Is the End approaching?

[DeterminedJuliet]

I agree, RR, that was a well-written post.

Not to be morbid, but everything is already decay and death. Even if we could guarantee a pristine environment, you will die. I will die. My son will die. Everything dies. We're conditioned to feel that this is a horrible thing, a scary thing, something to avoid. But you can't avoid it and there's no sense in wasting energy fighting the inevitable. You can't control the inevitable, you can control you (and even that is debatable). That's it. If something in you calls to some grand aspiration at "making the world a better place" then, that's great. But then you have to sort through all of the trouble of deciding what "better" is. And that's a bit of a mine-field. I spent a couple of years exhausting myself on that one.

So, I don't try to change the world. I won't ever avert a nuclear disaster or cure cancer or save 3,000 African orphans. I have a very short window of life -- I don't know where it came from, I don't think there's any reason that I have it -- but here it is. I wake up every morning and there's sun outside and flowers on my balcony that need tending. So, what to do? I try to understand bits and pieces of it. I try to tune in to the things that make me happy, and I hope that they make the society around me function a little more smoothly (the only real measure of "good" or "bad" that makes sense to me).  I feed my cats and find that contenting. I play with my son and find that contenting. I love my husband and find our shared lives pleasing. I write and I find that pretty satisfying.

That's all there is.

It's not horrifying, it's liberating. There's nothing big that really matters, so the little things have more meaning to me. The tiny little sums of everyday life are all anyone really has anyway - it just depends on how much you want to conflate it all in your mind. Why waste so much energy? Because, here's a secret, no one ever figures it all out. The over-wrought Philosopher, the multiple Nobel prize-winner. No one. As my signature says "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

There's my quasi-emotional retort.  

[Ali]

Bravo DJ.  Excellent post.  Totally agree.

[Hector Valdez]

I probably should have emphasized the phrase, "increasing frequency".

I would, however, like to thank you guys for your replies. I've calmed down quite a bit and you make good sense. This may be due to my recent aveourrement of Catholicism. There was a kind of... vigilance present in the faith. I admit, I'm struggling. Not to recreate that same feeling of vigilance. I'm struggling to justify it.

I hope I can be understood.

For those interested, I turned my post into a kind of poem. Check it out, here: The Song of Dirges

[Sweetdeath]

Absolutely not.  Everything dies, it's inevitable and if now is the time for us, I'm going out partying.

Yes. Much better that way.

so cute

[xSilverPhinx]

I think you may be getting a little too worked up by our talk of natural disasters on the scale of a planet colliding with ours, and I take it that the others meant that scenario as a literal one. I sure did. The way I see it, if something like that were to happen, then it would be awesome because no one else could say that they went out with such a bang. Doesn't mean that I'm apathetic towards death in general.

But anyways, about the increasing frequency thing - do you really know that? As in have access to truthful statistics that weren't tampered with for social or economic purposes? Because what I see is much more media generated mass hysteria and more and more people in the world altering natural balance and suffering the increasing backlashes, as is to be expected. 

Things like global warming for instance, are real problems waiting to happen, especially if there is a tipping point when it becomes a runaway effect. Life isn't likely to die out if we don't become another Venus (where lead melts on the surface) but human civilization in the current scale would become way more difficult to maintain. That's one thing that most people are apathetic towards, and probably don't give due importance either because they think they can't or due to bystander effect, feelings of personal responsibility become inversely proportional to the amount of bystanders.
Or the destruction of nature for instance. It's disconcerting to see the scales at which bioms are destroyed by people who just want profit, and since raw nature can't give them money, they think it worthless. There could be solutions to yet unknown problems there, making their worth actually incaluable but once it's gone, it's gone forever. 

Anyways my main point was be careful with the media, they have their agendas and truthfulness isn't one of them. If anything I feel more disconcerted by just how easily people are manipulated than the all the fear-mongering that goes on.

[Firebird]

I think you may be getting a little too worked up by our talk of natural disasters on the scale of a planet colliding with ours, and I take it that the others meant that scenario as a literal one. I sure did. The way I see it, if something like that were to happen, then it would be awesome because no one else could say that they went out with such a bang. Doesn't mean that I'm apathetic towards death in general.

But anyways, about the increasing frequency thing - do you really know that? As in have access to truthful statistics that weren't tampered with for social or economic purposes? Because what I see is much more media generated mass hysteria and more and more people in the world altering natural balance and suffering the increasing backlashes, as is to be expected. 

Things like global warming for instance, are real problems waiting to happen, especially if there is a tipping point when it becomes a runaway effect. Life isn't likely to die out if we don't become another Venus (where lead melts on the surface) but human civilization in the current scale would become way more difficult to maintain. That's one thing that most people are apathetic towards, and probably don't give due importance either because they think they can't or due to bystander effect, feelings of personal responsibility become inversely proportional to the amount of bystanders.
Or the destruction of nature for instance. It's disconcerting to see the scales at which bioms are destroyed by people who just want profit, and since raw nature can't give them money, they think it worthless. There could be solutions to yet unknown problems there, making their worth actually incaluable but once it's gone, it's gone forever. 

Anyways my main point was be careful with the media, they have their agendas and truthfulness isn't one of them. If anything I feel more disconcerted by just how easily people are manipulated than the all the fear-mongering that goes on.

Completely agree with this. This world has gone through other crises before and undoubtedly will continue to do so long after we're gone. What didn't exist before was a hyperconnected populace, and media using that to feed disaster porn constantly to the masses. Think things are bad now? Read about what happened during the Great Depression, or the number of people who died in the Civil War, the two World Wars, or even the people who died during the Black Plague. We're actually in a relatively calmer period of our existence despite all the problems we continue to endure.
One of the major issues I have with religion is how it is used to disavow any responsibility for solving such issues. Don't want to admit you're causing global warming? Say it's all up to god. Etc.

