making them?: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/making-a-primitive-sewing-kit-and-a-pair-of-moccasins/11191315
-
TorrKing - Tar Sands
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Thu 24 Nov 2005, 04:00:00
- Location: The ever shrinking wilds of Norway
Re: "You won't."
by Zardoz » Thu 05 Apr 2007, 17:12:29
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned', '.')..Perhaps you have the central command "planned economy" type kids on their five year ten point plan...Not everyone can be a pussy and cling to the paradigm of average...
...Actually you sound quite communist. The five year plan approach. No deviation from the path of school, job, house, kids to eternal happiness. One size fits all formula. Anyone not in agreement with you needs to go for re-education or is a loser...
...Not unless I want to breed a zombie robot with zero passion in their life, going to their unsatisfying job paying for their overpriced home. Pretending to be happy and successful purchasing nik naks from China...Personally I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about "the long march to becoming average"...
...Your kids Gideon are average. That's all they will ever amount to. Good safe average kids in many ways life all pre planned. They are dead already.
...there are many other people who had their great life planned out and in some cases it turns out well. In others it ends in disaster...
All you know is that the central command is not working on the kid and that his freedom riles you.
...Actually you sound quite communist. The five year plan approach. No deviation from the path of school, job, house, kids to eternal happiness. One size fits all formula. Anyone not in agreement with you needs to go for re-education or is a loser...
...Not unless I want to breed a zombie robot with zero passion in their life, going to their unsatisfying job paying for their overpriced home. Pretending to be happy and successful purchasing nik naks from China...Personally I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about "the long march to becoming average"...
...Your kids Gideon are average. That's all they will ever amount to. Good safe average kids in many ways life all pre planned. They are dead already.
...there are many other people who had their great life planned out and in some cases it turns out well. In others it ends in disaster...
All you know is that the central command is not working on the kid and that his freedom riles you.
_________________________________________
Thank you very much for that post, Concerned. I've been thinking about it ever since you put it up. You given me a perspective on my son's "condition" that I didn't have before. I've had what amounts to an epiphany of sorts because of it.
"Central Command" really is not having its way with my kid, is it? He's walking into its headquarters, turning around, dropping his pants, bending over, and mooning it, isn't he?
He's mooning Central Command. He may not be even be aware of it, but that's what he's doing.
He's telling The Great American Mass-Education Machine to take its "useless and pointless knowledge" (Bob Dylan's words), and shove it right back up its collective ass. He's doing something I could never have had the guts to do. I've spent my entire life in pursuit of averageness, and it's paid off for me, in many respects. I won't tell you what my wife and I made last year. I won't tell you what our net worth is. I'd be too embarrassed. Playing the game per CenCom's rules has paid off quite well for this aging white American male Baby Boomer.
And yet, I don't see how I will ever be able to "retire". I'm so locked into this life that I'll always be trudging off to some job somewhere, obediently putting in my hours, obediently performing all the tasks assigned to me with a cheerful attitude and a smile frozen on my obedient face, obediently conforming to all the rules. I'm thoroughly ensnared by the machine. It's got me. I'll never get free of it.
In fact, I'm so thoroughly brainwashed by CenCom's programming that I would never want to be free of the machine's hooks.
Oh, the irony: I'm exactly the sort of son Gideon wishes he had. I've played the game per Gideon's rules. I've toed the strict party line. I've kept my nose to the grindstone. I'm a law-abiding solid citizen. He would be so proud of me.
And yet, here I am, living in luxury, pretty much bored to death. Not that I'm complaining, of course. How could anyone complain as they lay there in their sumptuous living room, gazing at the remarkable cable-fed High Definition imagery on their new 40" Sony LCD flat-panel? Why would I complain about having the sum total of human knowledge available to me at a 3800 KBPS download rate (Thank you, Charter Cable!) on any of our four near-state-of-the-art computers? What's to not like as I cruise along in my wife's new Toyota Avalon company car? How could I not love my new Civic LX? How could anyone who lives in an $800,000 condo in an utterly secure neighborhood a mile from the ocean in a paradise-like climate harbor a trace of ungratefulness? You think you're going to hear a single little peep of complaint out of this grizzled old veteran wage slave? Guess again!
Nevertheless, I really am bored.
Maybe, just perhaps, my son senses my boredom, even though I think I'm very good at concealing it. He's a sullen, lazy, un-motivated, thoroughly typical 16-year-old boy at the moment, but he's not stupid. He observes. He can see things that are shoved in his face.
