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threadbear
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Joined: Jan 22, 2005
Posts: 7476
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 Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:41 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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I'm tired and cranky.
I want the persistent delusion of consumerism to fade like old wallpaper or I want to rip it off and get a really good look at what's left underneath.
I'm tired of the waiting, tired of the miles of smiles that pass for real happiness, tired of the pinheaded mental dwarfs that haunt the nightly news.
Tired of 110 different kinds of sneakers.
If being tired and on a slow simmer, much of the time is pre traumatic stress disorder--I qualify. |
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Cog
Heavy Crude
Joined: May 17, 2008
Posts: 139
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:01 am Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| Have you ever considered that the consumerist-driven people might really be happy that way? |
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wisconsin_cur
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Joined: May 10, 2007
Posts: 2924
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:24 am Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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Washington Post Reports
| Quote: | One in 10 American women takes an antidepressant drug such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft, and the use of such drugs by all adults has nearly tripled in the last decade, according to the latest figures on American health released yesterday by the federal government.
Those numbers are among a broad array of changes in health and health care use in the United States identified in the report. It confirmed that prescription drug costs are soaring faster than any other area of medical care as ever-increasing numbers of Americans take drugs for psychiatric conditions, to lower their cholesterol, to control asthma and for a wide range of other reasons.
In 2002, the latest year for which data were available, the total tab for health care soared to $1.6 trillion -- of which prescription drugs accounted for $162 billion, the report found. Drug costs rose by 15 percent over the year before, driven by a combination of more expensive medicines and increased use.
The report comes at a time when questions are growing about the costs and safety of many prescription drugs. The Food and Drug Administration recently concluded that antidepressants can increase the risk of suicidal behavior among children, and the manufacturer of Vioxx abruptly recalled the popular painkiller for safety reasons. A senior FDA official testified in Congress last month that he believes five other approved drugs are dangerous and should be taken off the market.
Antidepressant drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) showed some of the largest increases in use, the report said. By 2000, the proportion of adults using such drugs had nearly tripled, compared with the data set that ended in 1994.
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What we think will make us happy and what will truly lead to happiness are, usually, very different things. Just because someone says, "If I get x, then I will be happy" does not make it so. In fact in the pursuit of x people often sacrifice things which might have once had the potential to be a catalyst for happiness. things like relationships and hobbies.
I would grant that many conumerist driven people know of no other way to be but I would not go so far as to say that this makes them "happy" in that way of being; only trapped with no way to imagine any other way of being.
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"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
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"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Kenneth Galbraith |
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BigTex
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Joined: Aug 03, 2006
Posts: 4266
Location: Graceland
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:09 am Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| Cog wrote: | | Have you ever considered that the consumerist-driven people might really be happy that way? |
I always try to be mindful of that, and yet I think the illusion of happiness created by consumerism is part of what creates such a profound sense of emptiness in people in the first place.
They imagine they are happy, and then they get frustrated because they feel that there should be more to life than this shallow and disposable "happiness."
So their need for something profound leads them to watch Oprah on their television sets.
[BigTex slaps his head Homer Simpson-style.]
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vetusfirma
Heavy Crude
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Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 219
Location: West KC
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:06 am Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| BigTex wrote: | | Cog wrote: | | Have you ever considered that the consumerist-driven people might really be happy that way? |
I always try to be mindful of that, and yet I think the illusion of happiness created by consumerism is part of what creates such a profound sense of emptiness in people in the first place.
They imagine they are happy, and then they get frustrated because they feel that there should be more to life than this shallow and disposable "happiness."
So their need for something profound leads them to watch Oprah on their television sets.
[BigTex slaps his head Homer Simpson-style.] |
GOT SOUP!
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HOLDING THE CENTER |
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BigTex
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Posts: 4266
Location: Graceland
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| vetusfirma wrote: | | GOT SOUP! |
You have referred to soup several times in responding to my posts.
What are you talking about?
I've got a couple of different theories, but I figured it would be easier to just ask what you mean.
BTW, do you have anything to add to the discussion regarding the OP?
Mixing in a little substance with the heckling would be good, I think.
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vetusfirma
Heavy Crude
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Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 219
Location: West KC
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 1:48 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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Your right tex. As far as substance, lets go back to the compassion thin with you giving bums a can of soup (or something) and a spoon. If we say that the only point in life is to be happy and the only motivating stimulus is a want or a need, you feed the bum so you feel good. If I don't feed the bum, because I don't want them around, I feel good about discouraging bumdom, so to speak. Someone wants to discourage consumerism, because they don't want consumers has just as much right to feel good as the person who wants to promote consumerism, for what ever reason.
That is unless you believe that mankind has a destiny and is 'supposed' to continue toward some kind of highly civilized utopia.
If you world view is totally self centered and relativistic, then the consumer does not matter. If on the other hand you are other centered and have devotion to something, say higher that self, then consumerism can become bad in relation to the higher purpose. The question then is 'do you force everyone to be devote and follow the true path?'. I have my answer, but I don 't pretend to have the right answer.
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kpeavey
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Joined: Oct 04, 2004
Posts: 1236
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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I have no idea what you're talking about so here's a rabbit with a pancake on its head.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984
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Accept the Facts. |
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greenworm
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Jan 27, 2006
Posts: 1368
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| Love will cure it, find somebody you love and tell them you love them and give them a big hug and feel each others energy. |
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BigTex
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Joined: Aug 03, 2006
Posts: 4266
Location: Graceland
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| kpeavey wrote: | I have no idea what you're talking about so here's a rabbit with a pancake on its head.
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Very nice.
Sort of has a Zen quality to it.
I like it.
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mos6507
Fusion
Joined: Aug 03, 2007
Posts: 3638
Location: Boston Suburbs
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| greenworm wrote: | | Love will cure it, find somebody you love and tell them you love them and give them a big hug and feel each others energy. |
I think there are a lot of reasons people are miserable these days and empty consumerism is probably a smaller factor vs. the general detachment people have from one another. |
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threadbear
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Joined: Jan 22, 2005
Posts: 7476
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| mos6507 wrote: | | greenworm wrote: | | Love will cure it, find somebody you love and tell them you love them and give them a big hug and feel each others energy. |
I think there are a lot of reasons people are miserable these days and empty consumerism is probably a smaller factor vs. the general detachment people have from one another. |
I think the two operate in tandem. |
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anagami
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Jul 26, 2006
Posts: 1669
Location: Sudavasa Abodes
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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I'm glad that I started with mental preparations... even if that's basically my only preparation... but considering death, I'm happy that I decided this way.
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CrudeAwakening
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Jun 28, 2005
Posts: 823
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:53 pm Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| kpeavey wrote: |
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That's one composed rabbit. We could all learn a lot from it.
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"Who knows what the Second Law of Thermodynamics will be like in a hundred years?" - Economist speaking during planning for World Population Conference in early 1970s |
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BigTex
Moderator
Joined: Aug 03, 2006
Posts: 4266
Location: Graceland
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:48 am Post subject: Re: "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder" |
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| CrudeAwakening wrote: | | That's one composed rabbit. We could all learn a lot from it. |
The rabbit may be thinking to himself:
"I position myself at the center, as myriad events unfold around me. Disconnected from desire, I perceive things correctly. I am, however, still trying to figure out how this short stack got on my dome."
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