Phytotron wrote:Right, because an earthquake was caused by social institutions. Utopian anarchy will end all natural disasters just as it will all human suffering.
I tell you again, go preach it to the people actually affected, not a bunch of kids playing some video game on the internet. I'm ready to see you off to the Congo and its neighbors; to Libya, Haiti, now Japan. Let's see how they react to your grand idea that playing Fortress in Armagetron will make their lives better.
Ahh, another sensible, well-contextualised response... you've been reading my posts, haven't you, tut tut, you know how that annoys you... I also noticed you didn't take a pot-shot of my previous posts, so here you are... Perhaps you are right though, perhaps I would get a better response from those in need than those sitting in front of computers scratching their arse and being needlessly critical.
The obvious answer -- in case you missed it -- is instead of spending trillions on military budget every year, we spend it on dealing with natural disasters. Seems basic strategy to cover one's base before going out and attempting to conquer others (even in case of a blitz/torpedo attack in fortress). Besides, if we were living sustainably, our impact on the planet's climate
and other aspects of the complex system it consists of would be reduced. Less disorder etc.
Seems to me, we can respond to such situations with intellect informed by partial knowledge, or take the more passive route of wisdom and holistic system thinking (which is necessarily incomplete, fallible and vulnerable too intellectual criticism, as you so capably demonstrate.)
Phytotron wrote:I've yet to post in this for reasons similar to those expressed by Word. Anyone mocking a tragedy like this is a disgrace to humanity. Using it to support one's mindless
doomsday/armageddon beliefs (religious or otherwise), or other ridiculous ideologies (i.e., 2020) is likewise disgraceful, both to humanity and reason. Biblical revelations and the end of times is fantasy. So is it the supposed "
Mayan prophecy" doomsday belief. People suffering here and now is real. You folks need to get out of your self-indulgent, escapist fantasies and clue in to the real world.
Heheh, my thoughts on the matter are not consistent enough to be termed an "ideology", and neither am I disgraced by them. If anything, I disgrace myself by entering into your characteristic back-handing under the guise of superiority. In this case, rather than the usual intellectual superiority, you venture into a moral one... You actions, in terms of words in this forum, speak loudly enough of your moral code.
Phytotron wrote:syllabear wrote:Perhaps people should stop focusing on idiotic bullshit and more on the loss of life in Japan.
And Haiti, which is ongoing.
Let's face it, the disaster is happening. I like to use the metaphor of getting dumped while surfing (I can't refer to the arma equivalent of core-dumping, because it occurs so quickly). While under the water, getting battered by waves, it can be very disorientating... one reaches out for things, possible directions, etc, as the mind tries to make sense of it. I liken the world situation to be like this -- we are in the throws of getting dumped. And of course, there are powerful intellects attempting to grab hold of which-ever-way can get us out, and of course spectators and pundits just lashing out at who-knows through reasons of fear or impotency. Given your obvious linguistic skills, I suspect you are the latter... but don't worry, this is not an insult, for I too am in a powerless position. But it is from this powerless position that I act, with Tron, education, whatever was present. The equivalent to this in terms of being dumped by a wave, attempt to keep your bearings and only start swimming when you have a sense of the right direction.
Let us commiserate over the terrible situation in Japan, or Haiti, or any number of places on the planet that people are undergoing dreadful hardship, by all means. But do you seriously think that this thread, let alone this forum, is the place for us to empathise with their suffering? Clearly it is not. We are grid players, this forum is wide open for critical and public attack (which is not the right ambience to share deep emotions or even spiritual sensibilities, thanks for demonstrating this phyto), and this linear thread shows a huge range of responses from comical to tragic, intelligent to crude, global to personal. There is at least some attempt to cross the virtual-real gulf, to somehow relate us whistling away our time playing a game and global real world events.
I answered because clearly we are all going to die. The question is how. 2012 is a distraction, significant as it might be for some individuals and manifest as a social movement, but a distraction never-the-less. Specific disasters will continue to crop up, natural and man-made. These can become popular topics to discuss, but symptoms imho. We need to look at causes, and there-in exists the solutions. However much Phyto wants to deny it, or others dismiss it, we are the answer.