And he is very much aware of how little of what he's "learning" in school is going to be applicable to his later life. He's complained about that for years. We've never had a counter-argument for that because we completely agree with him. He's right. So much of that stuff is knowledge purely for knowledge's sake. Sure, it's great to know, but there'll be no practical application for it in his life, and he damned well knows it.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'M')aybe Zardoz's son is depressed because he is smart. Perhaps he sees adult life and adult careers as a bunch of zombies that are chasing worthless pursuits. Maybe his rejection of school is his rejection of what he sees as a broken society. That would explain why he is depressed even though his family life and friendships are intact. I would not worry about him. I would even maybe guess that he has absorbed more of his father and mother's awareness of the dysfunctional society we live in than they may suspect even though he never talks about it. A video game and skate boarding is a way to escape from what he sees as an unbearable culture around him. Just a guess. No interest in school since the 2nd grade is perhaps because he has more hunter gatherer genes.
You're probably onto something there, Ibon. Maybe that's what he's thinking. Perhaps when (and if) he pulls out of this funk he's in I'll be able to talk to him about it. I can't talk to him about anything at all right now, of course.
(I'm not so sure about the "hunter-gatherer genes", though. He's such a softy about animals he'd probably starve to death before he'd kill something to eat it. He'd gnaw on tree bark first.)
Maybe you're right and I shouldn't worry about him so much. Maybe I should be grateful. After all, if he bought the Gideon "You-vill-do-it-und-you-vill-like-it" party line, and conformed to CenCom's strict old school directives, I'd have good reason to worry. That old paradigm worked, for some at least, quite well in the oil-soaked past, but that's not going to be the world he'll be living in, is it? Bakhtiari's new report details what's going to happen to global oil production, and he's predicting that we'll be down to 55 million barrels a day by 2020. We all know what that's going to mean. A 34 percent drop in the oil supply is going to precipitate what MonteQuest calls The Grand Depression. The economic system of every country in the world is going to be completely busted, ours worst of all, probably.
How do you educate yourself for that? What field should you prepare yourself for when you're not at all sure what fields of endeavor are even going to exist when you turn 30 years of age? A huge number of graduates have trouble getting work in their chosen fields right now. What will it be like in 2020? What good are degrees going to be, post-peak?
In a post-peak world, which will be more valuable? Choose one:
A. A strong, solid, traditional work ethic.
B. A Bachelor's Degree
C. Multiple practical skills
D. Good looks and charm
Might the answer be "D"? Hey, who knows? It works for people now, and maybe it'll still work post-peak. In any case, he'll have that going for him, at least.
More irony: Gideon, your girls would probably really like my worthless-but-charming son. All girls do. He has several really together young ladies whom he counts among his best friends. I'm glad he has his own cell phone, or he'd have our home land line tied up constantly talking to them. Some of their conversations go on for hours. What the hell can they be talking about at such great length?
Maybe I'm all wrong about the kid. Maybe I should admire him in some ways. Maybe he has all he'll need in the post-peak world. Maybe I could learn something from him. Maybe I should be grateful that he's like this...
...rather than something akin to this:
Or not. We'll see how this plays out. Ultimately, it'll be up to him.
Thanks again, Concerned. You've given me things to consider that I hadn't thought of before.
"Thank you for attending the oil age. We're going to scrape what we can out of these tar pits in Alberta and then shut down the machines and turn out the lights. Goodnight." - seldom_seen
-
Zardoz - Expert
- Posts: 6323
- Joined: Fri 02 Dec 2005, 04:00:00
- Location: Oil-addicted Southern Californucopia
Re: "You won't."
by Baldwin » Thu 05 Apr 2007, 18:02:58
Atleast in a post-peak world, a boy scout mightknow how to light a fire or condense water.
While forcing him through the sheeple factory known as public (you really should consider home school or atleast private education) won't do him good, becoming a lvl 70 paladin in WoW will be as equally useless as Gay-Lussac's gas law.
Not all rebellion is good. Refusing to heed your parents is a big problem. As you are peak aware, I wager you've improved from the mass-consumer most of us were before peak awareness.
While forcing him through the sheeple factory known as public (you really should consider home school or atleast private education) won't do him good, becoming a lvl 70 paladin in WoW will be as equally useless as Gay-Lussac's gas law.
