Karl

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Everything posted by Karl

  1. Russian colony of the United States

    I don't dismiss his post I'm saying it's sloppy thinking. Saying its a 'straw man' fallacy isn't an attack on the other party, you should get that out of your head, it isn't an insult or an attempt to look clever. It's simply what it is. 'Do you want unlicensed drivers on the road'? Is a straw man. It is the equivalent of the old 'do you still beat your wife' question. There isn't a good answer. Say 'no' and it implies beating your wife. I won't engage with that type of argument and will simply say so. If that appears aggressive to you then it doesn't to me. I have no care in it. It's no different to picking the colour of a pair of trousers. The aggression is your head.
  2. Russian colony of the United States

    Just because the shackles are less visible than in some more explicit dictatorships makes little difference. It was created as a boiling frog system. Freedom is freedom. A bigger hen run isn't freedom. If you can't see it then it's because you refuse to see it, not because the cage isn't there. Maybe that's because you are remote from it ? Eventually it will come for you, just like a tide eventually gets to the top of the beach. Sit and wait, it will be with you sooner or later. All you are offering is straw man arguments. It isn't that there should not be a method of ensuring safety on the road, but the way in which the current system does not provide it whilst creating an income from it. Taxation did not always exist. It's theft, there is no other word for the coercive appropriation of the productive means by force of arms.
  3. Many creatures sadly die to provide our food.

    Read my previous post as it ties in with what you are saying. I might as well say this so that it's clear. Leading from example won't work, it's good that you think it might, but you will just be considered a bit odd and eccentric. The reason everyone is buying into consumerism is that their critical thinking mechanism has been suppressed. That's why they obediently shuffle to jobs, watch the TV, get drunk, have a Pizza. They cheer on the state when it gives them stuff and grumble when it doesn't- as if the state were a God of provision. We are in a zoo in which the reasoning power of human minds has all but vanished. People are closer to animals than humans. They no longer think, they just consume whatever they are told to consume. Think of fashion. It isn't organic. One moment we are in flared trousers and the next straight legged. Yet at no time did we ever find a shortage of the new fashion. How was it done ? Our ability to reason is removed during 12 years of state education. We become pliable like putty. The corporations need us to buy more stuff and they sow the seeds in the media ahead of time. We buy into a lifestyle story because we don't have the ability to say "I don't need this it won't give me anything more than I have today". Instead we obediently obey the call to buy and head for the local mall-where, hey presto to shelves are overflowing with the latest thing.
  4. To some extent. However, all action is predicated on moving from a state of less satisfaction to one which offers more satisfaction. To put it bluntly, without that mechanism we would just sit there and die. It is the mind that thinks, right/wrong, stop/go, good/bad, punishment/reward which has been created in an unnatural state. We have free will which gives us moral guidance, but it has been truncated and it's allegiance moved to support a political/economic/education system in which the state is the arbiter of all morality freeing us from the need to think. It is the state which says what is right and wrong, good/bad, stop/go and the state which punishes or rewards. We no longer think for ourselves in the way we once did and are suffering for it.
  5. Many creatures sadly die to provide our food.

    I think you have to include the current way governments are responsible for unnecessary environmental damage, pollution and the the mis-allocation of precious resources (most particularly people) as a minimum. Then there is the social construct in which a group of giant global corporations have seized control over those governments and are suppressing the minds of children in order that they become obedient serfs serving those self same corporations as both workers and consumers. It deprives all of us of the inventive, imaginative energy of those minds to push new boundaries. If that wasn't bad enough these entities have propagated and arms race which has wasted trillions of dollars of productive effort which then gets unleashed on states which refuse to go along with their plans. They have controlled competition and potential innovations to such a degree that we may have completely lost the ability to invent better, less harmful methods of production in order to service the particular industries we have become locked into serving. Be it corporate health, energy production, arms, giant pharma, Agra, Banking or whatever, these corporations are soulless monsters that have created stagnant, self destructive economy which has enslaved us all and spreads misery across the globe. We need Government to give up their support for these monsters-and make no mistake we are all, in the end, in someway supporting this entire thing, we derive our living and everything else from its propagation. The only way we can free ourselves is to stop mindlessly accepting every media message, institutional schooling, political policy as if it was 'just how it has to be'. I also do not want to propose a specific political system, but communism was worse and democracy-such as it is, is failing and the Western civilisation is inching to the brink of its inevitable end. We have tried central Governments, the USA even tried to limit the Government but it just grew anyway. Once the cancer of Government is created it swallows everything eventually either rapidly in socialism, or more slowly in democratic systems. I don't think we can allow Governments and states to exist as they currently do. Our world no longer requires them, they are dangerous. We may think the age of the Cold War is over, be we are once again moving towards the sort of conflict that would unleash nuclear weapons on us all. Its no longer unthinkable because many of these weapons are smaller battlefield weapons. Instead of MAD and the launch of a thousand ICBMs a nuclear war could be started on a much more limited, battlefield scale before progressing to the use of larger yield weapons. We could fall into nuclear annihilation without much effort at all, and our states and governments would take us there. The kind of state lines and defences we once needed are no longer necessary, we need to go forward to a more distributed system with very local governance with strong private property laws. A kind of competitive market in governance and smaller, more distributed models-a bit like tribes. We have the technology now to make this a reality.
  6. Many creatures sadly die to provide our food.

