Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Mar 05, 2006 Posts: 420 Location: East edge of the Milky Way
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:28 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
Here's something to ponder:
Work kills more than war. Approximately two million workers die annually due to occupational injuries and illnesses, according to a United Nations report. This is more than double the figure for deaths from warfare (650,000 deaths per year). Work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together.
...who would have figured!
Alex
Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 639 Location: Sunny Virginia, USA
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:33 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
FourOfSwords wrote:
Here's something to ponder:
Work kills more than war. Approximately two million workers die annually due to occupational injuries and illnesses, according to a United Nations report. This is more than double the figure for deaths from warfare (650,000 deaths per year). Work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together.
...who would have figured!
Alex
Historically it has always been postulated that creation is harder than destruction. This would support that thesis. However, given the choice between the two, I'll take work... You tend to die at a much older age. _________________ When somebody makes a statement you don't understand, don't tell him he's crazy. Ask him what he means. -- Otto Harkaman, Space Viking
Joined: Jul 29, 2005 Posts: 252 Location: Show-Me State
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
Good day from Pheba, from the farm:
Raph,you can come up with some really far out stuff, but at the edge of some of your stuff I sense a great truth. You truly think outside of the box. I don't know about right brain or left brain, but I sense something, something close to what you just said. The best I can describe it is a quote from my favorite novel:
"Science is nothing more than facts we have learned, he told himself for the hundredth time. What we have learned has made us forget what were born knowing. " I wonder how far away we really are from what we are supposed to be.
Pheba.
Joined: Nov 15, 2005 Posts: 156 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
There's a passage from the bible that I think applies
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."
Corinthians 13
Joined: Oct 17, 2007 Posts: 114 Location: New of Zealand
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:09 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
Work is just touching the surface. The human population, per capita, has steadly become more and more unhappy since the start of modern civilization.
Year on year depression goes up. Teenage suicides have increased rapidly! There are more and more people falling ill to "civilization" diseases every day (for example cancer is fast catching on to be an epedemic - asthma is another example). 75% of people working today are unhappy in their jobs. Money doesn't make you happy either. And ALMOST everyone agrees with this statement, yet we all strive to make more money!
Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 144 Location: middle of somewhere
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:52 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
s0cks wrote:
75% of people working today are unhappy in their jobs. Money doesn't make you happy either. And ALMOST everyone agrees with this statement, yet we all strive to make more money!
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure helps. More of it is one less thing to worry about. I agree with your premise, though.
Joined: Mar 04, 2007 Posts: 504 Location: Hong Kong
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
Benzin wrote:
s0cks wrote:
75% of people working today are unhappy in their jobs. Money doesn't make you happy either. And ALMOST everyone agrees with this statement, yet we all strive to make more money!
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure helps. More of it is one less thing to worry about. I agree with your premise, though.
You can also worry less by needing less. Most people in the west and east Asia could cut back on a lot of things and still lead healthy, happy lives. Most of us could work 20-30 hours a week and live smaller, but very few are willing. The media keep people's desires stoked for more things, and working less just isn't considered respectful.
Also, there aren't a whole lot of jobs available for people who just want to work a few days a week. There's part-time work and freelancing, but most jobs are full time. Most people have no choice but to work eight hours a day, five days a week, or even more. Have a look in the jobs section of the local paper and see what's available. How many 20-hour-a-week jobs are there? Probably not many.
If there were more such jobs, and a person was willing to take one, they could devote their time to other pursuits like cultural activities or sports. But those options are few and far between, and most people wouldn't take them if they could. People willfully lead horrible lives. They've created their own misery in their foolish pursuit to keep up with the Joneses. _________________ "We shall live in interesting times, and we shall die in them too." - Heineken
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:19 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
FreakOil wrote:
Also, there aren't a whole lot of jobs available for people who just want to work a few days a week. There's part-time work and freelancing, but most jobs are full time. Most people have no choice but to work eight hours a day, five days a week, or even more.
Most people are giving up benefit packages if they choose to work part-time, and I think that's just as much an incentive to work full-time as the extra money is. Actually, if you figure in extra costs for commuting to work, parking, wardrobe, eating lunch out, buying dinners out after work because it's so late/you're too tired to cook, working full-time may not bring in that much extra money. Also, full-time income means more taxes to pay.
Over the years, I've gradually decreased my hours of work from full-time to part-time, and I love the flexibility. Of course, if I had to support myself and my kids I'd likely have no choice but to work full-time and probably extra hours. My husband is the biggest breadwinner in the family, but I take care of more of the work on the home front.
And it's funny, but even most women these days think mothers should work full-time, as if they didn't have enough to do!
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:20 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
If you work doing something you generally enjoy, then you're better off (although probably not better paid...but that is another story).
I'm a freelance writer and I'll be a teacher for a kids recreation class in a couple of weeks, too.
I like writing and playing. I'm not particularly good at anything else. I dabble in illustration. I'm trying to get into writing children's books, but I'm not the fluffy bunny sort of author/illustrator...so that probably won't ever happen LOL:
Work is fine for keeping busy, but I think I'd pull a Hemmingway if I had to be a pencil pushing cube-farm resident.
