[onlooker]

A book of Mike Davies. "Planet of slums" Read some of it some time ago. The part that we really stood out for me, was the revelation that many people still live amid and among human excrement. I mean, even the Ghanges river in India very sacred to the Hindus, I heard was filthy with excrements.
Should easily find book doing a google search.

[onlooker]

Great talking points P. Yes, I also recommend a book that I did read almost entirely and which informs me of much of what I know of the modern Economic paradigm the world lives under. Hence, I created that thread about Capitalism is Evil. I did get a bit carried away but I have deeply affected by knowing all this. The book is "The Case against the Global Economy" Our species has really gone astray and sometimes I think maybe its best if we disappeared for all our sakes.

[Cog]

So are the hippies going to join in on the revolutionary festivities on November 4th or smoke a bowl?

[Revi]

Great book. Paints a dark picture of the dystopian present.

[Newfie]

There are simple truths here.

Capitalism reflects human nature, our desire for more.
There are more people than we can absorb in the workforce already.
Future trends then toward automation, further enlarging the surplus population.
The future trend is for further wave disparity, more slums, more poverty, more hungry bellies.

At the time of the French Revolution the populace was being heavily taxed. I recently read the tax rate was over 90%, 11/12ths is the quote. That sounds astonishing and I can’t verify the accuracy of the number, but it’s clear that much of the populace were hungry and felt poorly used.

Now that does not prove a revolution is imminent, or even likely, but possible. Pot, and smack, and coke, and booze, and high fructose corn syrup, internet, and celebrity news are among new inventions that tend to keep the populace subdued. Soma, SOMA, SSSOOOMMMAAA!!!!

A few years ago I saw a documentary about life in a Lagos trash dump. The movie tried to show the nobility of the people and slanted it to “this is future, this is how we live with dignity in trash.” Hogswallow.

[Ibon]

We have the honor of being a vertebrate higher life form with a cerebral cortex unrivaled in the animal kingdom and YET we choose to live like cockroaches.

Amazing.

[onlooker]

Truly. Our success in facilitating the existence of 7 billion plus on this planet is totally misguided That should have never been an objective. If we were wise it would have been to control our population.

[Newfie]

If we were Wise we would know what our objective is. Or maybe even that we need one.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I')f we were Wise we would know what our objective is. Or maybe even that we need one.

[Newfie]

Ibon,

Because for a long time humanity was a marginal species, at times verging on extinction, our “objective” became species survival. We had low populations so our genes coded to maximize our self propagation. We are still stuck in that mode. Our objective is to reproduce.

That objective is now working against our species survival. Can we adjust?

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I')bon,

Because for a long time humanity was a marginal species, at times verging on extinction, our “objective” became species survival. We had low populations so our genes coded to maximize our self propagation. We are still stuck in that mode. Our objective is to reproduce.

That objective is now working against our species survival. Can we adjust?

[onlooker]

Ibon, says painful consequences. But isn"t that the whole point that as individuals we try to avoid pain of all kinds. So taken to the macro level our species has tried to avoid the "pain".
Can we truly accept our medicine and humble ourselves before the limits of the natural world. Not conquer Nature but learn to live in harmony with it?

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')an we truly accept our medicine and humble ourselves before the limits of the natural world. Not conquer Nature but learn to live in harmony with it?

[onlooker]

For starters. How about keeping population to sustainable levels and utilizing an energy resource that is not so polluting as fossil fuels

[Newfie]

Onlooker,
I think it’s less about avoiding pain than reproducing. Reproduction has its pleasures, but there is also sever pain with childbirth. Hunter gathers would sometimes need to endure a great deal of pain, and risk, to secure food. They would fight on a regular basis.

I think the drive to copulate is right up there with breathing. We will mate with most anything most anytime in order to sate that urge. When you get down to it, and excepting our current soft times, we really are not that fussy about our partners so long as they “git ‘er done.”

[onlooker]

Well, yes the sexual pleasure and all the other comforts, conveniences and pleasures that modernity has given to mankind

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'A')t the time of the French Revolution the populace was being heavily taxed. I recently read the tax rate was over 90%, 11/12ths is the quote. That sounds astonishing and I can’t verify the accuracy of the number, but it’s clear that much of the populace were hungry and felt poorly used.

Now that does not prove a revolution is imminent, or even likely, but possible. Pot, and smack, and coke, and booze, and high fructose corn syrup, internet, and celebrity news are among new inventions that tend to keep the populace subdued.