    I remember the days I would salivate over a big plate of roasted meat. These days I find myself pretty revolted if the plate contains more than a few ounces of meet. Like you it's mainly just chicken and fish these days with the odd bit of lamb in a curry. It's not a conscious health thing either, I just cannot eat it anymore. I don't drink much either, the odd beer and glass of wine.
  7. The function of the concept

    Long before that.
  8. Russian colony of the United States

    All freedoms and all rights. Everything is a state privilege.
  9. The function of the concept

    I can think of many ways. None of them involve anything mystical. Strangely enough you are relying on materialistic objectivism to prove mystical powers. Don't you think some super power mystic would be unlikely to bother with such a petty thing as leaving footprints ? Why isn't he sorting out Iraq or the USA ?
  10. The function of the concept

    You 'remember' watching your body is very different from actually watching your body. Now, I have had several 'moments' as we like to call them when riding. The last one was several years ago. The upshot was me and my bike squeezing between and oncoming bus and a car driver that had panicked at the sight of my headlamp. I was on one wheel riding an enormous stoppy. I remember it from an off bike viewpoint. Slow motion. I see me on the bike from behind and above on one wheel just like a stunt camera. There is a coherent explanation for the slowing down effect which I only know in basic terms-but if you look on the net you will find a lot of detail. We have a temporal cognisance which reacts to chemical levels in the blood. When we are relaxed time can run relatively quickly, when we are in danger our cognitive function speed up, time appears to expand and slow down. To add to this, during therapy work with a client I would move to 1st party, 2nd party and fly on the wall position and have the client position themselves in that way. It's easy to do. The picture is fuzzier, but the mind copes and fills in the detail enough for it to seem as if the position has changed. We can move ourselves perceptually to different positions and analyse our behaviour-even into the person we were talking to.
  11. Many creatures sadly die to provide our food.

    The elephant in the room is Government who is responsible for taking the money of the honest, productive companies and individuals then redistributing it to its crony friends. It isn't 'industry' per se, but those that pull the strings in public office. Everywhere the government goes misery, death and despair follow.
  12. It isn't the default view you are very much mistaken. Their default view is whatever the state tells them is the view that they should adopt. An animal has the same 'default' view as those people. An animal does not question because it lacks reasoning. The people don't question it because they have given up all critical thinking skills and handed their lives over to Governments. You have begun to develop the capacity for critical thinking, but have veered off into wonderland looking for out world adventure. This is the trap for those smart enough to figure out something isn't quite right with the world. Unfortunately you are now facing 180 degrees to a threat you haven't yet begun to perceive, but at least you are up and looking. The rest of the people haven't even realised they are asleep. "...the other life is lived in computers where you go by the name of ......."
  13. I always had feet. Not subtle either. Perhaps I simply denied their existence. ;-) Window, repair, sand, paint, book.
  14. The function of the concept

    This is a place for combat. You come here to test your truth against others. It is a form of Kung Fu. It is to discover your own weaknesses, not those of others-to learn a better Kung Fu. It is a game. You aren't teaching anyone anything, only yourself. It isn't a case of intellectual prowess, it is about monitoring your own responses to challenges and discovering the flaws in your thinking. So you don't treat it as candy floss at all, you lied to yourself, giving all that bullshit about the 'raft of knowledge and subtle feet" stuff. It isn't for me to say, but see the things in yourself, what comes up, well it's just for you and we all live with ourselves and whatever crap we dragged into our consciousness awareness. Anyway, I have windows to repair, a book to write and many miles still to go.
  15. Have you found them then Mr subtle feet ?
  16. The function of the concept

    I don't try to change them. Its none of my business. Most of my friends are probably stuck in their ways, but I'm not interested unless it spills over. We go out, talk rubbish, ride bikes, eat a curry and drink a few beers. If they have problems and want to off load then I listen politely. I've had recently had several close friends die from Cancer-blimey I spend more time at funerals these days than weddings or christenings:-)- they often need to talk about their terminal illness, they don't want opinions, sympathy or solutions. They are naturally scared of dying, the loss of dignity in the late stages is particularly difficult. So, I think that you should see that maybe. I mean to know how little time we have, and how pointless it is to try and change someone to your view point unless you can offer them unconditional bliss and, if you haven't got that, then you can't give it can you ?
  17. What is disturbing to you about people holding strong views and opinions ? Buddah-according to you-certainly held a strong conviction that "time, space, self , existence are nothing more than opinions"
  18. The function of the concept

    Give over now you're tickling, I shall give you a gentle cuff :-)
  19. Well then you have no conviction or commitment at all. If all it is for you is candy floss then you are arguing simply because you want to and not because of any deep seated understanding. I have no issue with that at all, it's rather like a Lion cub play fighting its parent. Quite cute :-)
  20. The function of the concept

    "Fuck off you nosey git" if I was in a particularly bad mood.
  21. The function of the concept

    You would be amazed at the things you easily reveal to an unlicensed therapist :-) "Seductive is the dark side of the force, very powerful" :-)
  22. The function of the concept

    If I was the stranger I wouldn't make that assumption. I would clearly understand spacial positioning. It would appear to me as if he was saying 'if x then L , if y then R' .
  23. The function of the concept

    Stop pointing to secondhand information, I want to know why it's important to you. For what purpose the realisation of emptiness ?
  24. The function of the concept

    It's a 'theory'. A bad one.