[xSilverPhinx]

I think you may be getting a little too worked up by our talk of natural disasters on the scale of a planet colliding with ours, and I take it that the others meant that scenario as a literal one. I sure did. The way I see it, if something like that were to happen, then it would be awesome because no one else could say that they went out with such a bang. Doesn't mean that I'm apathetic towards death in general.

But anyways, about the increasing frequency thing - do you really know that? As in have access to truthful statistics that weren't tampered with for social or economic purposes? Because what I see is much more media generated mass hysteria and more and more people in the world altering natural balance and suffering the increasing backlashes, as is to be expected. 

Things like global warming for instance, are real problems waiting to happen, especially if there is a tipping point when it becomes a runaway effect. Life isn't likely to die out if we don't become another Venus (where lead melts on the surface) but human civilization in the current scale would become way more difficult to maintain. That's one thing that most people are apathetic towards, and probably don't give due importance either because they think they can't or due to bystander effect, feelings of personal responsibility become inversely proportional to the amount of bystanders.
Or the destruction of nature for instance. It's disconcerting to see the scales at which bioms are destroyed by people who just want profit, and since raw nature can't give them money, they think it worthless. There could be solutions to yet unknown problems there, making their worth actually incaluable but once it's gone, it's gone forever. 

Anyways my main point was be careful with the media, they have their agendas and truthfulness isn't one of them. If anything I feel more disconcerted by just how easily people are manipulated than the all the fear-mongering that goes on.

Completely agree with this. This world has gone through other crises before and undoubtedly will continue to do so long after we're gone. What didn't exist before was a hyperconnected populace, and media using that to feed disaster porn constantly to the masses. Think things are bad now? Read about what happened during the Great Depression, or the number of people who died in the Civil War, the two World Wars, or even the people who died during the Black Plague. We're actually in a relatively calmer period of our existence despite all the problems we continue to endure.
One of the major issues I have with religion is how it is used to disavow any responsibility for solving such issues. Don't want to admit you're causing global warming? Say it's all up to god. Etc.

Or that god will always provide and so we needn't worry. I don't know where they see the evidence for this sort of thing

Think things are bad now? Read about what happened during the Great Depression, or the number of people who died in the Civil War, the two World Wars, or even the people who died during the Black Plague.

This. What is it about past golden ages that people cling to? I don't get it. 

[Sandra Craft]

Think things are bad now? Read about what happened during the Great Depression, or the number of people who died in the Civil War, the two World Wars, or even the people who died during the Black Plague. We're actually in a relatively calmer period of our existence despite all the problems we continue to endure.

Exactly.  Compare what we have now with earlier periods, the 12th century for example, and the modern world shows a decreasing frequency of toil and trouble. 

[xSilverPhinx]

Think things are bad now? Read about what happened during the Great Depression, or the number of people who died in the Civil War, the two World Wars, or even the people who died during the Black Plague. We're actually in a relatively calmer period of our existence despite all the problems we continue to endure.

Exactly.  Compare what we have now with earlier periods, the 12th century for example, and the modern world shows a decreasing frequency of toil and trouble. 

Not to mention we are better off. Someone once said to me that these days we live better than the King did at Versailles during the height of the Ancient Regime. Do I envy them? nah.

[Holubice]

Damnation! I'm going to wear combact jacket as a midled aged man...

"Guardian: Syria shot at second Turkish jet, Ankara claims"



"Turkey has sharply raised the stakes in a military standoff with Syria, claiming one of its search and rescue planes was shot at as it tried to find a Turkish jet shot down on Friday by Syrian gunners.

Bülent Arınç, the deputy prime minister, said the rescue plane had been attacked as it flew over the Mediterranean searching for two pilots. The claim undermines Damascus's insistence that the first jet was attacked due to mistaken identity.

Nato is to hold consultations in Brussels on Tuesday morning over the incident, but the meeting will not lead to any form of military response, according to diplomats.

The downing of the Turkish military plane over what Ankara says were international waters was denounced by European Union foreign ministers. They called for full Syrian co-operation with an investigation and imposed a new round of sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The EU condemns the unacceptable shooting down by Syria of a Turkish military plane on 22 June. It offers its sympathies to the families of the airmen involved and commends Turkey's measured and responsible initial reaction," they said"



Is is just my feeling, or things are going form bad to worse?...

[Recusant]

Is is just my feeling, or things are going form bad to worse?...

I think certain people love to moan about the world going to hell in a hand-basket, and that you chose a highly appropriate smiley.

[Asmodean]

Plane was in Syrian air space, yes? Should have stayed away. Turkish air force should have known better than to cross the air space of a country as unstable as Syria is now. And yet, they bitch and moan and whine and threaten with "response"

[Tank]

Plane was in Syrian air space, yes? Should have stayed away. Turkish air force should have known better than to cross the air space of a country as unstable as Syria is now. And yet, they bitch and moan and whine and threaten with "response"

No state of war exists between Syria and Turkey. One aircraft does not an invasion make.

If the jet had been Israeli then the Syrians would have been justified to shoot it down as Israeli has nuclear weapons and has carried out unilateral strikes on its neighbours in the past.

[Asmodean]

It could have been on an espoinage mission for all they knew though, no? With a big camera on it, yes?

[Tank]

It could have been on an espoinage mission for all they knew though, no? With a big camera on it, yes?

Could have been. But without evidence to that effect you can't go killing the two men who are the crew of an F4.