Not all rebellion is good. Refusing to heed your parents is a big problem. As you are peak aware, I wager you've improved from the mass-consumer most of us were before peak awareness.
-
Baldwin - Coal
- Posts: 499
- Joined: Mon 05 Feb 2007, 04:00:00
Re: "You won't."
by threadbear » Thu 05 Apr 2007, 18:19:17
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned', '.')..Perhaps you have the central command "planned economy" type kids on their five year ten point plan...Not everyone can be a pussy and cling to the paradigm of average...
...Actually you sound quite communist. The five year plan approach. No deviation from the path of school, job, house, kids to eternal happiness. One size fits all formula. Anyone not in agreement with you needs to go for re-education or is a loser...
...Not unless I want to breed a zombie robot with zero passion in their life, going to their unsatisfying job paying for their overpriced home. Pretending to be happy and successful purchasing nik naks from China...Personally I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about "the long march to becoming average"...
...Your kids Gideon are average. That's all they will ever amount to. Good safe average kids in many ways life all pre planned. They are dead already.
...there are many other people who had their great life planned out and in some cases it turns out well. In others it ends in disaster...
All you know is that the central command is not working on the kid and that his freedom riles you.
...Actually you sound quite communist. The five year plan approach. No deviation from the path of school, job, house, kids to eternal happiness. One size fits all formula. Anyone not in agreement with you needs to go for re-education or is a loser...
...Not unless I want to breed a zombie robot with zero passion in their life, going to their unsatisfying job paying for their overpriced home. Pretending to be happy and successful purchasing nik naks from China...Personally I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about "the long march to becoming average"...
...Your kids Gideon are average. That's all they will ever amount to. Good safe average kids in many ways life all pre planned. They are dead already.
...there are many other people who had their great life planned out and in some cases it turns out well. In others it ends in disaster...
All you know is that the central command is not working on the kid and that his freedom riles you.
_________________________________________
Thank you very much for that post, Concerned. I've been thinking about it ever since you put it up. You given me a perspective on my son's "condition" that I didn't have before. I've had what amounts to an epiphany of sorts because of it.
"Central Command" really is not having its way with my kid, is it? He's walking into its headquarters, turning around, dropping his pants, bending over, and mooning it, isn't he?
He's mooning Central Command. He may not be even be aware of it, but that's what he's doing.
He's telling The Great American Mass-Education Machine to take its "useless and pointless knowledge" (Bob Dylan's words), and shove it right back up its collective ass. He's doing something I could never have had the guts to do. I've spent my entire life in pursuit of averageness, and it's paid off for me, in many respects. I won't tell you what my wife and I made last year. I won't tell you what our net worth is. I'd be too embarrassed. Playing the game per CenCom's rules has paid off quite well for this aging white American male Baby Boomer.
And yet, I don't see how I will ever be able to "retire". I'm so locked into this life that I'll always be trudging off to some job somewhere, obediently putting in my hours, obediently performing all the tasks assigned to me with a cheerful attitude and a smile frozen on my obedient face, obediently conforming to all the rules. I'm thoroughly ensnared by the machine. It's got me. I'll never get free of it.
In fact, I'm so thoroughly brainwashed by CenCom's programming that I would never want to be free of the machine's hooks.
Oh, the irony: I'm exactly the sort of son Gideon wishes he had. I've played the game per Gideon's rules. I've toed the strict party line. I've kept my nose to the grindstone. I'm a law-abiding solid citizen. He would be so proud of me.
And yet, here I am, living in luxury, pretty much bored to death. Not that I'm complaining, of course. How could anyone complain as they lay there in their sumptuous living room, gazing at the remarkable cable-fed High Definition imagery on their new 40" Sony LCD flat-panel? Why would I complain about having the sum total of human knowledge available to me at a 3800 KBPS download rate (Thank you, Charter Cable!) on any of our four near-state-of-the-art computers? What's to not like as I cruise along in my wife's new Toyota Avalon company car? How could I not love my new Civic LX? How could anyone who lives in an $800,000 condo in an utterly secure neighborhood a mile from the ocean in a paradise-like climate harbor a trace of ungratefulness? You think you're going to hear a single little peep of complaint out of this grizzled old veteran wage slave? Guess again!
Nevertheless, I really am bored.
