"Cognitive dissonance. One of the most irritating human traits."
I Power
Scientific Research & Self-Development Activism
Should we give a damn?
Before I got to this place a few years back, my life was pretty much shit. I quit my job which I hated from the bottom of my soul. Let's just say it involved working with a lot of people. I was lost and had absolutely no idea what to do with myself. It was a pretty rough time, as a few personal tragedies struck me right at that time. When bad things start to happen to you in life, they tend to do happen in a chain event of shit in your face. I guess it's life's way of saying:"either you're a pussy and will cry, or you will find the strength and move on". At least that's what I made of it in the end, thankfully. I can thank my dear friends and this site for helping me in that recovery.
Some of the things I found and read here have changed my whole view on certain things in life, things like self awareness, consciousness, and sociology in general. And naturally, if you come to this site, and stay, you are obviously interested in the brilliance of the "outside of the box thinking" and it's effects on your life and perception of things. You start thinking about people, their reactions, behaviors, why are people influencing you and how, and you start to form a picture inside your head. You connect all the things you learn,piece by piece, and you start to make your own ideas about the world. About reality itself, and your purpose in it's shaping. You start to see the hidden patterns in society, what drives people, what is their motivation. It's kind of like that feeling of Neo in the goddamn Matrix. And the more you know about these things, the more you are aware of how awesome that movie is, fuck yea.
Anyway, as I put the pieces in my life together, I found myself a way, I got my shit straight, got some goals, put them into motion. And it's been working wonders for me, I signed up for college, got into an IT course, fucking owned everything with style and finished first year. You could say I'm pretty much rolling right now.
But the thing is, the more I learn, the more I know, the more frustrating it gets. At this point I'm really enraged with some of the things I see happening around me every goddamn day.
The tipping point was probably an event that happened recently, and it's involving one of my close friends. His dad was diagnosed cancer a while back, and it's pretty bad, started with his lungs but has now spread. Things are looking pretty shitty, and while I'm thinking about this I remember my other friend whose mom also got stomach cancer which turned pretty bad, and in the end the awesome doctors cut out half of her body so she could live miserably for a few more months, lying in bed and not being able to eat because her stomach was cut out. And they actually said to my friend that there is nothing they can do and they kicked her out of the hospital. In the end she died, and our fine doctors helped her by cutting half of her body out. True story.
But back to my friend's dad, things are not looking bright. And the awesome doctors are helping him so you can assume what's waiting for him down the road. So I do a little research, and I find out about hemp oil, which allegedly actually cures cancer. And it's even confirmed by the US health dept. or whatever. And it's not even too expensive. Now I'm thinking to myself, it's probably a longshot, but hey, it beats being irradiated by chemotheraphy and getting your insides cut out. And so I suggest this to my friend, seeing as how there's little choice in the matter anymore, and worse case scenario it doesn't help and his dad dies anyway ( oh yeah and the doctors told them there's not much hope for his dad at this point ), and my friend says that there's absolutely no chance his dad would every try that.
Now at this point, I'm in WHAT THE FUCK MODE, he is telling me that his dad would rather DIE than try fucking hemp oil which could MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, SAVE HIS GODDAMN LIFE? I was really pissed off about that, I can't believe that people actually think like that. If you can even call it thinking. Is it even possible that someone can be so narrow-minded to actually ignore the one thing which could possibly save them, even if it means death? Now, I'm not saying this fucking oil would magically heal him, but it sure beats the odds of the surviving with the fucking wonder doctors we have here in our shitty country.
That was point number one.
Second thing, and it relates to my friend's dad really fine.
I look at the economic situation in my country which sucks big time, I look at the whole world and see the same thing. And today I watch that culture in decline video and yet again, I remember myself of the wonderful system we live in. What infuriates me the most is the fact that over the years I have tried talking about these things with numerous people, in real life, over the internet and so on. And everywhere I get the same fucking answer: the people don't want to know. THEY DON'T WANT TO KNOW.
My friend's dad doesn't want to know there's another way.
My college buddy doesn't give a shit about the financial system and the shit that's going on in the world, he's too occupied with getting drunk tonight. Not just one buddy, all of them.
