as for hypocracy, it’s hardly a new issue. socrates was talking about moral consistancy in ancient greece. human beings aren’t machines. we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we’re here and not only can we not always justify ourselves, but that the need for justification is a fiction in the first place.

Uncle terrence once said; where is it writ in adamantine that a bunch of talking monkeys should have any relationship to truth whatsoever?

Also, it is too late for us to try to prevent the crash, not that those in power would let that happen anyway (for it would involve them not having so much power and control).

So, IMO, learning to kill pigs for ourselves is exactly what we need to do.

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/41666
A person by the name ZachsMind sums up Tim’s approach “he doesn’t seem to be looking for answers so much as having fun exploring the questions.”
— noted- funny that the URL ends in 666.

How do you link something without having to copy the entire thing out? My computer ignorance is profound.

Today Oil is at over 71$ a barrel, the US economy will take a hit which in turn will hit the world’s economy.
China continues to grow exponently, stretching the demand for .
I always had Mad Max fantasies as a child- but I don’t want them to come true. I remember I went without food for 35 hours and I felt terrible. I can only imagine the horror of a human being starving to death.
Is capitalism the enemy? Maybe the world needs a New Deal. Lastly in order to eat the bacon somebody has to kill the pig. Imagine having to slaughter pigs to make your living?

The big issue is going to be killing other people.

Its not going to be a case of just shrugging about the fact we won’t have all our technological toys and heading off to set up a nice little farm. At least here in the UK (and I imagine in most developed countries) the population is only sustainable through intensive agriculture. After the crash the number of people will have to “stablise” at a lower level and that means millions of people starving. However, they aren’t going die quietly - they are going to kill for land and those with land are going to have to kill them to keep it.

Also as we’ve used up the easily available natural resources if we slip down the development ladder it may be that we aren’t going to be able to make it back up again. So it won’t be a case of braving it out and rebuilding again - we will be straight back to the Dark Ages for good.

Perhaps people would be better off spending their time trying to make sure the crash doesn’t happen in the first place. If people are doing that then they need to get organised and… set up blogs, write books and even make T shirts with pithy comments on them.

So, these are useful tools for those still in the beginning stages of preparation, who are still used to living their lives based on a certain pattern. Hopefully these tools, once developed, will allow them to break off the need for tools after a certain point. Just be happy you’re able to provide such a role to those who are seeking actual change…

without getting caught in weird traps of recursive logic….

I get caught in those traps all the time but i also think that rather than traps they are a basic survival tool(so to speak), change is a difficult thing and realising that who we are is based upon a self perception that in reality is probably flawed could undermine that most definate self that we all cling to so dearly. I would love to be that person who observes ‘all’ knowing that all possibilities are viable and just enjoying the ride.
p.s. “The ham” is breathing fire all over the networks.

If so: Don’t think about it so much. Ultimately, from a certain perspective, *everything* is pointless. Nothing you do will ever work out how you expected it to. At the same time, you really never know the long-term effects of any of your actions. In the final reckoning, it may be the Unintended Consequences of the things you do that have the largest impact on the world you leave behind.

Furthermore, we may all be tools of one or more invisible space-alien gods. That sounds like a joke, but on some level it’s kind of serious. Who really knows the forces that guide our lives? There is no way to be positive that the minutia of our day-to-day existence does not have some import to the machinations of an invisible larger plan… be it good or evil.

To sum up, any existential malaise you feel at any given time is unsubstantiated. We never know the whole story. Too much faith is sinful, but a tiny pinch can be a great tonic against the chilling effects of too much doubt.

-z

I think there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying though, about acknowledging within yourself that the basis of your life is *not* a logical consistency. That there’s something else to your core which you can be true and consistent to, without getting caught in weird traps of recursive logic….