destruction of the planet vs global warming

It is certainly true that we are transforming the planet Earth from Paradise to Hell. It may take thousands of years but pollution, devastation of natural resources and overpopulation are creating a world where nature's diversity will be reduced, scarcity will grow, and we will live in ugly places, surrounded by toxic products, away from the nature that inspires us. (wait, that already happens!)

We need to protect our planet, to reduce consumption, to recycle, to integrate with nature... if we fail in that our children's children will be forced to live in a desolate world.

Replacing this tragic image of the world we are destroying with a debate on whether the planet will warm up or not, by how much, and whether we are at the root of its warming up, is absolutely criminal.

Jared Lee Loughner - such complicated theories, such lack of love

Jared Lee Loughner's mug shot.
(Pima County Sheriff's Office)

How incredibly sad...

to see such times when an apparently lucid and intelligent person thinks it's legitimate to take away the lives of other people, just to spread an idea (furthermore an idea that is easily available to anyone that seeks it)...

The level of despise one must have... for the "controlled" ones.

And what does Jared gain with that? The spread of his new "currency". Which means, basically, the understanding that

"I am conscience dreaming"

Ok! So we are conscience dreaming, so we can build our values, our lifestyle, many times unconsciously determined by the language that we use. So, if we perceive that, we can control where we live, what we eat, what we do and think, what we desire! So what m*****f*****? Do you think it's ok to kill people just to spread your message? Don't you know what a forum is? Why should people care?

This guy comes up with sentences like:

"What's government if words don't have meaning?"

They don't have meaning for you, but they do reflect the will, the aspirations, the problems, of millions of voters, dumb f***!!

You destroyed the lives of many people, many families, you tarnished with the smell of homicide interesting thinkers and ideologies (now associated with this massacre), and all of that will have visible consequences for (at least) decades to come...

And yet you smile...

You have no idea on what you have done.

Yes!! Let's give out your great idea:

"All conscience dreaming at this moment is asleep
Jared Loughner is conscience dreaming at this moment
Thus, Jared Loughner is asleep"

And let's give out the great hope that you have, to let "literate people" find that they have the power of creating their own "currency", their own values, their own interpretation of the world. That they can develop "lucid dreaming"... Discovering that they are nothing but conscience dreaming of that moment.

Ok! Message delivered! But I would like to get a much simpler message to you... Who were so blind with discovering your freedom and distributing your new "currency" that you forgot the simplest thing:

RESPECT FOR OTHERS!!!!

you M****F****! How do you expect people will respect you or your vision if you have no respect for others! What kind of horrendous effigy did you choose for your coins?

You're lucky if they'll give you the death penalty. If you're considered crazy you'll spend the rest of your life living the hell of one of your once favorite book: not over but inside the Cuckoos nest!

Such complicated theories, such lack of love.

This reminds of the Matrix and all of those movies where lives can be taken to reach some higher goal! Jared, man, you're no better than all those other warmongers out there. Were you trying to free people? Man! We're already free! We just like hanging on to something.

Where is this society going to?

Sources:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/jared-lee-loughner-friend-voicemail-phone-message
http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner
http://Myspace.com/fallenasleep (deleted)

Trivial but important

obviously, a true theory must work. But false theories may also work.

For instance, the geocentric model allows us to predict when the sun will rise, movements of the stars and planets, etc.

sometimes, to get even a small amount of improvement in what the theory can do, we must radically change the assumptions that are at its base. (like in the Copernican revolution, or passing from Newtonian gravity as attraction to Einstein's gravity as spatio-temporal deformation).

Now, why wouldn't the same distinction apply to "oriental" theories about the inner self. I mean the fact that, for instance, searching for fluidity works, augments inspiration, etc, only proves that it works. Which, in itself, is an important achievement. I mean, it's not everyday that one finds something that works.

But to deduce, from the fact that it works, that the assumed metaphysics is correct (that chi is really an energy that exists, for instance), is something completely different.

To be clear, one should assume only that a particular method works and ascribe, at most, a certain probability to the associated metaphysical view to be correct.

Confusing the usefulness of a theory to its truth leads to gigantic negative consequences, like people believing in the truth of religions and so on (which work rather well in some dimensions and paths), which in turn leads to despising or looking down on people who don't agree with our metaphysics, lack of communication and understanding, attempting to "teach" the other and defend our view from others' skepticism, making groups of people who are intolerant of others or that proselytize to others, wars, death, unimaginable suffering.

