Wouldn't it be great if you never got tired? If you never had to wake up before you wanted to? Wouldn't it be great if you never had to go to shitty work? Wouldn't it be great if you never had to do anything you didn't want to do? Wouldn't it be great if there were never any deadlines, no clocks or calandars to restrict your life? Wouldn't it be great if there were never any disputes? No fighting, hurting, back-stabbing or witch-hunting. Wouldn't it be great if there were no taxes, no bills? If money didn't rule the world wouldn't it be marvellous?
But why can't it be like that? We all seem to think that we do have to do all the things we don't want to. We do have to work because we do need money. We need money to buy all the things that make us function as a human being. Except all that we need to function is to eat, drink and sleep and occasionally breed. Nothing more and nothing less.
Yet we all seem to think that we do need more. We need those Levi's and that make-up and the pop corn and hair-dryers. We need them to survive. We need those magazines to tell us how to look and act because we have no concept of ourselves. We need those films to take us to another time and space because we have no concept of imagination. We need those clocks and calandars to tell us where to be and when because we don't understand what freedom means. We have lost the ability to trust nature to tell us when to sleep and when to wake.
But on the bright side, oh how we've progressed! Oh how civilised we are now! How much more we can do now! How much freer and kinder and wiser we are now. Oh how learned we are now and, oh how powerful we are now! Oh how we've progressed.
But have we progressed or is science merely just catching up with the changing effects of the world? Are humans really more civilised or is it just that those in power lead us to believe we are so we are easier to control? And are we so much more freer and kinder and wiser? Sometimes it really doesn't seem it.
7 comments:
It makes me think of a Brighteyes lyric
Hope I don't sound too ungrateful what history gave to modern man,
A telephone to talk to strangers, a machine gun and a camera lens
Happiness is where you find in.
I don't do anything I don't want to, and only do what I enjoy. Having said that, I tend to ignore most of modern life, preferring to read, spend time playing with and learning from my children. Oh, and it has taken me all my life to get (almost) content.
Maybe it is as I never *had* anything that I don't feel the attachment people have to *things*.
We certainly aren't any freer. Most certainly not. We are in one of the most watched and regulated societies in the world.
Do you think anyone these days could build a building like (say) the Houses of Parliment? Skills have been lost. But we need progress as well.
Balance, Hannah, is what most people lack today. Selfish and lives askew.
Find your own balance, revel in it, interact with the world only when you have to, but be true to you.
(Dear God, what utter hippy-tosh that sounds. But you know I am right.)
Yes progress is needed but the right kind of progress. I don't believe in all this wasted scientific research into the universe and discovering new planets. It doesn't save lives. All the money the world puts into that could feed millions.
And, yes, balance is needed too and I long for the day when I find my own balance. And I will revel in it. Once again Mr. Taoist you and your hippy ways are right. As always, my problem is impatience.
Ah, I must disagree on the scientific research-ness. (And not just because I spent years doing such early universe esoterica.)
Pure research into such things is what makes us human, proves we can look beyond ourselves and question nature itself. It isn't an argument to say that the money could be best used elsewhere, as you don't know what will come from it. Ever wonder about the pressure that keeps up the sun? Ever consider the implications of high pressure on the interaction of sub (and larger) atomic systems? Never ponder on how quantum theory came about? Or what it lead to? (Some of it started with stellar astrophysics, partly my thing. And what use did it do? Television for one thing. Ah, perhaps I have just destoryed my own argument. ;)
As for the feeding millions argument, no, that doesn't work. Even without the research, there is more than enough on this planet to go round. And it isn't even distribution issues. It is a political problem. Which is a people problem, which is nothing to do with blue-pie-in-the-sky academia. Plus, aid isn't the answer. What is needed is *snip*
Sorry, I didn't mean to use your comments for a mini-rant.
No apology necessary Stray Taoist, I appreciate a different opinion and there's nothing like a mini rant to put that difference of opinion across.
It helps me learn about the world.
I agree that humans should look beyond themselves. I have never pondered quantum theory or sub atomic systems beacuse my brain is far too simplistic and such knowledge merely frazzles it. But you have made me realise that just because I find it overwhelming doesn't mean it's not important.
I see your point that there is more than enough money to go around the world and still be enough for research. You right, balance is what is needed. Maybe if we all found our personal balance the world would function better.
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