Maybe, just perhaps, my son senses my boredom, even though I think I'm very good at concealing it. He's a sullen, lazy, un-motivated, thoroughly typical 16-year-old boy at the moment, but he's not stupid. He observes. He can see things that are shoved in his face.
And he is very much aware of how little of what he's "learning" in school is going to be applicable to his later life. He's complained about that for years. We've never had a counter-argument for that because we completely agree with him. He's right. So much of that stuff is knowledge purely for knowledge's sake. Sure, it's great to know, but there'll be no practical application for it in his life, and he damned well knows it.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'M')aybe Zardoz's son is depressed because he is smart. Perhaps he sees adult life and adult careers as a bunch of zombies that are chasing worthless pursuits. Maybe his rejection of school is his rejection of what he sees as a broken society. That would explain why he is depressed even though his family life and friendships are intact. I would not worry about him. I would even maybe guess that he has absorbed more of his father and mother's awareness of the dysfunctional society we live in than they may suspect even though he never talks about it. A video game and skate boarding is a way to escape from what he sees as an unbearable culture around him. Just a guess. No interest in school since the 2nd grade is perhaps because he has more hunter gatherer genes.
You're probably onto something there, Ibon. Maybe that's what he's thinking. Perhaps when (and if) he pulls out of this funk he's in I'll be able to talk to him about it. I can't talk to him about anything at all right now, of course.
(I'm not so sure about the "hunter-gatherer genes", though. He's such a softy about animals he'd probably starve to death before he'd kill something to eat it. He'd gnaw on tree bark first.)
Maybe you're right and I shouldn't worry about him so much. Maybe I should be grateful. After all, if he bought the Gideon "You-vill-do-it-und-you-vill-like-it" party line, and conformed to CenCom's strict old school directives, I'd have good reason to worry. That old paradigm worked, for some at least, quite well in the oil-soaked past, but that's not going to be the world he'll be living in, is it? Bakhtiari's new report details what's going to happen to global oil production, and he's predicting that we'll be down to 55 million barrels a day by 2020. We all know what that's going to mean. A 34 percent drop in the oil supply is going to precipitate what MonteQuest calls The Grand Depression. The economic system of every country in the world is going to be completely busted, ours worst of all, probably.
How do you educate yourself for that? What field should you prepare yourself for when you're not at all sure what fields of endeavor are even going to exist when you turn 30 years of age? A huge number of graduates have trouble getting work in their chosen fields right now. What will it be like in 2020? What good are degrees going to be, post-peak?
In a post-peak world, which will be more valuable? Choose one:
A. A strong, solid, traditional work ethic.
B. A Bachelor's Degree
C. Multiple practical skills
D. Good looks and charm
Might the answer be "D"? Hey, who knows? It works for people now, and maybe it'll still work post-peak. In any case, he'll have that going for him, at least.
More irony: Gideon, your girls would probably really like my worthless-but-charming son. All girls do. He has several really together young ladies whom he counts among his best friends. I'm glad he has his own cell phone, or he'd have our home land line tied up constantly talking to them. Some of their conversations go on for hours. What the hell can they be talking about at such great length?
Maybe I'm all wrong about the kid. Maybe I should admire him in some ways. Maybe he has all he'll need in the post-peak world. Maybe I could learn something from him. Maybe I should be grateful that he's like this...
...rather than something akin to this:
Or not. We'll see how this plays out. Ultimately, it'll be up to him.
Thanks again, Concerned. You've given me things to consider that I hadn't thought of before.
I nominate this for post of the year. Thankyou Concerned and Zardoz
We all realize that the society we live in is unsustainable, life threatening, spiritually vacuous. So why didn't it dawn on us all collectively before this? Your son may have emotionally integrated what all of us know, and is responding, as you say, by mooning the school system. How many times have we posted that what is going to be in demand, in the future, are people with physical strength and a few good skills, not necessarily computer jockeys?
Zardoz, It would be a wonderful thing if you could talk to your son and tell him what you just told us. Then do a google search for "indigo children" It's pretty esoteric, but also darned intriguing.
And Gideon, I have no doubt your kids are terrific, as most kids are, if they're pulled out of the school system, and have a strong caring parent, or reasonable facsimile, teaching them. You are to be applauded, on that score.
One of the biggest problems seems to be the school system. It has become a monster, a big untameable dumbing down machine, that has become toxic. Kids are rebelling at a soul level.
Check out the forums there is a whole community competing to see who has the best characcter *grins*