And it all started with a very small mistake, almost to small to seem important.

Strings of events and the magic of everything

We do so much, think so much, our lives are just full to the brink with things to do...

Events seem to pull us with invisible strings. Emotions connect us almost automatically with the world. And we go, go, go... Seamlessly involved in the world. Getting so much pleasure, anxiety, information, diversity, up and down we go on the bumpy ride of life...

And yet... where are we - what's this place called "the universe" - where is it?

And "when" are we? When did it all begun? What lead to the big bang, or whatever beginning brought it all about?

In other words, where are we, when are we, what are we? And, furthermore, what's the point of it all?

I don't know! Do you know?

I've studied the answers from philosophers, scientists, religious leaders and followers, mystics...

Some of them have arrived at "their" answer - the thing that satisfies them.

Whatever it is, it is far from rationally convincing. We might "feel" what the answer is, we might believe it, we might "see it" in some mystical sense. But, in the end, I can't stop feeling that we are just naked monkeys trying to hide our big ignorance of the vast world out there and our place in it. We are so ashamed of not knowing. And we try to put words on that ignorance, just as one puts clothes to erase the memory of those "shameful" parts.

And nevertheless, it is there, in the forbidden zone, that the most magical place for lovers reside.

Just accepting the naked truth, that we don't know, is what leads to the secret places that makes the world so incredible beautiful and magical, not only in its mysteries, but in the myriad possible answers that we may imagine to explain all those things that we can live, inside and outside, by ourselves or with others.

It's like opening the doors to paradise, like disrobing our love and kissing the most forbidden part. The doors of ecstasy are in that general direction, I think...

The art of control

It would be cray to tell your wife what to eat, how to dress, how to walk, etc. In some countries it is still done, a few hundred years ago it would be the proper thing to do, but today women have "rights", they are free, independent, they have the ability and are encoraged to decided through their own mind.

Through the centuries we have progressively emancipated slaves, war prisoners and the fair sex. I wonder if we'll ever do the same for children. Of course, we do control the way they dress, act, eat, and almost everything else, for their own sake, just as they did, for the sake of slaves and the weaker sex. It was deemed unthinkable that a woman could handle a business or estate, so the property was handed down from father to husband (or brother). Just as today we think it would be crazy to let young people decide on their own about their lives, although there are plenty of examples (I'm one of them) that when a kid has total freedom to do as he likes, the result may well be a greater sense of responsibility and ability to think for oneself.

The idea that we not only can but should, and is indeed an example of good parenting, control every minutia of our children's actions, is so widespread as to be almost invisible. We take it as something so normal, that we almost never consider the alternative, or how it did make us feel, how it sored our relations to our parents, how distant it made us, how it made us accept the other sources of control in society: the teacher, the boss, the politician, the police, etc.

Things are changing however, because a growing number of kids are having access to more sources of information than those we can control. Of course there are some who continued to be hooked on tv. For those I guess there is no hope. But for all those that, in ever increasing numbers, access the internet, and plumb through newspapers, wikis, forums, and all sorts of less controlled information, those will be more difficult to control. It is a very small minority, for sure. But they will spread, their children will be even less controlled. And their children's children even less. There will come a time when the liberation of all kids will occur. And it will not be just a matter of: I choose what I study, where I live, what I eat, what I think, what I believe in, what my goals are... It will be much more than that: because to no one, absolutely no one, will be recognized the power to tell them what they should be.

And that springs a whole new beginning for mankind. (just as the other emancipations allowed)

For this new mankind will not accept to be manipulated so easily, as if it was natural, as if it was a second skin. They will want, because they will be used to it from the beginning, to think for themselves.

My bet? In two to eight generations children will no longer be considered a "property" of their parents.

How much longer than for animals and so on... ?

hating

When we hate something we make sure it looks and tastes and feels and drives awfully, not only to ourselves but to everyone else that may enter into contact with it.

So it is specially surprising that something or someone that gives you great pleasure, with which you deal easily and perfectly can be considered by someone else has #$%& shitty awfully bad!

Wow!
Just let it go!

Peter, Alice and Shera

Freedom, the inner fire that feeds our most fierce dreams...
So seldom does it awake, only before we gain anything that we consider rightfully ours...
And then life becomes a prison,
of the success we have had...

In the past...
Holding us to the past
Caressing us into the past
Embracing and keeping us warm in the past...

For us there is no future, and the present,
Is just a shallow comforting embrace
into the past...