My whole country is looking at the former prime minister who is on trial for high treason on the charges of stealing millions of euros from the country as he gets a month off from trial to go on a fucking vacation.
Fucking Americans vote democrat or republican.
A few more people die in Africa.
Kim Kardashian makes a new porno. BOOM
I'm guessing you start to see a pattern here, a pattern of a whole lot of shit.
You know, I'm really starting to think are these people even worth the fucking effort. My job that I had mentioned in the start, well I used to work at a mobile phone shop for about 2 years, and I worked with about 100 people daily on average. That's a lot of people. Out of all those people, I would say that 10 percent of them were showing some signs of sentient intelligence. In the words of my former colleague from the job:"people are cattle". And I sure learned that.
So you see, there's a whole lot of idiots on this planet. Just look at the average life of an idiot: he will be born, shit his pants until he grows up, he will probably finish school, probably find a less-than-perfect mate, work, procreate, raise idiot kids, waste resources buying stupid shit he doesn't need, and die in the end, leaving behind his idiot progeny to continue the cycle. And guess what: he will never ask himself about the meaning of his pitiful existence. He will never stop to think about why the fuck is he doing the job he hates, why does he have a shitty life, and why does he buy stupid shit that he will throw away after 2 months. He will also vote because it's his civic duty, and it makes a difference. And he will believe in God of course, don't wanna piss him off.
But not everything is so bad, there are good people out there, rare, but still out there.
People like Chiren and Reese, they are actually doing something, and I really admire that. But, I look at their videos, they have about 300-400k viewers per video, and out of all those people how many of them come to this site and stay? How many of them are interested in more than just games and boobs?
I was reading a news announcement about how Athene joined up with ROOT, and people actually talk shit about him. And this is after he raised FUCKING 1 MILLION DOLLARS FOR KIDS IN AFRICA. Now, I understand that a lot of these posters are kids on the internet, but I mean honestly, they are probably the kids from that average idiot I talked about, so I don't think their future is too bright.
There are smart people out there, but somehow it seems to me they just gave up on trying to help idiots who don't want to be helped. Instead, they just watch out for themselves, trying to make out of life as much as possible, some of them try do more, but either they get killed or they just give up because quite frankly, it seems pointless to me.
As the guy in the Culture video said, it's not the fault of the "people in power". It's our fault, we alone let this shit happen, we alone created this shitty society, and as far as I can tell people want things to stay this way. Nobody gives a shit, so I ask myself, and you people here on this wonderful site, should we even give a shit?
I believe I can do pretty well for myself in life, it's not too hard considering the people around me, and I can pretty much go through life not giving a shit about anything, thinking only about myself and securing my existence and the existence of the few people I care about. Why should I waste my time, energy and life trying to help people who don't want to be helped? I tried to look at the good in people, but honestly, there's so much shit in people there's not much left to look at.
I dunno, maybe I'm just being bitter and subjective on the matter, maybe there's hope yet, however tiny it may be.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sorlaize on -
REAL TALK
that's what I like to see.
In all seriousness though, I am at a point of both cynicism/nihilism, and yet also, hope. I haven't lost all hope for society, because I try hard to look for the great. The awesome. The epic. There's value in that. Surely, beauty comes from suffering and a shitty world. And if it just so happens that the world really is *this* shit, and I can see it, then maybe it's my responsibility to do something great. And if there was no point in the first place; if I am really 'just' a piece of stardust on a miserable desert of a planet, then so be it, at least I fucking tried, tried to be more than human. That theme is basically what my life is going to be about. Trying to be awesome. Manufacturing it. I still get that spine chilling feeling when I see things like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRZ5fDS_A4Q
This is what I live for. Being something amazing; transcending normality. Creating happiness, hope, for others. I'm starting with self-development and learning what I am, myself... questioning everything.
