Q:Why are we so obsessed with the future?
A:Those that don't see the light now will eventually come around when they feel the heat.
PeakOil is You
Why Are We So Obsessed with the Future?
Re: Why Are We So Obsessed with the Future?
by PrairieMule » Fri 22 Jun 2007, 08:52:27
If you give a man a fish you will have kept him from hunger for a day. If you teach a man to fish he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
-
PrairieMule - Expert
- Posts: 2927
- Joined: Fri 02 Sep 2005, 03:00:00
- Location: In a Nigerian compound surrounded by mighty dignataries
Re: Why Are We So Obsessed with the Future?
by Heineken » Fri 22 Jun 2007, 08:55:31
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kjmclark', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'A') fault of my intent? What does that mean?
Dieoff is necessary, kjm. It's the only way nature's balance, which is currently wildly out of whack---the result of our one-time, outlandish, fossil-fuel-fueled reproductive success---can be restored. See our MonteQuest for more info. on that.
Your views about children are the traditional ones. Entirely understandable. But they will soon be archaic, and tragic.
I'm sure that if I had children I would be as defensive about them as you are. I'm sure I'd protect them to my last breath, and that some of my key beliefs and principles about other things would go out the window.
That's what happens when people have children---decent people, anyway. And it's a reason why there are too damned many of them.
Dieoff is necessary, kjm. It's the only way nature's balance, which is currently wildly out of whack---the result of our one-time, outlandish, fossil-fuel-fueled reproductive success---can be restored. See our MonteQuest for more info. on that.
Your views about children are the traditional ones. Entirely understandable. But they will soon be archaic, and tragic.
I'm sure that if I had children I would be as defensive about them as you are. I'm sure I'd protect them to my last breath, and that some of my key beliefs and principles about other things would go out the window.
That's what happens when people have children---decent people, anyway. And it's a reason why there are too damned many of them.
The intent bit meant that you asked a question about why people think about the future, intending a certain discussion, and ended up with a discussion about the future, but in a way that you hadn't intended. If you ask a question about self defense, and get a conversation about guns when you intended a conversation about fences, you should have asked a less general question.
We don't need a dieoff, we need a large energy use reduction. We may get there through lots of people dying, but it would work just as well to reduce our energy use and reduce our population more slowly. Again, I'm not saying lots of people won't die prematurely, just that it isn't inevitable.
Finally, I most certainly do not have the traditional views about children. Look around you, how many families think it's immoral to have more than two children? That would turn the teachings of many of the world's religions on their heads. Changing "go forth and multiply" into "have no more than two children lest ye be damned" would be quite a switch.
So let me turn it around. What's the point of being obsessed about the future if not to be concerned about the future of humanity? The Earth and nature will get by without us, even if we've screwed up the planet compared to Holocene standards. Is it just the rest of your lifetime that you mean by the future? If you're concerned about the future of humanity, how can you not be concerned about the children? They are the future of humanity.
Dieoff is about a lot more than energy use. All resources are involved, and all have been irrationally borrowed against, creating a massive debt we can "settle up with" only through dieoff.
Saying that we can avoid dieoff by reducing energy use demonstrates a lack of understanding of these issues. Our extreme level of energy use is the only thing that allowed our population to reach its current level in the first place, and the only thing that maintains it there.
Frankly, I don't think humanity deserves a future. We've had a million years or so in which to prove our worthiness. The history we've written is overwhelmingly sordid. We are a mistake of nature, and will be "corrected."
My main interest in creating this thread was to explore how individuals direct their thought processes and behavior in temporal terms. If you choose to live through your children and to imagine that they are the future, more power to you.
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
-
Heineken - Expert
- Posts: 7051
- Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2004, 03:00:00
- Location: Rural Virginia
42 posts
• Page 3 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
Return to Medical Issues Forum
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest