[starsky]

Peak oil, overpopulation, pollution, war, criminality ... I think all these perceived problems are simply symptoms of much deeper underlying issues in the collective human conciousness.

People feel like there's something missing inside them, even though they might not be conciously aware of it. Thus they usually have a handful of insecurities and continuously seek validation from their peers and their environment which manifests itself in countless ways. The perceived NEED for fancy cars, cool clothes, watches, drugs, alcohol, videogames, fast food, beach houses, McMansions and so on.
This validation is also sought after via other means, such as violence, sex, trying to get status, generating fear etc. ... we all want to be special.

While none of these things are bad or evil themselves, the compulsive need to get this stimuli instantly and continuously is what starts to compound and eventually forms the widespread problems we are facing today. No amount of fancy cars, cool clothes, watches, money, sex, violence, success, validation or any other external thing is ever going to satisfy anyone in the long-term. It simply doesn't work that way.

What people have forgotten, is that they are actually already complete and perfect. There is no hole to fill, nothing is missing.
People are also too fixated on the past, and worry too much about the future. They don't realize that both the past and the future are infact only perceptions and nothing real. Seriously, think about it. Can you do anything in the past, or the future? No.
The only real and pure thing is the present moment.

There is actually even this tribe in the Thai archipelago, who have no perception of time. If someone leaves the tribe for five years and comes back, it's as if they didn't leave at all.

Solutions to superficial problems like finding a new energy source or trying to reduce pollution will be futile untill the underlying internal issues are worked out. And the only one who can solve those issues is YOU. Everyone has to get their own sh1t straight.

I'm not really looking for criticism or debate, I'm merely stating my opinion. But comments are welcome.

[threadbear]

The solutions to the human need to overcome-- himself/herself, his/her world, his/her unhappiness, will be addressed through diminishing natural resources. It's not a matter of addressing these problems first, before we tackle the others. The psycho-social problems we suffer from today, will be seen clearly through a rear view mirror, after we've been forced to take the bitter medicine of survival in an economically constrained environment.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', 'W')hat people have forgotten, is that they are actually already complete and perfect. I'm not really looking for criticism or debate, I'm merely stating my opinion. But comments are welcome.

[CrudeAwakening]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', 'P')eople are also too fixated on the past, and worry too much about the future. They don't realize that both the past and the future are infact only perceptions and nothing real.

[Hawkcreek]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'ve got an idea; let's focus entirely on the present and go massively into debt in order to support our "consume now" lifestyles, at the expense of our children's future. How's that working out so far?

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CrudeAwakening', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', 'P')eople are also too fixated on the past, and worry too much about the future. They don't realize that both the past and the future are infact only perceptions and nothing real.

[CrudeAwakening]

As Alan Watts once said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')...our experience is altogether momentary.
From one point of view, each moment is so
elusive and so brief that we cannot even
think about it before it has gone. From
another point of view, this moment is always
here, since we know no other moment than the
present moment. It is always dying, always
becoming past more rapidly than imagination
can conceive. Yet at the same time it is
always being born, always new, emerging just
as rapidly from that complete unknown we
call the future. Thinking about it almost
makes you breathless."

[starsky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', 'W')hat people have forgotten, is that they are actually already complete and perfect. I'm not really looking for criticism or debate, I'm merely stating my opinion. But comments are welcome.

[starsky]

Let me put it this way ... during a typical day, how much of what you're thinking about has any practical use whatsoever? Be honest.

I'd say, for most people maybe 5%, and the rest is just mental spam. And they're thinking maybe 12-16 hours straight.


We should be using our minds, and not letting our minds use us, which is what's currently the norm.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', 'W')hat people have forgotten, is that they are actually already complete and perfect.

[paimei01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', '
')
There is actually even this tribe in the Thai archipelago, who have no perception of time. If someone leaves the tribe for five years and comes back, it's as if they didn't leave at all.

[starsky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hus your claims of being perfect are not based in science or even religion.

[paimei01]

starsky thanks for the link. I agree with what you describe in the first post. We are not flawed in any way, our system is, exterior problems are not important, they are consequences of our view of the world, and of the story we are enacting

Have you read any books by Daniel Quinn ? Here I opened a thread about him :
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic41260.html

[Novus]

The one person who has ever answered this question is Daniel Quinn. The thing that is missing from modern humans is the tribe. A tribe is to human beings what a pack is to wolves. Remove the tribe and you end up with an empty being the is trying to be a flock of one where people are replaced by things. The draw is the McMansion is it is like coming home to village only the village is empty of people because only one person lives there. So the flock of one fills his house with things but it still remains empty.

It is as if there was a secret door in your room that only you knew about that led to a land of riches and material things only nobody else ever saw it or took anything from it. It is all meaningless unless it is shared with other people, the people of your tribe.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('starsky', ' ')
I'm done on this thread. Keep it real!