The Good Old Days

[Nungali]

I noticed a couple of bumped old threads and read back through them .   Those where the days !  The 'glory days' of Daobums !  Deep thought and intellectual knowledge coupled with practical experience , novel relevant ideas and experience.  Interesting people .

 

WTF happened ?   I see this spread through many (if not all ) aspects of life .  (And no it isnt due to 'pandemic' this trend started way before that ) .

 

Now , even if such treasures are bumped  .... I am sorry but  .... not much of significance or depth is offered ,   maybe a  one line comment  ; 'I had one of those .....  them things are good  .....   oracle decks are magical .... '    or worse ,  some insane concoction of confusion fantasy ego and non learning  ..... ..... or just post a you tube  .

 

Often a logical conversation can not be had  , people can not communicate like they used to, illogical, bad syntax to the point of non comprehension, dishonesty in discussion, avoidance , diversion etc .  ;  '  What the hell are you trying to say , are you using an online translator ?  - no , English is my first language ' .      

 

 

 

I am not picking just on Daobum people , its rife, in many forums  and  many areas of life .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Earl Grey]

I’ll repeat what I said before: more people prefer to be heard but don’t want to listen.

 

There are also members who have left when they weren’t happy as quality started dipping, then the Wild West period got everyone exhausted from the fighting and no moderation, then after that was heavy-handed moderation, and now we have a somewhat better balance... then the world got weird and now any dialogue quickly becomes diatribe because nobody can consider anything outside of their own views.

 

Opinions are equivalent to identity in the world of social media. People treat identity as currency now. 
 

I personally don’t even put out more than 20% of myself here or even AG anymore (though I’ve revealed a little more in PMs to people). This is because of what’s going on in my personal life and with my own cultivation, some things I don’t talk about because most won’t get it, some things I can’t talk about because I’m restricted, and the rest I don’t feel like mentioning at all.

[Vajra Fist]

10 hours ago, Nungali said:

I noticed a couple of bumped old threads and read back through them .   Those where the days !  The 'glory days' of Daobums !  Deep thought and intellectual knowledge coupled with practical experience , novel relevant ideas and experience.  Interesting people .

 

WTF happened ?   I see this spread through many (if not all ) aspects of life .  (And no it isnt due to 'pandemic' this trend started way before that ) .

 

Now , even if such treasures are bumped  .... I am sorry but  .... not much of significance or depth is offered ,   maybe a  one line comment  ; 'I had one of those .....  them things are good  .....   oracle decks are magical .... '    or worse ,  some insane concoction of confusion fantasy ego and non learning  ..... ..... or just post a you tube  .

 

Often a logical conversation can not be had  , people can not communicate like they used to, illogical, bad syntax to the point of non comprehension, dishonesty in discussion, avoidance , diversion etc .  ;  '  What the hell are you trying to say , are you using an online translator ?  - no , English is my first language ' .      

 

 

 

I am not picking just on Daobum people , its rife, in many forums  and  many areas of life .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't it Lu Dongbin who rode a donkey backwards?

 

I think it's human nature to always think things were better in the past.

 

Even back in Confucius' time they talked about a historical golden age.

 

Of course, our favourite Chinese sage clearly didn't know what he had, not having to deal with the likes of Nicky Minaj or TikTok.

 

Maybe society has been in a grand cultural decline since the very dawn of time.

 

Perhaps in a hundred years, when they're spraying electrolytes on crops and a WWE wrestler is the president, they'll look back on even the present state of decline at TDB as a golden intellectual age, wondering at the amazing psychic prowess of Drew Hempel.

[doc benway]

I remember when I first was active here, back in the good old days, people were often lamenting how good things used to be here back in the good old days.

 

The good days are now! We are all here. Hopefully we are reasonably healthy. We’re smart as hell and funny. Let’s make the most of our time together.

 

FUCK RON JEREMY!

😁

[Earl Grey]

Just now, steve said:

I remember when I first was active here, back in the good old days, people were often lamenting how good things used to be here back in the good old days.

 

The good days are now! We are all here. Hopefully we are reasonably healthy. We’re smart as hell and funny. Let’s make the most of our time together.

 

FUCK RON JEREMY!

😁

 

The member whose posting history I have no idea about based on how much was hidden, or the celebrity who just got convicted?

