UncleSunny
Well-Known Member
~ I am endlessly entertained at the paradox of a Free World. The paradox, I think, comes down to Nature vs. Civilization. Despite the Hippie idea of Nature as a fragile and beautiful thing, I believe that a completely Capitalistic, war based society is actually the manifestation of Nature in its purest form. The reality of Nature is that beautiful things usually get eaten.
Every animal, including Early (and modern) man, has lived in a state of fear and hunger, using any and every tool available to them to survive as well as they could. This is part of what turned Homo Sapient into Humankind; the drive to capture everything and screw anything. Nature's laws do not consider the social, ethical or political ramifications.
Now a days, a person who lives this way is a either a sociopath or a very wealthy person (or both, usually). However, it is in our nature and, I believe, our evolutionary best interest, to do everything to take care of ourselves and the ones we love.
However, one day someone realized, "if I get enough of my 'buddies' together and make some simple rules, surviving would be a lot easier". This created something called “Civilization”. Instead of foraging for berries, hiding in the bushes, or running for your life, we could create a system that could work for the Greater Good, and we could all have the time and resources to multiply comfortably. If people had the time to sit and dream and think and invent and build, make friends and fall in love…the whole idea of Eden says volumes about who we think we are. This is the other part of Homo Sapient which makes us more than animals.
Millennia later, things are not so simple.
Ever since the first guy built the first city wall, people have been willing to give up their freedoms to avoid the horrors of Nature. Whether it is a hungry tiger, a violent neighbor or the edge of starvation, we just wanted to be left alone and not be dead so we could hang out with our favorite people. Everything—medicine, science, economics, religion, politics—everything humans create equates to this one goal. This, to the best I can explain it, is what pursuing happiness means to me.
I have spent two decades trying to figure out what Happiness means, and I’m still not sure. Tribes have turned into Nations, and the communities we fought to protect have become infringing Special Interest Groups fighting wars with other people’s lives. Humans will sacrifice everything because they genuinely believe in their Duty to the Nation which exists to maintain their freedom to seek happiness. A Nation builds laws, but some in that Nation bend or break those laws, other Nations bump into one another, and the equilibrium breaks down on many levels. revolutionary ideas pop up, and bump against each other, resulting in more screaming matches and hate than universal solutions.
I think that every sacrifice ever made by any man or woman in the name of their Freedom would be completely in vain if Mankind forgot the whole reason we decided to band up together in the first place. Let me be myself with the folks that I care about; I’ll help my neighbor if he helps me, and give him his space if he allows me mine. Complete freedom means violence. Boundaries must be set, or else we will destroy ourselves entirely.
Every animal, including Early (and modern) man, has lived in a state of fear and hunger, using any and every tool available to them to survive as well as they could. This is part of what turned Homo Sapient into Humankind; the drive to capture everything and screw anything. Nature's laws do not consider the social, ethical or political ramifications.
Now a days, a person who lives this way is a either a sociopath or a very wealthy person (or both, usually). However, it is in our nature and, I believe, our evolutionary best interest, to do everything to take care of ourselves and the ones we love.
However, one day someone realized, "if I get enough of my 'buddies' together and make some simple rules, surviving would be a lot easier". This created something called “Civilization”. Instead of foraging for berries, hiding in the bushes, or running for your life, we could create a system that could work for the Greater Good, and we could all have the time and resources to multiply comfortably. If people had the time to sit and dream and think and invent and build, make friends and fall in love…the whole idea of Eden says volumes about who we think we are. This is the other part of Homo Sapient which makes us more than animals.
Millennia later, things are not so simple.
Ever since the first guy built the first city wall, people have been willing to give up their freedoms to avoid the horrors of Nature. Whether it is a hungry tiger, a violent neighbor or the edge of starvation, we just wanted to be left alone and not be dead so we could hang out with our favorite people. Everything—medicine, science, economics, religion, politics—everything humans create equates to this one goal. This, to the best I can explain it, is what pursuing happiness means to me.
I have spent two decades trying to figure out what Happiness means, and I’m still not sure. Tribes have turned into Nations, and the communities we fought to protect have become infringing Special Interest Groups fighting wars with other people’s lives. Humans will sacrifice everything because they genuinely believe in their Duty to the Nation which exists to maintain their freedom to seek happiness. A Nation builds laws, but some in that Nation bend or break those laws, other Nations bump into one another, and the equilibrium breaks down on many levels. revolutionary ideas pop up, and bump against each other, resulting in more screaming matches and hate than universal solutions.
I think that every sacrifice ever made by any man or woman in the name of their Freedom would be completely in vain if Mankind forgot the whole reason we decided to band up together in the first place. Let me be myself with the folks that I care about; I’ll help my neighbor if he helps me, and give him his space if he allows me mine. Complete freedom means violence. Boundaries must be set, or else we will destroy ourselves entirely.
) however, then comes in the balance of being open to new thoughts and ideas. It's an inconsistent (or consistent, depending on the level) cycle/process. If we could all just be inclusive without thinking twice about the spoken word as truth, without all the deceits and verbal web-spinning. Think, what then man. I don't know for sure, but one prediction would be that the world begins to think on a much broader scale, begin to understand their inadvertant effects upon other elements of reality (i geuss. i wanted to say nature, then the world, then the universe, then...well, i'm not sure). Then, with an increase in respect as well (as that is necessary when a difference is evident. or else conflict ensues), maybe, just maybe, (and this is real idealistic) people could get along and actually have fun living. 
