Giving up on life?

by **Madpaddy** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 09:33:43

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') watched Alone in the Wilderness last night. Dick Proenneke is my new hero. As a middle aged man working as a mechanic he left society and moved to Alsaka. With only a few hand tools and no experience he build a log cabin and survived for 30 years on his own. It is possible to prevail.

by **mindfarkk** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 10:14:22

the point about being trapped is a good one. when i feel trapped, then i feel desperate and hopeless. right now, i have a similar feeling, like my resources are too limited to do much to prepare materially. i try to stockpile knowledge. the other thing is that it's hard to prepare and avoid something you know is coming, but you don't know exactly when or how it's going to hit you. and primally that's like knowing you are going to get a shock or a blow, but you don't know when and how it's coming - from the floor, from the ceiling, from the left or right, day or night. so you end up hyperaroused and burn yourself out from the reflexive drive to anticipate so you can protect yourself. i dunno, it helps me to remember this is what's happening to me. and yeah i don't look forward to heavy bad shit, but who does? and it's not written in stone. so live in the moment. at least you will see it coming when and if anything that bad comes down, you will be among the first responders. who knows how you will handle it, or what opportunities you will have. being alert and in the moment is key. when you are focussed on the future all the time, you aren't alert and in the moment either.

and my sympathies about the CS degree. my old degree is also worth shit now, and my old career got farmed out overseas, so i'm working on yet another one for a third career, since evidently the market for my basic skills is so glutted noone bothers to even acknowledge my applications with their disinterest. twenty years now i have been working and putting myself through school and each time i have gotten out the rug is pulled out from under me shortly after graduation, now i'm looking at PO. it's hard. i'm old. i may be too old to farm, and i was thinking about it last week, i can't even keep a houseplant alive, what makes me think i can grow crops? at least it takes the pressure of worrying that there is no way i can afford a homestead! but you know, i'm human. i keep on keeping on, and hoping for the best. i grew up listening to air raid sirens and worrying about a nuclear strike. if i let myself get consumed with that, i would have lost the past forty years of living, learning, loving.

so i pass on my basic message to others to you; when you feel depressed, respect the message your body and mind are giving you, back off from the stuff that triggers fight-or-flight in you, and do something that keeps you in the moment.

also it's interesting to me that frankl's book Search for Meaning came up in this thread as i was ONLY YESTERDAY discussing this very premise with my clients; that the people who survived the longest in the concentration camps were the ones who were able to find meaning in their suffering. and that many died who might have been liberated because they gave up, and he believes they gave up because they despaired - they could not find meaning or purpose for their pain.

by **stu** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 10:26:20

Raze.

It looks like you're going through the initial stages of what I call PO syndrome (I'm sure there's a better way of describing it).

Going from my own personal experience the initial feeling you suffer is shock. This is due to the realisation that

1. The world and society is built on resources that are not finite.

2. There are a bunch of experts saying that we are going to start running out soon.

After realizing this you will then make that crucial decision. Denial or acceptance?

If you choose denial then you carry on consuming and living the life that you only know how to live.

Denial is normally chosen because people refuse to accept that this society could possibly crash or mainly down to fear.

It can also occur during research on PO. You find an argument that you feel denies that PO will occur and decide to accept that.

On the other hand if you choose acceptance then you will most likely have a few nights of troubled sleep as your brain comes to the reality that this is real.

In order to back up your evidence you will undoubtedly watch the news and keep an eye on oil prices. If you feel that this backs up the PO theory then you are further down the road of acceptance.

You may also find yourself looking at cars on the street and food in the shops in a different way as you come to accept how important having an energy source is to Western society.

After acceptance comes action.

What can I do to prepare?

What are my options?

These of course are all dependant on your status.

As for suicide.

Don't even go there.

Just think how lucky you are to have been born in your country at this point in time.

You're not begging for money on the streets of New Delhi, You're not bogged down in some trench in France, avoiding German shells in 1916 and you're not some poor peasant in 14th century Europe wondering why God has decided to kill thousands of people with some kind of disease that will come to be known as The Great Plague.

by **NonToxic** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 14:26:06

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') watched Alone in the Wilderness last night. Dick Proenneke is my new hero. As a middle aged man working as a mechanic he left society and moved to Alsaka. With only a few hand tools and no experience he build a log cabin and survived for 30 years on his own. It is possible to prevail.

by **gnm** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 14:33:08

I can relate somewhat Raze - when I was in college and working it was ramen everyday. and before I had that job (when I was really broke) I took home food from the dishwashing job at the resteraunt (the leftovers that didn't sell they let the employees take) - that kept me going...

