Author Topic: 33 myths about the system  (Read 962 times)

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Nation of One

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33 myths about the system (interesting footnote)
« Reply #15 on: December 23, 2018, 11:56:58 pm »
At the very end of Chapter 11 there is footnote 10 from:
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"But everyone’s earning more!" cry systemacrats, "they’ve got degrees now! and mobile phones! and look at China! and the GDP!" Thereby ignoring the catastrophic madness of measuring quality of life by the transformation of nature and culture into money (an oil spill increases GDP, as does felling a rainforest, as does a new Amazon warehouse 10), along with a billion people who live in slums and do not have clean water or enough to eat — the money poor — and billions more who are either excluded from the Great Party because they are too old, too young, too female, too sensitive, or too weird; or who are unable to feed, clothe, heal, house, transport or entertain themselves, or live without work, high-tech access to the market (cars, internet, supermarkets, electricity etc.) or the correct paperwork; a world of people who need to get things (and scores) in order to ‘enjoy’ five seconds of relief from continual, restless, boredom, who have no access to nature or genuine culture (or knowledge that such things actually exist) and who have only crap games to play. By any meaningful measure of wealth we are all dirt poor and getting poorer by the day.
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It is the footnote I found so interesting:

FOOTNOTE 10 (about the warehouse):

The human misery of such places is soon to be at an end of course, as machines replace warehouse monkeys, who will be deposited into a shoddy welfare system which forces them into criminal activities which lead them to incarceration in GDP-enhancing prisons; owned by Jeff Bezos.

 :o
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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raul

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Re: 33 myths about the system
« Reply #16 on: December 24, 2018, 11:16:50 pm »
Holden

Here it is 1:15 pm. There were a lot of fireworks and a lot of noise as it happens every Christmas.

I have never felt well in this wretched world. I have had nightmares but I do not remember most of them. I have had flashes of my mother´s lifeless body in the hospital since she passed away in October of 2015.

The night she passed away I and my sister took her to the hospital but it turned out that she already died at home. We could not get an ambulance so we went by taxi. She was already lifeless all the way in the car. When she was placed in the hospital bed I will never forget her lifeless face. Her essence was gone.I also have flashes of my father going away in my sister´s place. Flashes, nightmares that will accompany me until my last day on Earth.

We, human beings, are complex creatures. Every single hour millions of men and women cry over deaths and yet continue to give birth to cute babies.

Take care.

Nation of One

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Re: 33 myths about the system
« Reply #17 on: December 24, 2018, 11:55:45 pm »
It is mind-boggling - the amount of suffering and distress in this world.   I don't know how we all get through it.  I understand why so many "pray for strength".   Whatever helps them, who am I to deny anyone that? 

Even though I am a non-believer, I still catch myself "praying" for things like patience and awareness.  I want to keep a level-head, not to become too depressed, and not to become too over-excited or overly enthusiastic. 

As for nightmares about the departed, I have not yet lost a parent to death, but I know these events are certain unless, of course, my Fate is to die before them, which, for my mother's sake, I hope is not the case.

Some may think I am a hypocrite if I am atheistic and yet I still pray for things like patience or awareness.   Who is it, then, that I address with these "prayers"?

Well, you see, I have this animal-body which I inherited from our ancestors, so I am the product of many generations of sexual intrercourse, hunting for food, and many tears, much anguish, and perhaps even some laughter, madness, drunkenness ... Even though at least a handful of my ancestors committed suicide, they did so after the ACT of reproduction. 

To be in harmony with having not been chosen to reproduce, I like to imagine that my awareness of the absurdity of our predicament has had something to do with this.  I mean, not all biological creatures reproduce, even though we have all the necessary equipment.  Some of us may be too reflective, may have too much awareness of the utter futility of creating a being who will be hungry and filled with the miserable pressure of the will to live.

Raul, I am sorry for the pain you experienced losing your mother.  2015 was not long ago.  In fact, it was a year of tremendous transformation for me.  I had decided to move in with my own mother that very year, to give up drinking, to give up disturbing the peace ...