Even though, deep down I have the feeling that it's all worthless. It can still be a game to me. It can still be about owning. Delusions can be helpful.
also, in regards to your views on society and people not accepting help -“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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Permalink Reply by The Shiznit on -
Awesome.. post is AWESOME! I haven't actually enjoyed reading something that long in a while. :-)
Oh! and welcome to my life, Marko. lol
I also cannot identify with "normal" people anymore. Normal people just disgust me these days... but, I was able reach a kind of "peace of mind" about all of this stuff, which you don't seem to have found yet; so I'll try to share that with you. For me, it was the accidental discovery of a simple expression that I saw online a few years ago that said, "You're either part of the solution, or part of the problem. You choose." And I found that to be very, very profound for some reason. I mean, at the time I saw it, I had basically given up hope for almost everything in life, but especially for "people in general" and our future; and I was drinking everyday, and staying drunk all the time. And I was basically just wasting my time away playing games a lot; etc. I had a major "fuck it all" attitude.
And major depression; which I ended up trying to get some counseling for.
So anyway, after seeing that expression and really thinking about it, I started to change my attitude a little bit, (slowly,) and I started trying to be a part of the solution. I wasn't a member of I-Power at the time, so I was kinda stuck with using Facebook and YouTube, and other forums online, etc., but I started posting "controversial" stuff everywhere I could; like "Why should we support our troops?" and making comments on things everywhere and expressing myself, and generally just trying to shock people and stir up some shit. lol
I started pissing people off; and I lost a few friends; and even some of my own family members don't want much to do with me anymore these days because I'm supposedly unAmerican, etc...
but -- I started feeling better about myself!!! :-)
And then I rediscovered I-Power and decided to join. {I kinda knew about it already, but I didn't know very much about it.} And ever since then, I have felt sooooooo much better about everything. I mean, I still think that "normal" people suck, and I still think that the future of the human species on this planet is pretty grim -- but, my involvement here allows me to "rub shoulders" with people who are like me... people who are smart enough to see that we're all in a world of shit, but who are trying to do something about it, rather than just watching it all happen and not caring. Being involved here I get to stay up to date on all the really important stuff that's going on... and I get to learn new things all the time, and have people prompt me to look at things from new angles and perspectives... and I get to participate in projects where people are trying to make a difference about certain issues... and I sometimes get to help somebody else here in the same way that other members have helped me. Kinda like the "Pay it Forward" thing. :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pCtXRP1edo
So, the tl;dr version of all that is this: The world may still go to shit, {and it probably will, who are we kidding? lol} but at least I tried to prevent it from happening -- and trying to make a difference allows me to sleep better at night and to feel better about myself. *wink*
Thanks for sharing your heart with us, brah; and I hope my little personal story helps some. Peace!
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Permalink Reply by Dries Spans on -
I have to agree with the Matrix statement. The first time I watched that movie I was the typical Hollywood fan boy who was just looking for some fast action scenes. Once you start applying it to your findings it makes a whole lot more sense. I also hugely appreciate 1984 and V for Vendetta warning us about totalitarianism. It is part of the reason why I feel so concerned about net neutrality and privacy issues.
As for your frustration, maybe that is not the right state of mind (but I assume it is a natural result of questioning everything). If you can turn that into activism you might get some satisfaction out of it. Or is it the fact that your activism does not seem to change anything around you? What I try to do is accumulate knowledge about a variety of topics. Then when I want to get to people to question / to be active, bring something relevant for their life/situation to the table. If you can get people out the sheepish/defensive state, they will do the rest (or most) of it themselves. Yes, most people don't like change or feel they can’t change the system, I still have troubles with that myself. Trying to constantly challenge and change myself, but it is so easy to just follow the stream and habits.
About the "they don't want to know". They need to be in a state where they want to know. Recently I was reading an article stating: if something fits into people their framework/believe system they will mindlessly accept it, only if it doesn't they will question it. What I believe is that for real change to occur the framework has to fail. As we often see change only comes after a big disaster occurred. And maybe in the near future our "system" will fail big time and we will have a chance to really change it/the world. But it is hard to just stand by and wait for history to repeat itself, that is why I like to be active. Being the one to point out the flaws and (future) failures is not that exciting/easy to do. I'd rather think about solutions; but those are meaningless unless the people understand what is wrong with the current state of things in the first place.
As for the "idiots", don't be so quick to judge them. If you see how Anonymous emerged out of 4chan trolls. Everyone has his own view on the world and his own way of sending a message. Even if they did it for the "Lulz" they still made a point and got a big audience.