God I hate ramen...

but I still maintain that we don't have a clue what starvation is... now the North Koreans.. they are very familiar with it,,, I read somewhere that there were a lot of people eating grass and bark there - not because it had any food value but because it kept the agonizing hunger pains down...

yikes!

-G

hopefully kim il prick will get exactly what he deserves for his crimes...

by **Specop_007** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 14:35:08

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'R')azor's edge, It's depressing. Anyone who doesn't admit being unsettled or depressed by the world right now is playing a very transparent game with other's emotions.

by **Aaron** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 14:37:38

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') just can't believe some of the things you say.

by **k_semler** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 14:40:02

It will be impossible to give Kim Il Jung his just punishment. No matter how horrific and torturous his death, even if he were to be castrated with a wooden spoon while hanging upside down in a vat of cockroaches with peanut butter speared all over his body, this would not be enough punishment for him. The reason why just reperations cannot be done is quite simple, he can only killed once. Now if you could kill him 1,000,000 times or more, then reperations would have been served.

by **threadbear** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 16:29:20

K.Semler, I'm no big fan of totalitarian dictators either, particularly tiny ones with bad hair, but you have to take into account that Il Jung's country has sufferered their worst drought in decades, and that's a big part of the problem there. Same with Robert Mugabe--huge droughts. If it was in the West's strategic or economic interest to focus on the environmental issues Korea and Zimbabwe face and gloss over the dictator's responsibility, that's what they'd do.

Same with Castro. The guy's a big time hero to many of his people, but he's portrayed as some kind of demonic baby-eating bad guy by the American croney capitalist press. Be very suspicious. There's nothing the Matrix likes better than a knee jerk emotional reaction to tales of atrocities that can be neither proved or disproved. Not saying they aren't happening--but stick it in the maybe file.

by **gnm** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 16:29:40

Too true K_semler -Too true...

thread - go talk to a North Korean who has managed to escape that cesspool sometime and you'll get a real picture of what that fascist prick is like...

-G

by **threadbear** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 16:56:40

GNM, I don't doubt he's a creep. I just don't trust the West's take on him. I WOULD trust a North Korean's though and would love to talk with someone who has escaped. Please, don't take my response as support for the guy.

by **RazorsEdge** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:03:24

After thinking about it all night and all day I've decided that I've been thinking about this all wrong! The Food is right in front of me! Sure, I'll stock up on canned food and what not but food has been here all the time.

I am going to study/learn Entomophagy (Insect eating) as well as how to find plants/mushrooms/weeds in nature that I can eat. The only thing I would need to worry about is storing the plants/insects during winter. And even then, I could learn to farm insects indoors possibly.

So then, I could go pretty much go anywhere and feast.

by **PenultimateManStanding** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:20:10

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RazorsEdge', '
')I am going to study/learn Entomophagy (Insect eating) as well as how to find plants/mushrooms/weeds in nature that I can eat. The only thing I would need to worry about is storing the plants/insects during winter. And even then, I could learn to farm insects indoors possibly.

by **smallpoxgirl** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:28:35

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'I')'m not depressed, in fact I find it rather exciting to be living in these times. Dude, WE could be the ones that literally get to watch the downfall of man!! THink of it. Historically this is an unheard of event. usually civilizations fall to be replaced by a more advanced culture. that could all change if PO really goes bad.
We could be witnesses to the downfall of mankind.
Exciting isnt it!

by **Specop_007** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:40:33

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'I')'m not depressed, in fact I find it rather exciting to be living in these times. Dude, WE could be the ones that literally get to watch the downfall of man!! THink of it. Historically this is an unheard of event. usually civilizations fall to be replaced by a more advanced culture. that could all change if PO really goes bad.
We could be witnesses to the downfall of mankind.
Exciting isnt it!

by **smallpoxgirl** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:44:24

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'Y')ou should take me with you, we can park that truck for a few hours too. :-D

by **Specop_007** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 20:50:16

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'Y')ou should take me with you, we can park that truck for a few hours too. :-D

by **smallpoxgirl** » Thu 10 Mar 2005, 21:34:35

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'W')ell then, rain check that.
My Bushmaster is on backorder. :cry:

by **Specop_007** » Fri 11 Mar 2005, 10:16:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'W')ell then, rain check that.
My Bushmaster is on backorder. :cry:

by **smallpoxgirl** » Fri 11 Mar 2005, 13:23:39

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'Y')ou misunderstand me! I've got plenty of guns!

Giving up on life?

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