[liminal_luke]

This forum has always attracted Dao Bums.  While some people seem to lean more towards the Dao side, and others veer almost exclusively towards Buminess, most of us have a little of both. Personally, I love this about us.  In some ways the forum is a microcosm of society at large, though not exactly a normal bell curve.  We´ve got what statisticians call "fat tails," more than our expected share of crazies and semi-enlightened folks.  Sometimes people seem to ping-pong between the two seeming extremes in glorious bipolar style.  Noted former member RON JEREMY is perhaps a good example of this phenomenon.  Who is this recently convicted celebrity Ron Jeremy Earl is talking about?  I´m not a popular culture guy so I don´t know.  Perhaps the two Ron Jeremys are one and the same.  More often than ya might think, the Dao works like that. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by liminal_luke

[dwai]

56 minutes ago, steve said:

The good days are now! We are all here. Hopefully we are reasonably healthy. We’re smart as hell and funny. Let’s make the most of our time together.

The Good As-it-is Now!  

 

[Cleansox]

54 minutes ago, Earl Grey said:

 

The member whose posting history I have no idea about based on how much was hidden, 

Just check the oldest threads in this section, he will pop up. Quite a lot of caps lock, if I recall right. 

 

[zerostao]

We still have everyone's favorite white cat that wears a blue collar here, then and now.

 

steve is right, when I first joined everyone talked of the good ol days and wild west days. there have been several good ol days and wild west eras here.

 

more to come?!

 

[Nungali]

12 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

 

Wasn't it Lu Dongbin who rode a donkey backwards?

 

and Mulla Nasruddin  . But nowadays it would be a new 'koan'  ;

 

" Why do sit upon the donkey backwards ? "

 

" I do not ! I know what I am doing  ....   its the donkey's fault , take it up with him !      "

 

12 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

 

I think it's human nature to always think things were better in the past.

 

Probably ... ' ceptin I dont think that  . 

 

Ask someone that went through a war and then lived through a time of peace later .    - I knew a guy that did that 3 times ! 

 

 

12 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

 

Even back in Confucius' time they talked about a historical golden age.

 

Of course, our favourite Chinese sage clearly didn't know what he had, not having to deal with the likes of Nicky Minaj or TikTok.

 

Hmmm ...  I dont know what the first one is  and barely know about the second , so I have no need to deal with them . Unless you suggest they are part of  generating the problem that I am trying to deal with .

 

When I hear ' Tik Tok ' I think of ...

 

 

*

 

12 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

 

Maybe society has been in a grand cultural decline since the very dawn of time.

 

Perhaps in a hundred years, when they're spraying electrolytes on crops and a WWE wrestler is the president, they'll look back on even the present state of decline at TDB as a golden intellectual age, wondering at the amazing psychic prowess of Drew Hempel.

 

< sputs coffee mid sip >

 

*  The title character is an intelligent robot (named after the mechanical man in the Oz books) who originally works as a domestic servant and house-painter. Unlike other robots, whose behavior is constrained by "asimov circuits"—a reference to Isaac Asimov's fictional Three Laws of Robotics, which require robots to protect and serve humans—Tik-Tok finds that he can do as he pleases, and he secretly commits various hideous crimes for his amusement. After manipulating both robots and humans to cause chaos and bloodshed, Tik-Tok becomes wealthy (partly through health care privatization) and is finally elected Vice President of the United States.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tik-Tok_(novel)

[Nungali]

4 hours ago, zerostao said:

We still have everyone's favorite white cat that wears a blue collar here, then and now.

 

Everyone's ???

 

4 hours ago, zerostao said:

 

steve is right, when I first joined everyone talked of the good ol days and wild west days. there have been several good ol days and wild west eras here.

 

more to come?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[liminal_luke]

...

Edited October 13, 2021 by liminal_luke

[Taomeow]

TDB reflects worldwide dynamics pretty accurately.

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Taomeow

[Nungali]

In he last few years , every new gadget / tool I have bought comes with a user manual that has the first few pages of 'safety operation' full of stuff like that .   'Do not touch the rotating part of the saw.'   'This heater gets hot '  ......  'do not insert fingers into rotating blades '

 

My old gas stove was a classic, had a little sign on the front  'To turn gas off, rotate knob to 'off' position .'

[zerostao]

Ford. Toyota, others,  offer armored plated trucks now. 

Dang, I miss the good ol days.

Buckle Up!!

Edited October 14, 2021 by zerostao

[old3bob]

Tesla automated driving...thus the trend is to become ever more dependent on machines!

[old3bob]

I still like the Msdos command line (and its syntax) and I still fire up my old Dos machine at times.

Computers are getting to be throw away items except for whatever one has in software apps.