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
charliebrownout wrote:
If you work doing something you generally enjoy, then you're better off (although probably not better paid...but that is another story).
I'm a freelance writer and I'll be a teacher for a kids recreation class in a couple of weeks, too.
I like writing and playing. I'm not particularly good at anything else. I dabble in illustration. I'm trying to get into writing children's books, but I'm not the fluffy bunny sort of author/illustrator...so that probably won't ever happen LOL:
Work is fine for keeping busy, but I think I'd pull a Hemmingway if I had to be a pencil pushing cube-farm resident.
Cool illustrations, charliebrownout. My daughter has grown up drawing as a hobby, has done a bit of work illustrating pamphlets. I've always thought I'd enjoy writing kids' books.
Joined: Mar 04, 2007 Posts: 504 Location: Hong Kong
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:50 am Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
FourOfSwords wrote:
basil_hayden wrote:
Ludi wrote:
I'm not understanding why you are still cursed if Christ died for your sins....
It's just a story Ludi, keke. Used here to get across the feeling of "We asked for it", some sweet guilt there.
I realized things were effed up when I found out in an anthropology elective that the Dobe Kung (I think) work an average of 24 hours per week and survive, and I haven't seen less than a 50 hour week for years.
The !Kung! are pretty wise...as for the rest of us, well...
“It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, crap, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?”
—Charles Bukowski
...but it's a living.
Thank you for this quote. I've always despised lazy people, and I'm sure a lot of people here do to. There are a lot of things that are worth doing right now. Studying permaculture? Yes! Learning a new skill? Yes! But getting up and going to your useless office job so you can pay taxes to a government that will spend them bombing brown people?
I simply cannot look a man in the eye and tell him that he should go to a job that does more harm than good to the world. Nevermind that it's completely useless, it's probably destructive.
My most recent job, which I had until my company closed down last week, involved writing press releases for major corporations. I probably shouldn't say who, but the name of one of our clients begins with the letter "M" and ends with "cDonald's." Should I really be helping them sell the stuff they sell?
I don't think I want another job like that. I have some money in savings, and I'm considering taking a permaculture "internship." (I have to pay for room and board, but it's really cheap.) This may not be the best Peak survival option, but it may lead to something. At least I'll be able to grow my own food in the future. Hopefully that future won't involve enabling corporations to do more damage to people's health and the environment. _________________ "We shall live in interesting times, and we shall die in them too." - Heineken
Joined: Mar 04, 2007 Posts: 504 Location: Hong Kong
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
charliebrownout wrote:
If you work doing something you generally enjoy, then you're better off (although probably not better paid...but that is another story). I'm a freelance writer and I'll be a teacher for a kids recreation class in a couple of weeks, too.
We have a few things in common. I'm going back to freelancing while (probably) taking a permaculture course. I worked as a freelancer before while teaching English to little children. I love working with kids. It's very rewarding. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. Those are some nice paintings, by the way. There's freelance illustration work out there. That's what my sister does.
Quote:
And it's funny, but even most women these days think mothers should work full-time, as if they didn't have enough to do!
Excellent points, WildRose. My sister is working as a freelance artist now so she can home-school her children. My brother-in-law has flexible hours, so he can help out as well. I admire them for taking a different approach to doing things. Most people never even consider doing something out of the ordinary, even if it would make their lives better.
Quote:
symptomatic of a fallen culture... workin' for stuff becomes more important than raising your own kids. period. no discussion necessary wankers.
Raphael just called us wankers even though we agree with him. You just can't catch a break with this guy. _________________ "We shall live in interesting times, and we shall die in them too." - Heineken
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13130 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:18 pm Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
I'm lazy as all get-out. Despise me!
Europeans despised native peoples because they were "lazy" and just sat around a lot of the time. They didn't need to work harder, so they didn't. So they were rounded up and forced to work. _________________ "...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy
Joined: Mar 04, 2007 Posts: 504 Location: Hong Kong
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject: Re: A View As To Why We Are So Miserable And Unhappy.
Ludi wrote:
I'm lazy as all get-out. Despise me!
Europeans despised native peoples because they were "lazy" and just sat around a lot of the time. They didn't need to work harder, so they didn't. So they were rounded up and forced to work.
That's a good point, Ludi. I guess I have yet to get over my Anglo-American upbringing. I always feel like I should be doing something "productive." I took a step in the right direction today. I went fishing on a weekday!
When I was visiting Malaysia recently, I noticed the locals have a tendency to take things easy. It may have something to do with the tropical weather. They don't move very quickly, and transport is always late. But who cares? There was always someone friendly around to chat with.
I don't think they've adapted well to the modern world of production and efficiency. The Chinese, ever the busybodies, control 60-70% of the wealth in the country, even though they're a minority.
I think we have to learn to be a little more like the Malaysians. Of course, it's always easier to take it easy when tropical fruit just falls right in your lap every day. _________________ "We shall live in interesting times, and we shall die in them too." - Heineken
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