I sometimes wonder if I might slip into my old ways should my mother pass before me.  I am hoping that I develop this very strong inner life with daily mathematical reflection, but, nothing is certain in this life.  Things can change in an instant.

You and I, and perhaps Holden as well, may experience a similar trip through this realm; that is, we may witness our parents pass, and then, having no offspring of our own, fade out of this existence with no one mourning us.  We may die in an institution.   We are passing through here.  I am glad to have had these discussions with you, and I will try to remain as strong as possible during whatever comes to pass.  Thanks to Holden, I will not be too shocked if I find myself weeping.  After all, we all weep eventually, for this is the nature of this life.

There is no escaping the tears when it is our turn to cry.   

Still, I "pray" for peacful moments when I am safe and sound with a special book I am studying.  Those who are more ambitious who strive for greater things, well, it is not my place to discourage them.  I can only be thankful that it does not take much for me to be thankful.

Take care, and may you experience some peace of mind without headaches or nightmares.
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

raul

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Re: 33 myths about the system
« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2018, 08:00:33 am »
Hentrich,

Thank you for your words. I think we all pray at some moment. I remember in July when I was in the geriatric hospital an old man was placed with my father and another patient. I saw him in a very bad situation. The nurses did what they could for him following the doctor´s prescription. He had a woman caretaker.

Once she asked me to help him move in the bed. When we moved him I saw that he developed crusts to the bones in his buttocks. He survived eight days. The next Saturday the woman told me that he had no pulse. She called the nurses and they did could to prevent what was coming. I left the hospital in the evening and I prayed, if can use that word, for a calm departure. And that´s what happened. When I came back the next morning at 7 a.m the old man was wrapped in hospital sheets. Then the employee from the hospital morgue came and took him away.The man was a carpenter and by October he would turn 88.

Ex Beatle George Harrison in one of his covers wrote “All Things Must Pass”. We all pass.

My maternal grandmother died in 1985 but I was not at home when that happened. My paternal grandmother died in 2006 and I did not have much to do with her. I did not visit her or talk to her. My father condemned me for not visiting her. I did go to her funeral and I saw her shrunk body in the casket. Only my sister gave her condolescences to my father. My grandmother did not like my mother and she always mocked her. It is all very sad. When I was told that my maternal grandmother died I shed tears. I did not shed tears for my paternal grandmother but somehow I felt sadness. One cannot deny the biological connection. I never met both my grandfathers since both of them passed away long before I was born.

I also remember when one of my former classmate´s mother died in 2004 in a university hospital, Hospital de Clínicas The poor woman was suffering from Alzheimer´s disease and from 2002 to 2004 her condition deteriorated. I used to visit my classmate all those years and I saw how bad she was. He and his brother did what they could. They worked in the Ministry of Agriculture and earned very little. She stayed in the hospital for almost 13 days. When she was about to be released from the hospital she died while taking an X-ray. When I went to the hospital I saw her body wrapped in a blanket.

A few days ago a neighbor asked me why I had a negative view of people and life in general. I gave him some examples. Then he said that I should consult with a doctor because maybe I have the Asperger´s Syndrome. Yes, maybe I have thay syndrome or maybe, I said to him, I have andropause or male menopause.

Yes, Hentrich, procreate, propagate and life will be allright. Tomorrow will be better than today.

Keep studying.

Ibra

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Re: 33 myths about the system
« Reply #19 on: December 28, 2018, 05:53:29 am »
quoted in the book
Quote
The idea has occurred to me that if one wanted to crush, to annihilate a
man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible punishments so that the most
ferocious murderer would shudder at it beforehand, one need only give him
work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Fyodor Dostoyevski, The House of the Dead
Dostoyevski is right once again!
Suffering is the only fruit of human race

Nation of One

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Re: 33 myths about the system
« Reply #20 on: December 28, 2018, 09:35:42 pm »
I read this very passage just last night.  I would have transcribed it myself if I hadn't shut down the computer for the night.  I definitely thought of Holden while reading this.