For the question are they worth it/should I give a shit? I can't tell you that, that is for you to judge. I'll quote something you wrote "It's not the fault of the people in power. It's our fault,, we alone let this shit happen.". I don't want to see another totalitarian state come to power. So my biggest fear is when people just go along and do what the state asks of them. The internet can be a fearsome tool in this. It can make big brother a reality or it can guarantee free flow of information. So I made this my main cause. Maybe if you find a cause you will feel more empowered.
Sail strong ;)
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Permalink Reply by Marko Bilić on -
Thanks for the replies guys, and honestly I share your attitudes about activism and trying to change something. If you do good things, then in the end good things will ( probably ) happen to you, and vice versa. There is beauty in the world, as well as good people, and they are worth fighting for. It's just that recent things in my life just got me extremely frustrated, and somehow got me thinking about the point of it all.
I really like what you said about being part of the solution shiz, at least in the end you are happy with yourself knowing you did everything you can, and that has to count at least for something.
And I'm pretty convinced that there's going to have to be an apocalypse scenario in the world for things to actually start changing, which is sad, but at the same time maybe then some new people and new ideas will shape a new world from what's left in the rubble, and we can all be Mel Gibsons with Interceptors :)
I think I will definitively try do some more stuff in this area, maybe start some sort of self-dev stuff in my college, try to talk with the young ones and get them to think. Could be good!
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Permalink Reply by The Shiznit on
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{Yoda voice} ahhh, yes. is good to teach the younglings, it is. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Tea Bitsadze on -
I share your attitude, completely, and I do give a ... and I think we all should.
If we don't, then who will? :)
If I may, I would like to comment on what you said regarding a friend of yours and his father. Even though I don't know what happened, I think, you should talk to his father directly. You did the research for him right? If he won't understand you and won't take an alternative treatment, it's his choice and this is not the reason to get angry with him. Not at all. And that has nothing to do with our problematic world:). However, if I were you, I would also be furious about a friend of mine. It's hard to describe, but it feels like you have baked a cake for your grannies and your parents say, "they won't take it, leave it for yourself"... But of course you know better, how it feels and all. cheers
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Permalink Reply by SparTom007 - Tom on -
I recently did some public activism and there is more hope than we realise. The problem with the world is not always apathy, sometimes it's people strive to be apathetic because they feel like they literally cannot do anything about the way the world is and thinking about it will only depress them. From here, the problem has the solution of education, but the problem with that is, access to education, relevant education at least, is hard to get, even in most developed countries like US, UK, RF, Western Europe etc (from my own experience and talking to people, not sure about scandinavian and asian countries). The big hope to solve this problem is the internet and free education which is why we should do our best to protect things like net neutrality! :D
Tl;DR: There IS hope! It's the internet! We must protect it!
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Permalink Reply by MrPainting on -
I am an objectivist, people individual concerns dont have any meaning to me, Society is what matter, the human race is what matter. So when the Children in Africa need help i will do what i can. When the shitty society in America doesn't work, i work to change it. In spite of the people of the society or because of it. I wont work to help those who wont help themselves. But for the human race to continue, we must fix this madness. I say the people in this society who dont care what happens shouldnt get a vote in what happens. We cannot tailor ourselves to those who dont care. Put people in power that know what the world is like. Replace politicians with Scientists and Artists, and dont let the rich rule anymore.
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Permalink Reply by The Shiznit on
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You're proposing a Technocracy. :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy
The Technocracy Movement is where Jacque Fresco got a lot of his ideas from regarding a Resource-Based Economy; so, in many ways, The Venus Project is just a form of Technocracy.
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Permalink Reply by MrPainting on
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Yes I am, I have known that from the start, and I am all for it.
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Permalink Reply by SparTom007 - Tom on
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Lol, that's exactly why Peter Joseph dropped support for the venus project. He's more of a liberal, I always see technocracy as quite authoritarian. I don't think we have the tech to pull that level of autonomy in producing a good society yet, regardless of what any "scientist" says.
btw I'm reading "Demon Filled World ; science as a candle in the dark" by Carl Sagan, you'd love it I think ;D
EDIT: I can send it you on skype if you message me sometime asking for it :)
Same goes for anyone else who wants a copy (PDF)
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