[hubbertspeak7777777]

I just don't give a s*** if this pathetic society ends. It's just such bullshit. Here is life in this society summed up: Grow up, go to school, work hard and get good grades, go to college and get good grades so you can get a job so you can do even more work and be a corporate slave, get a raise so you can buy even more useless junk, put up with people's bullshit, get married to a woman who will end up becoming a nasty hag who will bury you in credit card debt, go to church, pray to imaginary friends, pay taxes, vote for dishonest politians based on their insincere promises, get screwed over by the politicians you voted for, have kids that will grow up to hate you, retire, grow old and watch lame sitcom reruns all day and then, you finally die. And it was all for nothing. All that suffering, stress, and hard work for nothing. And people say dying young is a bad thing? I hope I don't make it past 60!

I look forward to dying sometimes, not because I'm depressed, but because of boredom... life is mundane! I don't know if there's an afterlife or not, but sometimes I feel like finding out. Even if there's nothing but non-existance on the other side, it still has to be better than this dogshit we call "reality."

And religion doesn't really help either. Jesus, Allah, Buda, Zeus, Thor, and other deities have no evidence to support their existence, yet every other religious nut is convinced he has all the answers. Scientists have some of the answers, but even they don't really know the hell is going on or why we're here. No one knows. Why can't people just admit they don't know? Is that too much to ask? I guess it is, because humans are know-it-alls. Nobody really cares, as long as they have a mansion and an SUV so they can impress their yuppy neighbors.

Is anyone else slightly bothered by such bull****? Does anyone else not care if our bull**** way of life ends soon?

[Stratovarius]

You're not alone, I'm with you. Have you seen much of George Carlin?

"Are you gonna eat at Wendy's and read People magazine 'til the end of time?"

[killJOY]

Autumn, 1984. I was in graduate school, living in a one-room apartment, destitute, trying to finish my degree. I had been well-educated in resource depletion, global warming, over-population, having been a geology then biology major, before switching to English.

I was lying on my mattress, listening to election returns. Ronald Reagan won by a landslide. That's when I gave up. I knew this day would come. Well, here it is.

[I_Like_Plants]

The only solace is in reading Richard Dawkins. Which is not much solace at all.

I'm in a coffee shop discussing with an acquiantaince the possiblities in going back to hawaii and being nearly homeless and playing violin in the street. I love the violin, it sings. Mice also sing. That's where we are.

[auscanman]

The general western lifestyle is indeed depressing. The good thing is that you have the choice to embrace it or not. Nobody forces you to get married or have kids, or be a consumabot. If you're unwilling or afraid of being different, then yes there is no point in life, but if you know what's really important in life, are willing to be different and don't care what most other people think about you, then there is definitely value to be found in life.

[hubbertspeak7777777]

"You're not alone, I'm with you. Have you seen much of George Carlin? "

Yes, I'm a big fan of Carlin and Bill Hicks. Those two are my favorites. I especially liked Carlin's rant called the "real owners of this country."

[hubbertspeak7777777]

"The general western lifestyle is indeed depressing. The good thing is that you have the choice to embrace it or not. Nobody forces you to get married or have kids, or be a consumabot. If you're unwilling or afraid of being different, then yes there is no point in life, but if you know what's really important in life, are willing to be different and don't care what most other people think about you, then there is definitely value to be found in life.." -auscan

I agree with you on that. I don't care what people think, only what I think. I don't care about impressing snobs and I don't care if I never get to live in a mansion, I'm content with a decent apartment and an older, but decent car with good gas milage. I only care about having enough money to pay for my rent, food and internet. Although, it would be nice to be financially secure, just so I could avoid working, I hate working!

And having kids is rather pointless with peak oil approaching and everything. Why bring a kid into this world when the second great depression (understatement of the year) is right around the corner? It just means another person will have ro suffer through this mess.

[Stratovarius]

Heh, Richard Dawkins is a bit of an atheist fundamentalist to me, although I couldn't agree more that organized religion has a negative effect on the world.

Seneca, Nietzsche and Krishnamurti also like to talk about how backward society is.

[Stratovarius]

Actually now that I think about it, it seems like any great thinkers, philosopher, scientist, writer etc. identify with the valueless society.

Maybe it's because they're all self-actualized people.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

[hubbertspeak7777777]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', 'H')eh, Richard Dawkins is a bit of an atheist fundamentalist to me, although I couldn't agree more that organized religion has a negative effect on the world.

Seneca, Nietzsche and Krishnamurti also like to talk about how backward society is.

[Stratovarius]

Haggard pretty much took himself out after that gay prostitute and meth dilemma.

Have you seen the Westboro Baptist Church? www.godhatesfags.com

[lateralus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', 'I')s anyone else slightly bothered by such bullshit? Does anyone else not care if our bullshit way of life ends soon?

[hubbertspeak7777777]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', 'H')aggard pretty much took himself out after that gay prostitute and meth dilemma.

Have you seen the Westboro Baptist Church? www.godhatesfags.com

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lateralus', '
')I do believe that there are to many sheep in the world and not enough butchers. This small closet, standing room only, overpopulated hell hole we call earth needs a good old fashion culling.

[lateralus]

Event X will no doubt be preceded by events A through W.

Nature will be the one culling the herd, that I am sure of, with a little help from human stupidity of course.

[hubbertspeak7777777]

Unless of course, one of those events is global nuclear combat. In that case, human stupidity would prevail.

[kochevnik]

As Yoda would say :

Wisdom you have found.
Smart you now are.

You're asking the ultimate existential question, 'Is this all there is ?'

And the answer is : Beats me.

Personally, after a few decades on this planet I have come to a few conclusions :

1) You have to pick and choose.

For the most part you are not forced to participate. Don't like where you are or what you do ? Change it. Quit your job, sell your shit, move to India or Africa or China - get some perspective. Be a bum, be a truckdriver, be a musician, join a cult, join an ecovillage, whatever, get a bicycle and ride across the country. Do whatever, but whining - even existential whining is not useful. Change.

2) You might have a purpose - but it might be that that purpose is to serve as a bad example for others ...

The universe works in strange ways. Consider that IF PO turns out to be true and IF everything turns to doggy-doo-doo you are one of the privileged few to not only get to watch the Big Show live, as it occurs, but because you were exposed to PO.com you get the privilege of being able to understand it as well.

I think that's a pretty amazing thing - if you look at the really BIG picture - after all, you could have been born 20,000 years ago when the biggest thrill of your year would have been who got the biggest slab of buffalo meat this season.

Instead you are here, now, watching the biggest event since the invention of sliced bread. Pretty cool if you ask me, no matter how it all turns out.

[Madpaddy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')henever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard
or tough.
and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
and you feel that you've had quite enouuuuuuuuugh...

Just
re-
member that your standing on a planet that's evolving,
and revolving at nine hundred miles an hour...
That's orbiting at ninety miles a second, so it's reckoned,
the sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
are moving at a million miles a day.
in an outer spiral-arm at forty thousand miles an hour
of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars,
it's a hundred thousand lightyears side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand lightyears thick,
but out by us it's just three thousand lightyears wide.
We're thirty thousand lightyears from galactic central point,
we go 'round every two hundred million years.
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions,
in this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
in all of the directions it can whiz.
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light you know;
twelve million miles a minute, that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember when your feeling very small and insecure,
how amazingly unlikely is your birth,
and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'cause there's bugger-all down here on earth!

[eric_b]

Rest easy in your ignorance, for there are no answers. The 'natural state' is one of not knowing.

{edit} Meant to add socrates summed it up best - "all I know is that I know nothing"