That entire chapter was very antagonistic against the entire "work ethic" of the systemoidal gorts.

I could not help but recall how devastated I was two decades ago when I lost my job with the government (state parks service) after an arrest for eluding the police.  It really hurt even though I used it as an opportunity to finally get a college degree.


Still, it was the shock of how that relationship with "my employer," the government, the actual system-in-itself, panned out, that left such an impression on me, that made me so jaded.   I knew that I was a rather conscentious and devoted "worker."   I felt betrayed that no one stood by me in my hour of trouble.  Maybe it was then that I truly lost my desire to ever be a "good employee" again.

And yet, even sitting in a jail cell the months following my arrest (1997), I caught myself almost relieved that I was no longer obligated to empty the trash bins in the "Region Office," that I no longer needed to worry about any gossip about me or defend myself against accusations of "no longer being a GOOD WORKER".    Now I shamelessly devote myself to my own autodidactic education, just as, for nearly 13 years straight, I devoted my energies to remaining inebriated ... high as a kite.

So, if Dostoevsky / Dostoyevski / Dostoyevsky is correct, the belief that any kind of "job" or "employment" is better than no job at all is a Big Fat MYTH that is not grounded in reality.

Side note: About the spelling of Dostoyevsky:

There are several transliteration systems - ways in which you can convert Cyrrilic (Russian) characters into English ones. Some are based primarily on letters, other systems pay more attention to sound.

Almost everyone agrees on the beginning of the name, but there are two middles and four endings.



                                                     i
Dosto     evsk      y  
                          yevsk       ij
                                                    ii



That makes for 1*2*4 = 8 spellings not including variations in other languages:  Dostoevsky, Dostoevski, Dostoevskij, Dostoevskii, Dostoyevsky, Dostoyevski, Dostoyevskij, Dostoyevskii.

The most prevailing spelling in English form seems to be Dostoevsky, but I prefer writing Dostoyevsky because this is more of a phonetic form; that is, this is how I pronounce the name.

If Maughan should view this post, maybe he might share his thoughts on his preference.  If I remember correctly, I think he studies the Russian language quite a bit, so he may have insight into the reasons for the diverse translations of the Cyrrilic into Latinized/Romanized "English" alphabet.

Speaking of work ethics, my nephew brought to my attention a rather peculiar contradiction.  It is something Senor Raul has pointed out to me in the past.  While both Raul and I agree that laziness is not such a terrible characteristic to possess, especially in this over-industrious and pesky species, my nephew has pointed out to me that, when it comes to working through mathematics texts or writing some particular code, I do tend to move full steam ahead.   I have witnessed myself over the past few years "working" extremely long days - although I am usually at liberty to take a nap if I so choose.   It can't be compared to forced labor or being trapped in an office working on tedious tasks to keep wealthy owners wealthy, or just to appease some fascistic foreman, gang boss, or other such managerial slime.

While the author of 33 myths of the system, Darren Allen, may find my current obsessions with math and programming more than a little off-putting, I do share much of his disdain for the authority worshipping mob of gorts and their values.


My only reservation in reading this is that I no longer romanticize the hunter-gatherer societies (of today or of 10,000 years ago).  Since discovering that little philosophical treatsie by Thomas Ligotti a few years ago, I have found myself evermore pessimistic about human nature, animal nature, and "the nature of all living organisms and all human socieites" in general.


There are those who would argue that my views are shaped by my experiences in the industrial world, but I have strong suspicions that, were I born into a pre-industrial, pre-agricultural, "pre-historic" tribe hundreds of thousands of years ago, I would have been tossed into a volcano as an "offering" to their Godhead.   Or, even were I born a bird, I would be devoured by a large reptile while pecking in the dirt for a worm.   Life is not a pic-nic, after all.  It never will be, and it never has been.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2018, 02:28:34 am by Kaspar the Jaded »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~